![]() But there are plenty of good covers albums that are fun merely because the band is having a good time. This take on "Waterloo Sunset" works because it's informed by a palpable love of the original, and that love is apparent throughout this terrific record. It's true on their streamlined, muscular take on Electric Light Orchestra's swirling, psychedelic "10538 Overture," but it's most notable on their remarkable reworking of the Kinks' "Waterloo Sunset," which now sounds like a power ballad from Hysteria without ever once sounding like it's an affront to the immortal original. ![]() Rex's "20th Century Boy," Badfinger's "No Matter What," or David Essex's "Rock On," to subtle reinterpretations where they make seemingly difficult covers seem easy and unmistakably Def Leppard. Def Leppard alternate between fairly faithful renditions of familiar classics like T. Often, cover albums get bogged down in reverence or ambition, as artists either offer interpretations that are straight copies or fussy reinterpretations as they busily try to make a favorite song their own. What does come as a surprise is that the resulting Yeah! is a sheer delight, a roaring rock & roll record that's their best album since Hysteria. It was brave because we didn’t do the ‘Def Leppard thing’ we’re known so well for.Def Leppard always had a streak of glam running beneath their heavy rock - listen to "Armageddon It" or "Photograph" for proof - so it's no surprise that when the quintet decided to record a covers album in 2006, they devoted it to the '70s glam and hard rock that inspired them to pick up their guitars and play. “I think it’s got some earnest stuff – some really brave songwriting. “I think there’s some great stuff on X,” Phil Collen told Yahoo in 2006. Yet, the accomplished X is the runt of nobody’s litter, and is remembered fondly by its creators. As Joe Elliott said at the time, “Our audience is prepared to let us be.” He was quite correct: the band’s loyal fanbase ensured that X peaked at No.14 in the UK and climbed to No.11 on the Billboard 200, equalling Euphoria’s performance in the process.ĭef Leppard later returned to their legend-enshrining hard rock sound, paying tribute to their formative influences with the spirited covers album Yeah!, in 2006, and following up with 2008’s impassioned Songs From The Sparkle Lounge. Wouldn’t it be great if there was a Def Leppard version of that?”įrederiksen’s songwriting credits also include Carrie Underwood’s BMI Country Award-winning “Undo It” and Gavin Rossdale’s “Love Remains The Same.” The talented North American songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist thus hooked up with Def Leppard and went on to play a decisive role in the creation of X, penning the irresistibly radio-friendly UK Top 30 lead single “Now” and producing two more of the album’s stand-out tracks, “You’re So Beautiful” and the yearning, widescreen pop of “Everyday.”Īfter mixing at London’s famous Olympic Studios (where Leppard finished their very first single, “Wasted,” with producer Nick Tauber, in 1979), work on X wrapped in May 2002, and the album was released two months later. ![]() “We thought, Wow, this sounds cool, it sounds contemporary and energetic, but it’s obviously Aerosmith. “We heard ‘Jaded’, the song Aerosmith wrote with Marti Frederiksen,” guitarist Phil Collen told VH1 in 2002. “‘Pop’ is a strange word – it’s short for popular, and that can be anything from Black Sabbath to Charlotte Church.”Īccordingly, Leppard began shaping the tracks for X during preliminary sessions at Elliott’s house in Dublin, where a song by one of their favorite bands provided them with some timely inspiration. “We said this time round, ‘You know what – let’s just make great songs, and if they are all pop songs, they are still going to be guitar-based pop songs,’” vocalist Joe Elliott said at the time of X’s release, on July 30, 2002. It is also, in the broadest sense of the term, the most unashamedly “pop”-related record these indefatigable Yorkshiremen have offered up during their long and distinguished career. Though X is often supposed to stand for “10” in Roman numerals, the record is actually Leppard’s eighth studio album. That confident and accurately-titled album yielded a gold disc, but – to their credit – the band again eschewed their winning formula and shook things up as they entered the new millennium and began work on their next record, 2002’s X. After the adventurous alt-rock departure of Slang, Def Leppard revisited their anthemic signature sound in style on 1999’s Euphoria.
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