We are now to the 10th Studio album and you’d think that ‘X’ would’ve been a good title for this one, but they already used that title with their 10th album release including compilations. Nope, this time they named the album ‘Songs From the Sparkle Lounge’. A name in reference to a room at each of their live shows they used for tuning, for writing and overall creativity. It had a Christmas lights strewn about around the room along with some equipment such as a drum kit, some amps and even a tape recorder. Apparently, most of the songs, if not all, were written while on the road touring for the ‘Yeah!’ album.
This album saw the band try something new and have their first song featuring an outside party. They brought in Country singer Tim McGraw to assist on a song and yes ,the song has a country flair and we will bash the hell out of it later. I guess they needed to try something new. The album saw the light of day on April 25, 2008 and went all the way to #5 on the Billboard 200 selling around 55,000 copies out of the gate. They did reach #1 on the Hard Rock And Rock Album charts as well. Def Leppard still has some life left in them even after all these years. Joe Elliott, Rick Savage, Rick Allen, Phil Collen and Vivian Campbell were still going strong. But is the album strong or does it have any life left in it? We are about to find out.
The album opens with “Go” and it has a massive guitar riff that sounds menacing and powerful. The heavy track explodes with a metal energy and might be one of the best opening tracks the band has ever had. It harkens back to High ‘N’ Dry vibe where the riff was king. It also has a killer guitar solo and shows the talent of these two dynamic guitar heroes. Joe sounds great as well on vocals, but you can’t escape those guitars…damn this is exciting and has me desperate to hear the rest of this album.
Continue reading “Def Leppard – ‘Songs From The Sparkle Lounge’ (2008) – Album Review (The Def Leppard Collection Series)”
2 Loud 2 Old Music 