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Def Leppard - Retro-Active

 

	RELEASED: October 5, 1993 PRODUCER:Def Leppard & Pete Woodroffe LABEL:Mercury BAND:Rick Allen Vivian Campbell Steve Clark Phil Collen Joe Elliott Rick Savage
+ Songs, Production, No filler - Not everyone can get into Def Leppard	TRACKS: 1. Desert Song 2. Fractured Love 3. Action 4. Two Steps Behind (acoustic) 5. She's Too Tough 6. Miss You In A Heartbeat 7. Only After Dark 8. Ride Into The Sun 9. From The Inside 10. Ring Of Fire 11. I Wanna Be Your Hero 12. Miss You In A Heartbeat (electric) 13. Two Steps Behind (electric)

OVERVIEW

Following the lacklustre release Adrenalize, the Leppard took to touring in the hard-edged scene of the 90’s. Instead of releasing another full album, this B-Side and rarity’s collection was compiled. It turns out to be a good collection of songs, and adds what Adrenalize was really missing; Steve Clarke.

SONGS

Its starts out fairly dark for Def Leppard with the hard and atmospheric Desert Song. Which is a great song, with Arabian and desert-type sounds. Fractured Love travels into the modern power ballad territory that they are famous for, and what a sensational effort. Great licks and atmosphere, and not nearly as cheesy as Love Bites. The monster stripped-down ballad Two Steps Behind is a heartfelt ballad, ready made for radio. While Action is an average cover song. A driving rocker is born with She’s Too Tough and it proves to be another classic Def Leppard outing, complete with a furious solo, which what was missing from both Hysteria AND Adrenalize. Another ballad along similar lines is Miss You In A Heartbeat that actually ushers in a welcome new format with its crystal clean piano lines, decent heartfelt effort, not nearly as contrived as Two Steps Behind. If you were starting to get pulled down with all those ballads, the rock comes rumbling back in with the very different Only After Dark, which almost sounds like Cheap Trick. They don’t exactly pull it off, but it is welcome in the mix. A 50’s rock piano makes an entrance next!? But that doesn’t last long and Ride Into The Sun sparks out some brutal riffs. This is just great Pyromania-styles rock, love it. Just to spice it up even more, they try a little Spanish sound on From The Inside, what a great song though, so different for these guys. The dynamic riffing of Ring Of Fire cuts through all that was before it and delivers some of the best rock they’ve ever produced, this IS classic Leppard, and no, it’s not a Johnny Cash cover. More seemingly standard Def Leppard with I Wanna Be your Hero. Until the great chorus comes in, and also a great guitar solo which switched midway from electric to acoustic. The last 2 are electric versions of two previous songs. It’s hard to choose between them; depending on what mood you’re in. They do feature some added licks and textures that often inrich the listening experience, however they lose some of the raw heart that you get from unplugged performances. Two Steps Behind particularly loses a little.

CONCLUSION

What a great album. This is leaps and bounds ahead of Adrenalize. There’s no filler to be found here, and there’s something great to be found in all of the songs. The deviations in style only help cut up the sometimes monotonous trademark Leppard sound. I would go one step further and say this should’ve been released instead of Adrenalize. Personally I find it up their with Pyromania and Hysteria. It doesn’t rerally keep up with the hooks and radio-hits of Hysteria, but Pyromania fans will be especially stoked to discover this album. A MUST for fans.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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