Def Leppard - Def Leppard

Published November 03 2015

*=Staff's pick	Let's Go* Dangerous* Man Enough We Belong Invincible Sea Of Love Energized All Time High* Battle Of My Own Broke 'N' Brokenhearted Forever Young Last Dance Wings Of An Angel* Blind Faith

Genre	Rock	Joe Elliott	Vocals
Tracks	14	Joe Elliott	Acoustic Guitar
Running time	55 Min.	Phil Collen	Guitar
Label	earMUSIC	Vivian Campbell	Guitar
Release	October 30, 2015	Rick Savage	Bass
Country	England	Rick Allen	Drums
Producer	Def Leppard w/Ronan McHugh		Keyboard
Similar artists	---

Def Leppard's 11th album takes off with 2 songs in the band's late 80's/early 90's style and my expectations suddenly get set a lot higher and I instantly have dreams of that this type of guitar playing and that these kind of melodies will continue in this way all throughout the disc. A few songs later, my hopes for some kind of full rebirth is denied big-time and I'm trying to figure out why this outfit doesn't write, more or less, an entire record packed with older type of songs, since they obviously still have the skills to do it and it's, at the end of the day, where their efforts come out in best possible way.

Already with the 3rd track, Man Enough, even if that one in particular contains groovy bass lines, they end up in some kind of pop-rock oriented marshland and the record takes a big leap downhill. The rest of the album comprises, which I believe is important to point out, a pair of really good tracks, which, probably not by chance, happens to be the ones with a bigger amount of hard rock perspectives, but also quite many songs that are just too mellow to get this thing really going. When they try to bring forth some inventive and experimental stuff, they can't convert either and some of the songs are utterly bad, although this last part fortunately is just covering a small percentage of the record.

I think that this is just another album of the British rock giants that they barely will play anything live off after their next coming touring cycle. I really feel that it's such a drag that they don't seem to want to come out with music that holds a high validity. To see them go back to the times of Pyromania and earlier is definitely not something I would expect, but apparently they are still able to make awesome songs, since some sections of the disc so clearly reflect a period where the band's music, in comparison to this present day, was in fact a far greater experience to listen to.

This record is undoubtedly not a great example of something that has an even quality. It has an explicable variety of songs, all the way from the deepest gutters up to almost hitting the top of their past achievements. I don't see this self titled album as a lame effort overall, but as with so many other records by veteran bands, there's often a strong desire within me, and within many other fans as well I guess, that they will manage to come out with material which at least comes pretty close to what they once were able to produce, instead of, like now, just release a pretty okay record in the end.

Performance	Originality	Production	Vocals	Songwriting
7	4	6	6	5

Summary
5 chalices of 10 - Tobbe