Sparkle Lounge Album Preview

[MartinBarre]

I saw them on the Jimmy Kimmel Show last night. Joe Elliot's voice was just horrible!

I won't complain about his voice - I love AC/DC and Jethro Tull and both their singers are REALLY bad.
At least Joe has started singing in a lower key to compensate, and he does alright on the albums. But yes, it is a major pain that he used to be able to screech with the best of them on songs like the title track to "High N Dry". It would be nice to hear him pull that out for at least a couple of songs on the new album instead of sitting in his comfort zone and just doing the "commercial" bollocks voice.
Hey Joe - "Pyromania" sold plenty, with you singing in the higher keys. Give it a fucking "Go (just Go").

[MartinBarre]

Where's the guitar solos?

By this point it's probably become clear I'm a major Def Leppard fan, always have been. Seen them live, bought all their stuff, been hugely into them since I was drawing Steve Clark's Gibson on my school books 16 years ago.

But I'm fed up with disappointments. And this album is another one.

[rjohnstone]

Hey Martin... it was Pyro and High N Dry that blew out Joe's voice in the first place.
He managed it ok for Hysteria, but it went downhill after that.
So it's not that he won't sing that way anymore, he can't.
Of course he could have put the damn smokes down and maybe saved some of his voice.

Most of those higher notes you hear on every album after Hysteria was sung by Phil.

And I still am a Lep fan... just a very disappointed one for the last 10+ years.

[MartinBarre]

Hey Martin... it was Pyro and High N Dry that blew out Joe's voice in the first place.
He managed it ok for Hysteria, but it went downhill after that.
So it's not that he won't sing that way anymore, he can't.
Of course he could have put the damn smokes down and maybe saved some of his voice.

Most of those higher notes you hear on every album after Hysteria was sung by Phil.

And I still am a Lep fan... just a very disappointed one for the last 10+ years.

I'm not actually Martin Barre, I don't own an Ibanez! I just wish I could play like him.



The thing with Joe's voice just annoys me because, on this new album in particular, it all sounds very samey because his voice never really gets above a certain level.
And holy crap I'm listening to "C'mon C'mon" now and it sounds like something a girl band would do. It's like a Girls Aloud song for fuck sake, but without the hot babes. This sucks major balls.

[jackson1]

I'm glad you're in this thread, MB1. Everything you said about Dull Leppard +1.

[Number Of The Priest]

Hey Martin... it was Pyro and High N Dry that blew out Joe's voice in the first place.
He managed it ok for Hysteria, but it went downhill after that.

"Retro Active" had some real vocal-chord-ripping screamers, like "She's Too Tough". Maaaaan that must have been tough on Joe's voice.

After THAT album, he never powerfully sang high again.

[BTB007]

Why is everyone so serious discussing Def Lep? They're simply a fun band and every concert I've been to has been a blast. I was only really disapointed with the X cd since it was pretty much all ballads. As long as the songs are fun, I'm happy.

[guitarzan2]

Saw this thread and headed on over to Isohunt.com to download via torrent. I figure by the time I've read 2 pages of comments I'll have the CD. Given a title of "Sparkle Lounge", I can't say I have much hope for this CD. Oh well, ding........ it's downloaded.

And don't bother giving me any shit for downloading it. They've already ripped me off countless time by buying their crap previous CD's.

edit. Gave it a listen. Strange CD. Not great, doesn't suck, just lacks a bit of coherent direction. Moments that feel like 80's ACDC, simple strong structures, a couple ballad type songs, a couple rockers and a bunch of middle of the road tunes. Starts of strong with "Go" and then just kind of cruises. There are several songs you could play to 100 people and not a single one of them would guess it's Def Leppard. In all, worth the download but probably not the purchase.

