Well, I finally have a copy in my hands and soon to be in the CD player. Target didn't even have the disk out and wouldn't price match Best Buy. Wal-mart not only had it out but it was already .05 cheaper than Best Buy.

At least I have something cool to listen to when I am doing the yucky dishes ;).

Edited to add - Even though I would like it to be a little less ballady (yes, I know that isn't really a word) I have to agree that it isn't fair to compare them to the Lep's of old. Aerosmith today isn't what they were in the beginning either. I think Guess Who makes a good point that they have probably mellowed a little with time, as well as the many times mentioned fact that the ballads will be the ones to receive radio attention.

Has anyone visited defleppard.com while X is in your CDROM drive... I read it's supposed to unlock extra stuff on the site....

It unlocks a "making of the video" for Now. There is also a contest to introduce the band in your city when they tour that you enter by joining a mailing list.

I never said it was supposed to be a "Heavy Metal" album. But Def Leppard made their mark playing music inspired by Thin Lizzy and UFO. If you're not familiar with those bands then maybe you don't get where I'm coming from.

UFO is still around, and the guys are a decade older than the Leps, but their music these days has much more of an edge than Leppard. UFO was never a "Pantera" type Heavy Metal band. They were (and still are) a Melodic Hard Rock band with a few "metallic" moments here and there. The emphasis is on melodic.

So if UFO (and dozens of other bands their age) can still do that type of music - and have it be more mature and "adult" in nature so can Def Leppard.

X features drum machines sequenced like dance pop. That is sacrilege to old time Leppard fans. Look, I liked a lot of Slang, and I liked a lot of Euphoria - and they promised an album that was somewhere in between those two albums. They did NOT deliver on that promise.

Do you get now why I (and old time Lep fans like me) am so disappointed by the new album?

They promised one thing and delivered another. And what they delivered is so....bland and ordinary. You cited Aerosmith - another REALLY sad case. Even the guys in the band are somewhat disgusted by their last few albums. (Brad Whitford, Tom Hamilton, and Joey Kramer - but where are they gonna go when Steven Tyler and Joe Perry are the stars? They aren't exactly in a position to change musical direction for the band, and they aren't about to quit.)

I'm in my mid 30's, and I will never mellow out enough to enjoy X. OK, so I do like a couple of the songs - but just a couple. The album is ordinary pop-rock. Middle of the road.

X is not as good as Hysteria (which is almost as "pop" as X), and that was another album that saw the band mellow out quite a bit. The big differences are that the songs on Hysteria were brilliant (whereas the songs on X are pretty average/ordinary), and the "drums" on Hysteria at least sounded like something that Rick Allen would have played - on X the "drums" are cleary a machine, and programmed for the wrong style of music.

If you like X, that's great.

I'm just saying that old time Lep fans will probably be disgusted with the album (and by old time, I mean fans who were on board when Pyromania first came out).

It's an OK album for what it is - but that has nothing to do with the band that I fell in love with in 1982. There are plenty of other bands that I fell in love with back in the early to mid 80's that still play similar music to what they played then.

I hold Def Leppard to the same standards that I do any other band (although as good as they were on their first 4 albums I should hold them to higher standards). If you're gonna mellow out at least make sure that the material is better than what you did before to justify it.

But, like I said - if you like X, then that's great for you. It just doesn't do anything for me.

And why not compare X to previous Leppard albums?

Each new album by The Who was always compared to Who's Next.

Each new AC/DC album was always compared to Back In Black.

Each new Springsteen album was always compared to Born To Run.

It's part of Rock and Roll - a band/artist is always compared to their own best work. That's just the way it is. Is it always fair? No. At least I'm not comparing X to Who's Next!

I've been a Def Leppard fan for 20 years, and I'm just very disappointed in the new album - especially when compared to their own previous work.

I mean, you just can't justify dance-pop sequenced drum machines on a Def Leppard album. Drum machines on a Lep album? Sure, it goes back to Pyromania. But as I said, at least in the past the drums sounded like what Rick Allen would have played (and, truth be told, they probably could have used Rick Allen and had the albums be just as good - with the exception of Hysteria since he hadn't adjusted to being a one-armed drummer yet).

Since I'm still waiting for my copy to arrive, I can't comment on how X stands up. I do have to say, thank you for bringing up UFO. Easily one of the greatest Hard Rock bands of all time (the 30 or so albums and boots I have readily attests to that), but sadly a group that everybody seems to have forgotten. Just proves that you have impeccable taste :) No wonder I'm always listening to your program.

BTW, how about a little "Love to Love" on the next edition :)

Mordred

RE: b-sides
 

CORRECTION:

PHIL sings Stay With Me
JOE sings Rebel, Rebel

samples posted at
Stay With Me
Rebel Rebel

I understand bands grow and change or even they so call "sell out" which we started seeing with Hysteria. This one, they just didn't sell out, they're more like cheap one dollar whore now who have been raped. Sorry to be so blunt. I grew up on Def Leppard. I think it's great for a band to grow and expand but to just walk away from your roots so you have a chance to sell more albums is not cool to your long time fans. In fact, I think this move is going to severly back fire on them. First of all, when everyone thinks Def Leppard, we think hard rock or even heavy metal band. We don't think of a pop or soft rock band. They're not going to appeal to their long term fans and the people who listen to the genre they are trying to break into now, most likely won't give them a chance. Just had to throw my two cents in.

