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MUSIC REVIEW: Def Leppard
Def Leppard's cover album a dubious effort

BY MELISSA RUGGIERI
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER

Nearly a year ago, Def Leppard "leaked" its version of Badfinger's "No Matter 
What" as a tease for a long-in-the-works covers album, "Yeah!" It's an ideal 
song for a band that specializes in layered harmonies and sticky choruses, and 
it allowed singer Joe Elliott to turn down his increasingly distracting rasp.

Frankly, "No Matter What" was so good, it roused plenty of interest in even the 
most jaded Lep fans.

That the underrated '80s rockers -- always more British glam than hair metal 
chose songs from bands that directly influenced them (Mott the Hoople, Sweet, 
ELO, The Kinks) gives the album a hint of purpose. But at least half of these 
songs never needed to be pursued outside of sound checks and goof-off jam 
sessions.

It's obvious that the stacked, synthesized harmonies forever attached to ELO 
would be appealing to Def Leppard, which surpassed much of ELO's catalog with 
its "Hysteria" album alone. But "10538 Overture" is one of those songs whose 
legacy is best remembered as the first track on that band's 1971 debut -- no 
remakes necessary.

Sweet is another band that waved its sonic authority over the young Lep's 
heads, but "Hell Raiser" simply isn't worth revisiting. As blatant, and perhaps 
unchallenging, as it would have been to tackle "Fox on the Run" or "Ballroom 
Blitz," either song is a better complement to Def Leppard's serrated dual 
guitars and Elliott's theatrical phrasing -- which is exactly what makes "Stay 
With Me" a success.

Elliott's voice is shot, and nowhere is that more evident than on the Faces' 
rowdy rocker. But in the moment, it works. It's sloppy and unpolished, a boozy 
come-on that sounds as curiously tantalizing as when Rod Stewart first gasped 
the chorus 35 years ago.

It's odd that the one band Def Leppard unabashedly tries to emulate, Queen, 
isn't represented. "Tie Your Mother Down," "A Kind of Magic," "You're My Best 
Friend" or particularly the melodrama of "The Show Must Go On" might have 
flourished under a coating of Lep.

Instead, we get a stilted version of David Essex's "Rock On" and a nagging 
realization that maybe Def Leppard should have relegated these songs to bonus 
tracks on reissues and spent the past year working on new material instead.

Def Leppard
Title: "Yeah!"
Label: Mercury/Universal
Songs: "No Matter What," "Waterloo Sunset," "Stay With Me"
Rating: ** 1/2

© 2006, Media General. Part of the GatewayVA Network.