With numerous smash hits, diamond certifications and sold-out world excursions below their belt, it appeared that Yorkshire rockers Def Leppard had few packing containers left to tick after they started desirous about their self-titled eleventh studio album.
Nonetheless, within the time since the band launched 2008’s life-affirming Songs From The Sparkle Lounge, the music scene had modified immeasurably. Most particularly, the business was occupied with dealing with as much as the challenges of the brand new – and rapidly-evolving – digital world.
“Anywhere we looked, it seemed like everybody kept saying the album is dead,” vocalist Joe Elliott recalled for DefLeppard.com. “It’s like the emperor’s new clothes, you start believing it. So, [with Def Leppard], we didn’t set out to make a full album, it just started to come together so naturally, and we were in such a great place. I don’t think I’ve enjoyed making a record as much as I’ve enjoyed making this one.”
Embracing their contemporary burst of creativity and armed with a stockpile of latest songs, Leppard repaired to Elliott’s Dublin studio, Joe’s Storage, with longtime sound engineer/producer Ronan McHugh. In acquainted environment, the band was in an excellent state of affairs to do what they do finest – and had been decided to not be shackled by expectations.
They determined to name the album Def Leppard “because it doesn’t sound like any one specific era” of their music, Elliott revealed to Blabbermouth. “It’s got every single aspect of anything we’ve ever wanted to put out – acoustic, heavy, soft, slow, fast. Just like Queen, we’re capable of coming up with vastly different kind of songs.”
The satisfyingly disparate Def Leppard as soon as once more confirmed Joe Elliott and firm had been true to their phrase. Kicking off in classic type with the irresistible swagger of the Hysteria-esque “Let’s Go,” the album went on to soak up all the things from the crunching NWOBHM-style anthem “All Time High” to barnstorming alt-rock exercises equivalent to “Sea Of Love” and the chest-beating “Wings Of An Angel,” which recalled the band’s mid-90s Slang period .
But the experimentation didn’t finish there. The proudly eclectic Def Leppard additionally discovered area for thrilling departures together with the atypically funky “Man Enough,” the cool, beats and electronica-driven pop of ‘Energized’ and the formidable “Blind Faith”: Elliott’s impassioned commentary on faith and church-based cults which got here framed by elegant, Beatles-esque chord modifications and gift-wrapped with Mellotron.
With their frontman admitting that “we’ve definitely pushed the envelope a little bit”, the band felt reinvigorated by the album’s range. Certainly, throughout a contemporaneous interview with Massachusetts radio station WAAF, guitarist Phil Collen confessed, “I think it’s the best thing we’ve done since Hysteria. I don’t think ‘experimental’ is the right word, I think it’s more liberating and expressive – there’s a purity to it we haven’t had before.”
Endorsed by a number of enthusiastic evaluations, together with one from Basic Rock proclaiming that “Def Leppard is the sound of a band who have rediscovered their sense of purpose,” the album shot to No.10 on the Billboard 200 and to No.11 on the UK High 40 – its efficiency proving categorically that albums are nonetheless very a lot alive, kicking and nonetheless totally essential within the digital age.
Def Leppard’s self-titled album gave its creators a mighty shot within the arm and the indefatigable exhausting rockers have been on a excessive ever since.
“What does Def Leppard mean to me now?” Joe Elliott mused on the time of the album’s launch, on October 30, 2015. “Success, stubbornness, and blind faith. It’s a bunch of guys that like each other and love what they do. That bounces back and audiences can pick up on it. We’ve written some good stuff. I hope everyone can listen to it and enjoy it.”
Store for Def Leppard’s music on vinyl or CD now.
