Yeah? Oh Yeah!
On Def Leppard's ninth studio album, Yeah!, the band become the most famous cover band on the planet. The songs they picked to cover are ones they remember fondly from their youth; a soundtrack, as it were, to their pubescent lives. "Yeah!" is rewarding taken at its face value premise of celebrating the longevity of the group while honoring some pop classics. But it is disappointing that, while the production values the band is known for is still top notch, stamping their indelible sound, one that took them to the upper echelons of rock stardom in the 1980's, onto the performances of these fourteen notable pop/rock tunes from the late 1960's and 1970's, are relatively straight forward note for note copies of the originals.
Ironically and quite unintentionally, Yeah! exposes in glaring light Def Leppard's strengths and weaknesses as artists. The band's strengths, going all the way back to their first full length recording, On Through The Night, to Yeah!, has always been their exuberant performances that showcased very fine musicianship with boundless passion and energy devoted to the craft of recording songs. They love rock 'n' roll and it shows on all of their recordings.