Band : Def Leppard

Album title : Songs From The Sparkle Lounge

Label : Mercury

Distributor : Universal

Release date : 21/04/2008

Release : CD

Wow man, I'm afraid I have to admit the most recent album by Sheffield based British Heavy Rock band Def Leppard I have in my collection is 1992's Adrenalize, and I've been completely oblivious of their career afterwards.

While I was drawn to the band's first albums On Through The Night (1980), High 'n' Dry (1981) and Pyromania (1983) through the combination of heavy guitars, layered & harmonized backing vocals, and of course lead singer Joe Elliott's vocal signature, I found 1987's Hysteria to be somewhat too Poppy and clean to my taste. Not surprisingly, the album turned the band into stars almost immediately. In the US the uptake was originally slow, until the Pour Some Sugar On Me single hit the Billboard charts to #2. The ensuing power ballad Love Bites would even hit #1, and the album would end up selling over 10 million copies in the States alone (18 million copies worldwide). No less than 7 singles off the album got charted on the US Hot 100, and it's therefore also not surprising that Def Leppard toured the album in the US to tremendous success.

Tragedy stuck Def Leppard twice, the first time being when drummer Rick Allen lost an arm in a car accident on December 31, 1984. Something from which he recovered admirably (mentally, not of the actual loss) by learning to drum with one arm only, relying on his feet to take over some of his drumming. The next tragedy would be more serious. Guitarist Steve Clark happaned to struggle with alcoholism, and with his problem making troubles the recordings for the upcoming album, he was granted a 6-month time off period. He died in his London home in early January 1991 from an accidental but fatal mix of prescription drugs and alcohol. PhilCollen then mimicked Clark's style to finish the recordings for the Adrenalize album, released March 1992. One month later, former Dio and Whitesnake guitarist Vivian Campbell joined the band. Although the album sprouted 6 hit singles and sold 7 million copies worldwide, the band's popularity waned due to the world-wide effect of the rising of the Grunge and Alternative Rock genres. Following the release of two compilations (1993's Retro Active, which featured b-sides and unreleased material; 1995's "best of" Vault: Def Leppard Greatest Hits (1980-1995), which also included a new track in the ballad "When Love & Hate Collide", which was to become the band's biggest ever UK hit reaching the #2 spot in the charts) Def Leppard returned with the stylistically different 1996 album Slang, featuring a stylistically stripped-down Alternative Rock edge and darker lyrics than before...and the US audience (which had been the biggest market for the band to that day) responded rather frigidly.

The band's popularity returned thanks to being featured on one of the first episodes of VH1's Behind The Music programme. Re-runs of that episode got some of the series' highest ratings and brought Def Leppard back into the musical conciousness of the American public. Trying to make the best of the moment, the band returned to their original sound on 1999's Euphoria. They succeeded gloriously, as first single Promises hit the US Mainstream Rock charts at # and stayed there for 3 weeks.

The beginning of the new millenium came with a couple of honours for the band, starting with Brian May inducting Def Leppard to Hollywood's Rock Walk Of Fame on Sunset Boulevard in September 2000. In 2001 VH1 produced and aired Hysteria – The Def Leppard Story, a docudrama covering the band's history from 1977 to 1986. And in 2002 the band's 10 th album, simply titled X, was released. Some tracks being produced by the hit factory behind such acts as Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears, the overall musical direction of the album moved towards a Pop flavoured one, and further away from the Heavy Rock roots. In spite of positive reviews and a tour which saw some of the strongest audiences since Adrenalize, the album was received rather coldly, and it became the least successful album in the band's history.

October 2004 saw the international release of the up-dated Best Of album, released in North America as Rock Of Ages – Definite Collection, in May 2005. The Summer of that year was spent touring with Bryan Adams. Also, Def Leppard left their longtime management Q-Prime in fovour of HK Management. The band then returned to the studio to record 22 cover tracks (the band paying tribute to the Classic Rock anthems from their youth), of which 14 were included in the all-covers album Yeah!, released in May 2006. On the 31 st of the same month, Def Leppard, along with QueenKiss, and Judas Priest, was honored at VH1 Rock Honors, and soon afterwards the band went on a successful tour with Journey. In fact, the tour became one of the most successfull US tours that year, and dates were added to the original planning to comply to the demand, the band continuing to tour into late October. The band took out time preceding their gig at LA's Hollywood Bowl on Oct. 13 th to guest on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. During the encore performance of "Pour Some Sugar On Me" the band was joined on stage by Country singer Tim McGraw (relevance explained later). October 2006 also saw the re-issue of the Hysteria album in a 2-disc deluxe edition combining the original album (remastered for the first time) with all the b-sides, remixes and bonus tracks from the singles culled from the album. The Summer of 2007 again saw the band play a 52-date tour around the US and Canada, this time with Foreigner & Styx as supports!

