Def Leppard
X
Reviewed by Tom Stroh
An album called X. At first glance, you would think that they'd made an album about mutants. Maybe this isn't far from the truth. Ever since their earth shattering, mega-platinum, hair-spray selling, sugar-pouring hair metal opus Hysteria, the Lep have tried to replicate the spooky hard-rock brew that Mutt Lange helped create. Each subsequent album is a mutant strain, a variation on the same genetic structure that Lange concocted. Different producers have come and gone but they all fixated on the same X-factor - the walls of vocal harmonies a la QUEEN, the BOSTON-esque barrage of guitars, or the bludgeon riffola. Yet the side-effect of each mutation has resulted in an emasculating softening. The Sheffield blokes who once rocked so hard on PYROMANIA clung to the power-pop balladry of "Love Bites" and eroded to soft AOR pap. The once-sharp and angular sound that was so deftly complimented by their triangle logo has been worn away and polished down to one step above 'N SYNC. The quintessence of powerful 80s metal has (d)evolved, and due to a terrible mistake in album sequencing, X appears to mark a new level of mutation. The first two-thirds of this album are a boring mass of sugar that wouldn't be fit to pour on a funnel cake. However, the last six songs are probably the best that the band has recorded in years. The multi-platinum question is: will listeners hang on long enough to appreciate the better songs?
What most Lep-heads will find hardest to swallow is the band's enlisting of the outside songwriting help of Per Aldeheim, Andreas Carlsson and Max Martin (Are they f-f-f-foolin'?!). This trio is part of the Swedish songwriting factory that churned out hit after hit for the likes of The Backstreet Boys, 'N Sync, Celine Dion and Britney Spears. Definitely an odd move for a band who until recently would probably only use these writers to help translate "gunda gleebin globbin globin." None of this would matter if the songs held up. But one gets the idea that the band is phoning it in and just trying to snag an easy hit. Lest we forget, Mutt Lange did go on to produce (and reproduce with) Shania Twain, and the band's sound has been emulated by everyone from Ms. Twain to Ms. Spears. It's just striking to see how as the circle goes unbroken it collapses on itself.
What makes this so unnerving and perplexing is the fact that DEF LEPPARD is capable of so much more (as they so aptly illustrate late in the album). They aren't hopelessly aged rockers. 1996's Slang, while not hugely successful commercially or critically, signaled a possible new direction, a second life for the band and perhaps a chance to shake the image of 80s has-beens. It was an experimental album that mingled Leppard's strengths with modern musical innovation. Yet their next release, EUPHORIA, while hard-rocking in parts, basically re-hashed their greatest hits in updated form. Presently, X's attempts at vapid pop success almost spoil its stronger points.
The album starts out promising enough. "Now" is a mid-tempo rock song that exhibits familiar Leppardisms alongside Eastern sounding guitar licks and cut-and-paste modern rock production methods. PeteWoodroffe's production on this tune is crisp and clear as the rhythm guitar cuts through the drumming and featured instruments almost seem to be singled out in the mix right on cue. However, as "Now" fades away, the album slips into a boring mass of pop detritus.
"Unbelievable" is the aforementioned track written and produced by the Swedish song chefs. This sweet ballad that would sound at home on any teen pop album boasts the memorable couplet, "but you speak without words/makin' me feel so damn good." The song even has the requisite modulation of key that signals the emotional climax. "You're so beautiful" is a driving rocker that shows some signs of life, but nothing to write to Circus magazine about. "Everyday" is "Photograph" on thorazine, right down to the arpeggiated guitar riff in the chorus. The titular word is drawn out and repeated to the point where it's way too easy to substitute "Photograaaaaaaph."
The album's first straight-up-dirty sounding rocker, "Four Letter Word," is a welcome sound at first. Until Joe Elliot starts singing, "It's just your kiss, K-I-S-S, that I miss..." Then it sinks in: this song (the first on the album penned by only the members of DL) must be a blatant homage to Mutt and his wife (and that don't impress me much) because it has Shania written all over it. Finally we catch a glimpse of the Lep we know and love on the next track, "Torn to Shreds." This standard Leppard ballad leads nicely into the album's first fresh sounding tune since the opener.
"Love Don't Lie" has a great beat, a great tempo and insistent rhythm guitar sound, and an urgent melody. As the song opens up the last third of the album, all of what's good about DEF LEPPARD starts to become clear. The four-part harmonies, Phil Collen's and Vivian Campell's dueling guitars, the fiercely adequate rhythm section of Rick Savage and Rick Allen. Why did they wait until track eight to unleash this demon? "Gravity" brings more of the same. The modern-sounding Leppard dominates from this point on. Despite its painfully trite opening line, "Boy meets girl in the prime of life, blinded by big city lights...," the next track "Girl Like You" keeps the ball rolling through to the album's closer "Scar." The final track borrows liberally from the band's past and adds a bit of PINK FLOYD's "Eclipse" to the refrain, "All that you are, all you believe, all that you take, all that you leave..."
DEF LEPPARD's music was never meant to change the world. It's always been good music to rock to, long on hooks and fun choruses and short on any real deep meaning. Yet despite this, their music always had integrity and substance - even if it was about the meaning of partying. (Hey, everybody does it.) Aside from the opening track, the first eight songs on X lack any of this substance. Perhaps a different sequence and structure to the album would give the weaker songs more weight and make the album more cohesive. Unfortunately, what could have been a strong showing from one of rock's past juggernauts is only a respectable afterthought to a waning career in need of some serious revival.
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