Counterculture.uk review of X
There are no bad Def Leppard albums - despite what the press often say - just varying degrees of how damn good they are. On a bad day, the very least you'll get is a fistful of good songs with great production . . . it's just that you can't always remember the titles. On a good day, you'll get great songs with great production and you won't ever bother skipping a track to get to the good stuff.
Today? Today is an hysterical day - in a Hysteria kind of fashion. Fantastic songs and production, and not only will you not be skipping any tracks, you won't be able to get it off the player or out of your head. It's true. It's damn true. Def Leppard have come up with their best body of work since Hysteria - the unstoppable album that will forever define their career.
The only stumbling block for the media appears to be that X isn't Hysteria, but that was then and this is now. Should we expect another Hysteria? Not sure, but it seems as though we all do. You can't fault X for its mindset though; the band have put any trauma firmly behind them now and this is quite tellingly their first album proper after the recovery.