If you get a feeling that Def Leppard are somewhat of a lazy band, think differently! Because some of the band's members also have a life outside the band and family. Take Campbell, for instance (who'd already done a few side-projects since joining the Leps), and that only since the year 2000...same year which saw him reunite with Rob Lamothe and the other original Riverdogs members for a reformation. In 2001 the guitarist also guested on Lamothe's solo album, and joined Lemmy (Motörhead) and Eric Singer (Kiss) in the studio to record a version of Kiss' "Shout It Out Loud" for a movie soundtrack. Late 2004 saw him making a guest appearance on the album From the Mouth Of Babes by New York based female singer Cash Casia. Campbell entered the studio in early 2005 to record a blues based solo album, working with drummer Terry Bozzio amongst others. Two Sides Of It was issued in September. He returned to the studio with ZZ Top guitarist Billy Elliott, Toto bassist Mike Porcaro, and David Lee Roth band drummer Gregg Bisonnette to record a version of The Beatles's "Revolution" for inclusion in the Revelation Records tribute album Butchering The Beatles, issued Oct. 2006. Joe Elliott also had extra-curricular activities, guesting on Earl Slick's 2003Zig Zag album. Both heand bassist Rick Savage participated in the Sincerely Sheffield benefit gig in March 2004. September of the same year saw the singerjoining the Sensational Alex Harvey Band on stage in his hometown. In December then, he joined singer Emm Gryner on stage during her show in Dublin for a duet of Def Leppard's "Pour Some Sugar On Me". During the Summer of 2005, Elliott guested on Ian Gillan's 40 th anniversary album Gillan's Inn, andinJanuary 2006 it was revealed that he had also lent his voice to Ronnie Montrose's album Ronnie Montrose And Friends 10 x 10.Another DL-related side-project was started in July 2004 by guitarist PhilCollen and his former Girl bassist Simon Laffy, with former Sex Pistols drummer Paul Cook under the monicker of Man-Raze, the threesome recording a debut album in early 2005 (still to be released this year).

In response to the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami disaster, Bryan Adams initiated the signing and auctioning of a white Fender Stratocaster guitar by several guitar legends and Rock stars. Besides Def Leppard members and Bryan Adams himself (with whom the guys had become quite chummy), signees would include Brian May, Ritchie Blackmore, Mick Jagger, Ronnie Wood, Keith Richards, Eric Clapton, David Gilmour, Jeff Beck, Pete Townsend, Mark Knopfler, Ray Davies, Liam and Noel Gallagher, Paul McCartney, and Sting. The guitar eventually got sold at an incredible price of 1.6 million dollars, which all went to the Reach Out To Asia foundation!

Oomphfff...by now you should have your fill of Def Leppard history, so let's get down to the album. At the opening tunes of "Go", you might be inclined to think that the boys still have quite a bit of their original aggressivity, as the guitars are quite sparkling, but you'll soon hear that Joe Elliott is no longer the flamboyant singer he used to be, having settled into a less aggressive mode than in the old days. Regretfully (at least for me, Def Leppard fan of back when) you'll find that less aggressive vocal mode counts for the whole of the album, combined with the sultry harmonized backing vocals giving quite a few songs on the album a somewhat balladesque feeling, in spite of a oft lively guitar sound filling! In a way, you might say Elliot's voice has grown closer to the sound of his fellow harmonizing band mates. Personally, what I liked so much about Def Leppard in the old days was exactly that contrast! Second song on the album, "Nine Lives", is also the first single off the album and, co-written by Elliott, Collen, Savage, and Tim McGraw (remember I said this guy's mentioning earlier would be explained later?), the song has a slight Country flavouring in passages. It also features Tim as bonus guest singer. The lively "C'mon C'mon" preceeds the really càlmly opening ballad "Love" (which gets a more energized filling halfway before tuning down again for a calm ending. From then on the songs all have somewhat more energy in 'em...except vocally, of course. Notable are: the livelier triumvirat of "Tomorrow", "Cruise Control" and "Halluciate", that weird keyboard-like passage during "Only the Good Die Young" (which is somewhat The Beatles remeniscent), the lyrically wacky "Bad Actress"...and the album closing semi-ballad "Gotta Let It Go".

Separated from the negative feelings about the somewhat more Mainstream and Poppier direction the band has taken compared to their more andrenalized beginning days, one has to agree that this album holds quite a few moments of interesting Hard Rock guitar play and...when giving the album enough listening sessions...one is compelled to agree that in essence what we have here is a truly great Hard Rock album in its own right, therefore earning a really high rating! Still, I hold onto my personal prerogative as a fan of old, to deminisg that same rating a couple of notches, preventing it from entering that "Best Albums Of 2008"-list of mine.

92/100

Tony.