I'd love to play "Love To Love," (another song that was a big influence on Leppard) - but I don't think many of my listeners would appreciate it much more than they would the new Def Lep album.

BUT, I am going to get the NEW UFO CD, Sharks, as soon as I can, and I will play a couple songs from that album on the show.

And I'll play some classic Def Leppard, too!

By the way, I think that SOME of the people who got into Def Leppard after Hysteria came out may like X, but those who were into the band PRIOR to Hysteria will hate it. For the most part....

Just picked this up today because I HAD to hear it. I've listened to it twice tonight. I'm not going to be as harsh as some of the comments I've skimmed through here, but it's just waaaaay too mellow for my tastes. Their harmonies are as beautiful as ever, but the songs all just start running together with similar tempos.

I've followed Def Lep since "On Through the Night", and I still love "Wasted" and "Rock Brigade" the best. It was just so raw. They've had a lot of good songs since, but this one is a bit like listening to an older boy band. :rolleyes: That said, I'm still glad they're around and recording.

http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/com...5E2902,00.html

Forever burdened with the "metal" tag, Elliott insists their genre is rock/pop.

"We've always wanted to mix it up a lot more, like Queen, or the Beach Boys even, which means you're moving further away from the metal fraternity," he says.

"The rock fraternity is a lot more fun, so people are then comparing you with the Stones, Oasis and the Kinks, rather than Metallica and (Iron) Maiden, which we don't really have much of a kinship with, musically.

"I play soccer with these (Iron Maiden) guys and I love them as people, but we certainly don't have, musically, much of a connection."

So, GuessWho...

What do you think of X now that you've had it for a few days? Favorite tracks? Ones you don't like?

I find I'm liking it more everytime I listen to it (plus I just watched Behind the Music - Def Leppard again today on VH1 which has gotten me pumped up to throw in the older discs).

-exConn

I can't believe that I beat GuessWho to this... According to the DL website, X debuted at #11 on the Billboard album chart. Pretty sweet, hopefully they can hold on for a while.

I must say that it is really growing on me and I find myself singing a few of the songs around the house. I don't know if I would have picked Now as the first single though. Your thoughts?

Same here. At first, I didn't think much of it, but it's growing on me. A few nicely melodic tunes. I like Long, Long Way to Go. As for the single, I would have chosen You're So Beautiful or 4 Letter Word.

As of right now, I consider Long, Long Way to Go the best song on the CD. 4 Letter Word would have been a great choice for 1st single IMO as it is stuck in my head right now. I would guess this is earmarked for later though...

Re: RE: b-sides
 

Seriously.
I stumble into the music forum and I find this. Seriously.
;)
mini

I personally like "Now" as the first single -- probably my favorite at the moment.

I like Scar a lot. It reminds me more of the Pyromania/Hysteria era.

Why is it when any old school Leppard fans want the Leps to play more aggressive and energetic music we see/hear apologists say stuff like, "Well, they aren't a Heavy Metal band, and they don't really have anything musically in common with bands like Iron Maiden and Metallica."

No kidding.

But they DO have LOTS in common with UFO, Thin Lizzy, Led Zeppelin, Bad Company, AC/DC, etc, etc, etc.

At least they DID. Not anymore.

NONE of those bands are considered "Heavy Metal" bands. They are Hard Rock - melodic rock songs with good strong melodies and hooks that are played with a real edge. Power/energy/melody.

If the guys in Leppard want to compare themselves to the Beach Boys, then that's fine. It's wrong (it's an absurd comparison when you listen to the any of their albums through Euphoria), but if Joe and the rest of them want to be that type of band, then so be it.

They can just count fans like me out. And, trust me, there were MILLIONS of fans BEFORE Hysteria came out, and most of them will not like Leppard's new direction.

Spinal Tap's bold new direction, anyone? (Jazz Odyssey...)



(I know, I'm a bitter, disenfranchised Leppard fan - but I've been a fan for over 20 years, so I think I've got a right to gripe about the new album...)

ROLLING STONE MAGAZINE GIVES "X" FAVORABLE REVIEW, 3 STARS

Eighties pop-metal gods pair with Swedish master producer. Do not try to resist Acouple of years ago, a band named Bon Jovi put out an album called Crush that was intended merely to promote some live shows overseas and pay off a few mullet-replacement-surgery bills. Instead, the recording became their first American hit in years, thanks to the single co-written by Swedish popmeister Max Martin, "It's My Life." Naturally, their fellow Eighties hair-bangers sat up and took notice. So X is Def Leppard's own version of Crush, complete with a Martin power ballad: a big fat Swedish meatball called "Unbelievable." But since the Lepsters always had catchier beats and craftier tunes than the metal competition, they adapt to global pop with their signature sound intact, and X may be their niftiest since Adrenalize. You've heard it before: "Four Letter Word" and "Everyday" shamelessly rip "Photograph," "Torn to Shreds" revamps "Hysteria," and "You're So Beautiful" sounds exactly like "Animal." But what the hell -- "Animal" deserved to chart a lot higher than Number Nineteen back in 1987, and it will only be cosmic hair-metal justice if Def Lep score a comeback hit with this one.
ROB SHEFFIELD
(RS 904 - September 5, 2002)

AUTOGRAPHED CD COVER ARRIVED TODAY!!!

Check your mailboxes if you were expecting one!

Damn, I'm still waiting. I called Walmart and they don't know jacksh*t.