[MartinBarre]

I've been listening to it for a couple of days now and I think it's pretty good - much better than X or Yeah.
"Go" is a good song, with a decent riff, decent solo but far too short and nowhere near as good as the way they do it (the trade off guitar solo I mean) live, but a good song anyway.
"Nine Lives" is a good song - clearly it's meant to be in the "hit single", "Pour Some Sugar", "Animal", "Armageddon It" type bracket but it's nowhere near their class. It's a good song, but throwaway.
"Bad Actress" is pretty rocking, some nice soloing. Possibly the best song on it.
"Love" is, again, nowhere close to their previous ballads like "Love Bites" or "Bringing On the Heartbreak", but it's actually a great song IMO. There's a good rocking section in it which livens things up.
I'm sorry though, "C'mon C'mon" - Classic Rock magazine claims this is the best song they've done in years but to me, and my wife who also noticed it instantly:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etNfP29vc28

But Leppard are meant to be a rock band, and not one of them ever looked as good as Nadine or Cheryl. I find it quite embarrassing to be listening to an album with this song on it. It's even worse than the Backstreet Boys thing they did on X. I could watch that Girls Aloud all day, Cheryl Tweedy is a fucking goddess.

Overall it's not a bad album but comes nowhere close to something like Retroactive or Adrenalize, and can't lace the boots of Pyro or Hysteria.

And don't let anyone tell you it's "heavy". Cos it isn't.
I think the songwriting is probably better than the new Whitensake album though.

[neilli]

Other than Slang, I like Sparkle Lounge way more than any other Leppard album since Hysteria. Sparkle Lounge the only one where I've ever listened to the whole thing more than once. No, it's not 'heavy' but it's lost some of that totally bland, forgettable over-produced sound and composition that have plagued their albums of late. And it has more up beat and catchy songs, which is always good if you are in that sort of mood!

Adrenalize had a couple of decent songs but was mostly second rate Hysteria and too lame and too cheesey even for Leppard. X & Euphoria might have had one or two decent songs (maybe) and Yeah! was just embarrassing. I'd got to a point where I'd resolved to never buy anything from them again cos it was just money down the toilet, but then I heard the samples of Sparkle Lounge....

[MartinBarre]

Other than Slang, I like Sparkle Lounge way more than any other Leppard album since Hysteria. Sparkle Lounge the only one where I've ever listened to the whole thing more than once. No, it's not 'heavy' but it's lost some of that totally bland, forgettable over-produced sound and composition that have plagued their albums of late. And it has more up beat and catchy songs, which is always good if you are in that sort of mood!

Adrenalize had a couple of decent songs but was mostly second rate Hysteria and too lame and too cheesey even for Leppard. X & Euphoria might have had one or two decent songs (maybe) and Yeah! was just embarrassing. I'd got to a point where I'd resolved to never buy anything from them again cos it was just money down the toilet, but then I heard the samples of Sparkle Lounge....

I'd pretty much agree with all you say. ALthough, I don't get the Adrenalize hatred from people, I fucking LOVE that album. It rocks, it has brilliant soloing from Phil and it's great fun. Maybe it just came out at a good time for me, but it's probably my second favourite Leppard album behind Hysteria.

But back to the new one - I just saw the video for Nine Lives. I thought Joe Elliot sang everything except the intro. That guy McGraw sounds exactly like Joe!

[semagic]

Why is everyone so serious discussing Def Lep? They're simply a fun band and every concert I've been to has been a blast. I was only really disapointed with the X cd since it was pretty much all ballads. As long as the songs are fun, I'm happy.

+1
i actually thought it sounded good, reminded me of "hysteria" i didn't like the sound at first like everybody else... then pour some sugar video came out with the hot girls at the concert footage and i was a fan of the hysteria cd ...

seriously though, it surprised me... i thought i would be extremely disappointed, but i wasn't.

[Number Of The Priest]

"Adrenalize" is an awesome album to me. That album spotlights Phil's playing the same way "Somewhere In Time" showcased Iron Maiden's Adrian.

"Stand Up (Kick Love Into Motion)" is probably my all-time favorite Lep song.

[MartinBarre]

"Adrenalize" is an awesome album to me. That album spotlights Phil's playing the same way "Somewhere In Time" showcased Iron Maiden's Adrian.

"Stand Up (Kick Love Into Motion)" is probably my all-time favorite Lep song.

"White Lightning" REALLY does it for me. Phil is just incredible on that entire album.
If only he still wrote solos like the ones on that album. Him and Viv are too similar in style IMO, and it's resulted in both of them trying to outdo the other in the playing "tastefully" style, rather than shredding. It's like Steve died, and Phil and Viv both tried to replace him instead of keeping their own style.

[Robert Burns]

Anyone notice Phils Camelleon PC-1 in the new Vid?