Songs From The Sparkle Lounge
Def Leppard
Released – 2008 by Mercury Records
Track List
1. Go
2. Nine Lives
3. C’Mon C’Mon
4. Love
5. Tomorrow
6. Cruise Control
7. Hallucinate
8. Only The Good Die Young
9. Bad Actress
10. Come Undone
11. Gotta Let It Go |
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Despite guitarist Phil Collen’s frustrated claims in the press that Def Leppard have been doing this for the past few albums, ‘Songs From The Sparkle Lounge’ is a welcome return to the rock. It’s a far better hybrid of past material and the road they’ve headed since the 80s with a bit of a mix of everything.
‘Go’ starts things off in a full powered almost alt rock style before the Tim McGraw collaboration on ‘Nine Lives’. At first I was worried, but McGraw’s only contribution is at the beginning of the track and overall this is a typically radio friendly ‘Leppard track. ‘C’mon C’mon’ is a small throw back to ‘Hysteria’ that reminds me a little of ‘Rocket’ with its layered vocals and big sound.
We all no how good Def Leppard have been at writing catchy mainstream rock anthems and that continues in abundance here on songs like ‘Tomorrow’ ‘Cruise Control’ ‘Hallucinate’ and the Steve Clark tribute ‘Only The Good Die Young’. Each could be on the radio or on some movie soundtrack and it’s no wonder fans in the US have been snapping up this album.
I’m not much of a fan of the Queen like ‘Love’ but I really love ‘Bad Actress’. In fact this revved up, action packed explosion of rock n roll is my favourite on ‘Sparkle Lounge. It’s less mainstream than the others and has a bit of oomph missing in the other tracks. Definitely one I think would go down very well live.
Although this isn’t the best Def Leppard album ever made, I did enjoy it a lot more than I thought I would. And thank God that collaboration with Tim McGraw was only fleeting. Overall this is a grower given a few spins and by no means a disappointment once you get past the first 3rd of the disc.
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DirtyRock.net review by ‘Jonni Starr’ 2008
