Rolling Stone

RS Rating: (3 stars)
 
Eighties pop-metal gods pair with Swedish master producer. Do not try 
to resist. A couple of years ago, a band named Bon Jovi put out an 
album called Crush that was intended merely to promote some live 
shows overseas and pay off a few mullet-replacement-surgery bills. 
Instead, the recording became their first American hit in years, 
thanks to the single co-written by Swedish popmeister Max 
Martin, "It's My Life." Naturally, their fellow Eighties hair-bangers 
sat up and took notice. So X is Def Leppard's own version of Crush, 
complete with a Martin power ballad: a big fat Swedish meatball 
called "Unbelievable." But since the Lepsters always had catchier 
beats and craftier tunes than the metal competition, they adapt to 
global pop with their signature sound intact, and X may be their 
niftiest since Adrenalize. You've heard it before: "Four Letter Word" 
and "Everyday" shamelessly rip "Photograph," "Torn to Shreds" 
revamps "Hysteria," and "You're So Beautiful" sounds exactly 
like "Animal." But what the hell -- "Animal" deserved to chart a lot 
higher than Number Nineteen back in 1987, and it will only be cosmic 
hair-metal justice if Def Lep score a comeback hit with this one. 
ROB SHEFFIELD
(RS 904 - September 5, 2002)