Def Leppard - Retro Active
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Free Music Notes for Retro Active
Free Music Review: Everything I (used to) love about Def Leppard
Hit: 4 Stars
Just when I thought it was safe to ignore anything Def Leppard released post-Hysteria, I ran across Retro-Active, the band's 1993 collection of b-sides, covers, and alternate versions. I was a little wary of this collection at first, since the only tracks that I was familiar with were the ballads, but as soon as I heard the opening Desert Song I was transported back to when Def Leppard was the biggest band in the world.
There are some really impressive rockers on this album, including Ride into the Sun and She's Too Tough, which bring you back to the old school Def Leppard sound. The Hysteria b-sides I Wanna Be Your Hero and Ring of Fire are as good as anything you would find on that album, and the spirited cover songs (Sweet's Action and Mick Ronson's Only After Dark) are more interesting than anything on the band's recent covers album). I'm not sure we really needed two separate versions of the ballads Miss You in a Heartbeat and Two Steps behind, but even I have to admit that as ballads go, those are pretty good ones.
The quality of Retro-Active doesn't change my opinion of the watered-down albums Def Leppard has released over the past 20 years. In fact, it just makes me depressed that a band that is capable of putting such impressive songs together - as b-sides! - can't figure out how to make a rocking album that honors their past history instead of running as fast as they can in the other direction.
Free Music Review: Def Leppard remembers what it means to rock
Hit: 4 Stars
For those of us who remember Def Leppard from the early 80's, they were a METAL band - kind of a mix of Iron Maiden and AC/DC. Then Hysteria came out and they drifted more into a rock direction (although back then we still considered that metal). The 90's and so forth would see them slide even more from their hard-rockin' guitar-based roots, reaching a pop nadir with X.
However, Retroactive showed they could still do guitar-based rock while trying new things. Songs like "Desert Song" and "From the Inside" sound like nothing they'd done before, yet still had the Def Leppard magic. They were, in fact, progressing as a great band should - this is what Slang should've been (but instead, Slang was Def Leppard almost completely rejecting their own sound for a second-rate grunge alternative wannabe sound). Suffice to say, Retroactive shows a band that can rock, with some of the Def Leppard polish (but not as highly produced as Hysteria or Euphoria), and a batch of good and diverse songs. The only weak point(s) of the CD for me are the cliche ballads (Two Steps Behind and Miss You In A Heartbeat - both offered in multiple versions here!), which are weak and sound like they could be by any second-rate hair metal band, not even having the Def Leppard ballad sound. (I Wanna Be Your Hero is a good Def Leppard ballad track).
Anyway, if you like any Def Leppard album from the 80's or just classic hard rock/metal, you should like this.
Free Music Review: Last great 80s hard rock album
Hit: 4 Stars
While Def Leppard had an an "official" album a year earlier, Adrenalise, it was lacking they very important songwriting influence of Steve Clark due to his passing a year earlier, and as a result the focus was lacking, and also the result was dramatically overproduced.While these were outakes and unfinshed tracks, the results here were dramatically differnt. Here Clarks influence in songwriting and his actual guitar tracks were present. Also, the production here was their most stripped down since High and Dry, the result is a solid album full of rockers and a couple of high quality ballads.
Not to say the album doesnt have a couple of duds, such as the cover of Mick Ronsons Only After Dark, plus the electric versions of Miss you in a heartbeat and Two steps behind, but otherwise this is a top shelf effort. The real shame here is this album was not released 3 or even 2 years earlier than it was, it would have topped the charts for months and sold millions of copies, but it came out in 93, 2 years after Nirvana hit. None the less any fan of 80s style hard rock, a era that emerged with Van Halens debut in 78 should get this CD, it was a fun 15 years, and this album is a fitting end.
Free Music Review: Why did they name this "Retro Active"?
Hit: 4 Stars
It's still a good album, but the title is not appropriate as these I think are new songs. Def Leppard tried hard to stay within their roots despite having to battle grunge. In the result I guess how this can be called "Retro Active" is that it sounds like the days of "On Through The Night", and "High And Dry". I used to have this album, and didn't make it as far as the studio version of "Miss You In A Heartbeat". I guess I didn't give it half a chance as I just didn't like "Hysteria", and "Adrenalize". However, this one is pretty good. It starts off with "Desert Song" which is definitely the closest thing to grunge these guys would do, but then they get back to the hard rock that they are nortorius for. With "Fractured Love", a good cover of the Sweet's "Action", "Ride Into The Sun", etc. The albums weak point is the song "Two Steps Behind" as it's a weak ballad. It also closes with an almost folk-rock song called "I Want To Be Your Hero". I just looked at another review, and this was a b-sides, rarties album, so I guess that explains the title. As I said still a good album, but it wasn't strong enough to go against the grunge machine.Free Music Review: AWESOME
Hit: 4 Stars
Surprisingly, this is truly a great album, even though it is regarded as a unreleased/b-sides collection, the material on here is worthy of being called top-notch album quality. If you took all the great songs from all rest of Def Leps 1990's albums, you still couldn't accumulate enough to surpass this one. Only 2 good songs are on Adrenalize, maybe 2 on Slang, and 6 on Euphoria, you still can't touch Retro Active's 11 song that are all excellent. Most of the material on here is from the Hysteria sessions, and the rest come from Adrenalize sessions, being cover songs and canned material. There is 1 or 2 songs on here that were recorded for this CD. Steve Clark,R.I.P., appears on a handful of tracks, and newcomer Vivian is on a few as well. This CD has a ton of rockers like Desert Song, Fractured Love, Action, She's Too Tough, and Ring Of Fire, among others. But the standouts are the two ballads, Two Steps Behind and Miss You In A Heartbeat, both presented in electric and acoustic versions. All-in-all a superb album, that should be considered a regular album, and by far the best one since Hysteria.