That doesn’t mean anyone wishes any ill will upon the band, God forbid. Granted, two of those periods were marked by tragedy. Their best records came when a lot of time passed – four years between Pyromania and Hysteria, five years between Hysteria and Adrenalize, and three between Slang and the late return to form of Euphoria. Perhaps that’s a practice Def Leppard should return to. One of their classic Hysteria songs “Animal” took several frustrating years to make. Much like the rest of the album, it’s not in bad condition, but it used to be so much better. Speaking of Joe, his once-high soaring vocals are reduced to a lower, mundane muffle masked by some light effects. “Tomorrow” starts nicely with some suicide guitars, but when you realize the chorus is simply a “woo-hoo” by Joe Elliot, it’s clear there just wasn’t much thought put into this record. Elsewhere, when the band has found a decent chorus line, they haven’t the originality to at least give it a new title, instead ripping off Billy Joel’s “Only The Good Die Young” with, you guessed it, “Only The Good Die Young”, which, as with any rip-offs, seemingly takes Joel’s hooks, throws it in a blender, and carefully rearranges it to somehow sound passable. The (thankfully brief) inclusion of country star Tim McGraw is a slight nod to both general rock machismo that spans metal to country and the band’s occasional flirt with country (their deity-like former producer, Mutt Lange, crafted wife Shania Twain’s huge hit records of the 90s) last hinted on “Love and Affection”, the quaint closer to Hysteria. Nine Lives scratches at the surface of what Def Leppard used to do so well: marry their crunchy guitars with a good chorus and some typical hard rock topics of living and dying, or coming close to dying, something the band does admittedly know a lot about. This could only be half-applied to “Nine Lives”, however, the obvious lead and really only single from Sparkle Lounge. There is no magical art to them, no gallant hooks that will stay with you for eternity, no rock for the ages here. They definitely aren’t, however, distinguishable, well-crafted, and memorable. What saves this album from being a complete bomb is the fact that nothing on it is a bomb. Why can’t the lighting of Hysteria strike twice? If it hasn’t already, at this point, it probably never will, and Sparkle Lounge only reaffirms this. It’s more than a little troubling to explain their inability over the last ten years or so to craft solid new hard rock anthems instead taking refuge with occasional stabs at ok-ballads and recycled numbers (“Promises”, which was excellent but too similar to “Photograph”). And anyone who knows Def Leppard’s music knows that their power always rested on a knack for gorgeously heavy but accessible hooks in essence, perfect hard rock. It’s like they sound great, but they don’t the blazing and blaring guitars sound freshly rough and rugged without relying on as much polish as they have before, but they’ve failed to come up with any really compelling hooks to wrap the guitars around. Unfortunately, that may be the best part about Songs from the Sparkle Lounge. It’s not about sales or acclaim anymore, but just a bunch of good friends doing what they do best, and that’s always admirable. But they’re here still at it and rightly so they’ve managed to remain relevant in ways their contemporaries haven’t, and they’ve well beyond proven their power and strength. Now, more than twenty years after their peak Hysteria, the band is teetering on the brink of rock-Gods heaven: their music so completely out of date it’s possible it may have come back around to cool again (as things are known to). Still, as they had proved in the 80s, they’re survivors, and continued to have brief moments of glory in the 90s. Their music would really never be the same after that, but then again they’ve always been changing, mapping out a route between heavy metal and hard pop. The eventual album Adrenalize was admirable given what they suffered, but it was a sure sign their first and best period was over. Not only did their drummer survive a car accident in which he lost his arm, after which they stuck together and worked four years to create perhaps the finest pop-metal album of all time in 1987 with Hysteria, but then their guitarist died in 1991 right before they were to follow up Hysteria.
Songs from sparkle 2012 tv#
They also have one of rock’s greatest stories (nicely chronicled in a TV film). Def Leppard is not only a talented band, but they are critical and commercial legends, having consistently won over rock critics while garnering millions of fans who expect little more from their music than a great time.
The lamely-titled and atrociously cover-designed Songs from the Sparkle Lounge is Def Leppard’s return to original material after the surprising success of their covers album Yeah. Review Summary: Wherever the sparkle lounge is, I don't want to go there.
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