http://www.timesleader.com/mld/timesleader/entertainment/14758881.htm Posted on Wed, Jun. 07, 2006 Def Lep's got it covered Forget "The DaVinci Code." Def Leppard has answered a more mysterious question for the ages. Can a hair-metal band from the '80s successfully cover a handful of glam metal and seminal rock songs from the early '70s? Without a single car chase or hidden message, these five Brits have proved that they have a deeper set of rock 'n' roll roots than one might expect. "Yeah!" is a rollicking journey through a set of 14 album tracks from a vital time in the U.K. rock scene. With any collection of cover tunes, the artist lives or dies by the song selection. Stick with the obvious and you're boring - go too deep into the obscure catalog and you risk losing the average listener. With "Yeah!" Def Leppard has chosen to reconstruct the music that first put the glint of a Gibson guitar in their eyes. Luckily, the song selection here is near perfect. The cream of the crop comes with the songs that didn't even make a dent on this side of the ocean, but charted well in Britain. Tackling Roxy Music, Free, Badfinger, and one-hit-wonder John Kongos gives "Yeah!" a good division of well-known tunes and lesser-known gems. Every song on "Yeah!" is properly "Leppard-ized," but the core music remains intact. Sure, it would have been easy to paint over "The Boys Are Back In Town" and "Rebel Rebel," but leaning toward Thin Lizzy's "Don't Believe A Word" and David Bowie's "Drive-In Saturday" was a much smarter choice. "20th Century Boy" by T. Rex and Sweet's "Hellraiser" are pretty much dead-on, while David Essex's "Rock On" and The Kinks' "Waterloo Sunset" are surprisingly worthy updates. If nothing else, the band has written a few choice cuts into the encore section of their live show. Anyone who grew up hiding a copy of Creem or Rock Scene magazine in their history textbook during study hall will totally relate to these songs. And if we're lucky, a whole new generation of rock addicts will get a lesson in the bedrock of today's metal, courtesy of Def Leppard and "Yeah!" - Kevin Krieger Weekender Correspondent Copyright 2006 Knight Ridder All Rights Reserved