Tag: Desert Storm

Friday New Releases – March 6, 2026

Published on by 2loud2oldmusic4 Comments

March kicks off with a bang with a highly anticipated album for a lot of people. That would be Harry Styles new one. I’m sure I’ll give it a listen. I’ll also probably stream Rainbow and Black Stone Cherry. Others might like Leaves’ Eyes or Charlotte Sands or Morrissey and there are a couple of older bands like Squeeze and Talking Heads with new albums. Tell me what you want to hear this week or if we missed anything. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you all have a great weekend!!

  • Harry Styles – Kiss All The Time, Disco Occasionally – (Erksine Records / Columbia Records)
  • Rainbow – Temple of the King: Rainbow 1975-1976 – (Edsel Records)
  • Black Stone Cherry – Celebrate – (Mascot Records)
  • Squeeze – Trixies – (Love Records / BMG Rights Mgmt)
  • Morrissey – Make-Up Is A Lie – (Sire Records)
  • Gnarls Barkley – Atlanta – (TenThousand Projects Holdings LLC)
  • Talking Heads – Tentative Decisions: Demos & Live – (Rhino Entertainment Co / Warner Music)
  • Mountain – Don’t Look Around: The Recordings 1969-1974 – (Esoteric)
  • Godsmack – Awake (25th Anniversary) – (Republic Records / UMG Recordings)
  • The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus – X’s For Eyes (Deluxe) – (Better Noise Records)
  • Leaves’ Eyes – Song of Darkness E.P. – (Reigning Phoenix Music)
  • Hunter Hayes – Evergreen – (LP Entertainment / DashGo)
  • Aaron Watson – Horse Named Texas – (Adub Records)
  • Charlotte Sands – Satellite – (CS Records)
  • American Adrenalin – Burn the Ships – (Together Records)
  • Erra – Silence Outlives the Earth – (UNFD)
  • Prong – Live And Uncleansed – (Steamhammer)
  • Vreid – The Skies Turn Black – (Indie Recordings)
  • Desert Storm – Buried Under the Weight of Reason – (Heavy Psych Sounds)
  • Nefastis – Shadows at the Light of Dawn – (Rockshots Records)
  • Surfbort – Reality Star – (TODO)
  • The S.E.T. – Self Evident Truth – (Flatspot Records)
  • Alex Melton – The Process – (Pure Noise Records)
  • The Theander Expression – Wonderful Anticipation (10th Anniversary) – (Malachite Night Records)
  • Status/Non-Status – Big Changes – (You’ve Changed Records)
  • War Child – Help (2) – (War Child Records)
  • Bory – Never Turns To Night – (Bleak Enterprise)
  • William Clark Green – Watterson Hall – (Bill Grease Records / Stem)
  • Austin Michael – Lonestar – (Austin Michael)
  • Willa Ford – Amanda – (Willa Ford Music LLC)
  • Travis Bolt – Burning Bridges – (Gravel Road / Stem)
  • The Brook And The Bluff – Werewolf – (Dualtone Music Group)
  • Matt Corby – Tragic Magic – (Island Records / Rainbow Valley Records)
  • Our Oceans – Right Here, Right Now – (Long Branch Records)
  • Denzel Curry – Strictly 4 The Scythe – (PH Recordings / Loma Vista Recordings / Concord)
  • Roger Clyne & The Peacemakers – Hell To Breakfast – (EmmaJava Recordings / Soundly Music)
  • Shabaka – Of The Earth – (Shabaka Records)
  • Rick Braun – Rick Braun Plays Chuck Mangione – (A-Train/Braunto)

Def Leppard – ‘Retro Active’ (1993) – Album Review (The Def Leppard Collection Series)

Published on by 2loud2oldmusic69 Comments

The band was now five albums in but it had been 12 years total. Not a great track record. They wanted to not have 4 years or more between albums again so it was decided to release a compilation album to hold fans over until the next release. But this wasn’t any ordinary greatest hits compilation, nope…that would’ve been too easy. The band decided to pull together a bunch of rare tracks and B-sides and put them together on one release…but still…not so simple as they re-recorded parts, remixed others and gave us a solid collection of songs from their career over the span of 1984 up to 1993. It also gives us some of the last recordings of the late, great Steve Clark.

The album would be called ‘Retro Active’ and released on October 5, 1993. It would spawn three singles including “Two Steps Behind”, “Miss You In A Heartbeat” and The Sweet cover for “Action”. Both “Two Steps Behind” and “Miss You In A Heartbeat” would go Top 40 and the album would go on to sell over 1,000,000 copies in the U.S. alone. Heck, even the opening track, “Desert Storm” would hit the U.S. Mainstream Rock Chart at #12 without even being released technically as a single.

One really cool aspect of the album is the cover which was designed by Hugh Syme and Nels Israelson. The image is a photographed of a woman sitting in front of a vanity mirror. However, she is positioned just so, along with other items, so that when you moved the album further away from you it turned in to a skull. A really cool concept

The album opens up with an outtake from the ‘Hysteria’ album called “Desert Song”. It was originally recorded as an instrumental and is the last song released by the band to feature Steve Clark on guitar. In fact, it is noted as the only song in the catalog to feature both Steve and his replacement Vivian Campbell who did some background vocals on the song. I know I said it was originally an instrumental and it was, but lyrics were written when the pulled the song back out after forgetting about it for years. The song is about Mick Ronson who was dying of cancer around this time. It is a killer opening track, hard hitting and a really cool Clark tone to it which is so missed. The bass work is great on this as well as the guitars. To me, the song sounds more like it would’ve fit on ‘Slang’ then on ‘Hysteria’. A truly fantastic track.

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