Artist: Def Leppard
Label: Frontiers Records
Release: 2011
Runtime: 119:16
Rating: 4/5
FINALLY…the long-awaited live album from one of the best live bands on the planet has seen the light of day. We’re talking about the legendary Brits, Def Leppard, of course. Seeing as I’m a longtime Leppard fan, this review is going to be pretty fanboyish, but no worries. After all the gigs I’ve been to and all the albums I’ve bought, I’ll definitely try to stay objectively critical.
After more than 30 years of career, two tragedies and countless shows played, the boys have finally “found the courage” to put out a live album, which they titled Mirrorball (Live & More).
Mirrorball was recorded at various shows on the Songs From The Sparkle Lounge tour in 2008 and 2009. Even though it pulls together recordings from different gigs, the album works as a convincing whole, like a single show, which is of course one of the goals of a live album.
To kick things off, Rock! Rock! (Till You Drop) absolutely scorches. I was pleasantly surprised by how good Joe’s vocals sound. Age spares absolutely nobody, and Elliott deserves all the praise. He’s clearly been “working” on his voice in recent years, because it no longer sounds as strained as it did even a few years ago. He can still scream like he’s supposed to! A bit of help from an echo effect here and there is something you definitely can’t hold against him. Next up is Rocket. A few tours back the boys were playing a somewhat longer version, but this one is pretty good too and works nicely as a lead-in to the next track, Animal, one of the biggest hits of their career. After that come more hits, bigger, smaller, older and newer, giving a cross-section of the whole career.
True, I could easily do without certain tracks (Make Love Like A Man, Nine Lives and Rock On) and slot in Gods Of War instead (which, sadly, they didn’t play at all on this tour). I also wouldn’t mind hearing the last big hit in the UK – When Love & Hate Collide – or, say, Billy’s Got A Gun from Pyromania, but those are just utopian fan wishes.
I have to touch on Vivian Campbell’s playing too. After 20 years I still think that, musically, he simply doesn’t belong in this band. He may have been an excellent guitarist with Dio, but with Leppard he definitely isn’t. I don’t feel any real riffing from him, and I don’t hear it all that often either. Sadly. There are rare moments where I catch him the way I should, but he’s not convincing. It feels like he’s playing with the handbrake on, and his guitar tone is stifled. As if the band were afraid of sounding more rock.
As a big fan I might have wished for a different selection of songs, but I understand and accept their decision to release a live set of their biggest hits. Still, towards the end of the album the boys pleasantly surprise me, since they added two bonus tracks, Action and Bad Actress. And what do you know! Both tracks are from the club gig in London (May 6, 2008), where the boys presented the album Songs From The Sparkle Lounge and where I was actually present. So a big wish of a lifetime came true: a band I love has officially released at least one song from a show I physically attended.
Right at the end of the second disc you’ll find three brand-new studio tracks: Undefeated, Kings Of The World and It’s All About Believin’. Undefeated is a typical Leppard rocker, reminiscent of Pour Some Sugar On Me. It’s certainly not bad, but then again, at least to me, it’s nothing special. Kings Of The World is Def Leppard doing Queen. With this track they’ve ticked off quite a few of their fans, who accuse them of losing their identity and sounding too much like Queen. Considering what a huge Queen fan the song’s author Rick Savage is, it seems totally natural that he wrote a follow-up to the track Love from the last studio album. Personally I have no problem with it at all, the song sounds great, and I definitely think it’s better than Undefeated. And what to say about It’s All About Believin’? One word is enough: EXCELLENT.
The DVD includes a 50-minute documentary about the tour. A bunch of interesting and fun behind-the-scenes footage from the Sparkle Lounge tour, plus some live footage from the 2009 Download festival, where the boys were headliners.
Taken as a whole, this digipak package (2xCD+1DVD) is great value for money and well worth buying. It’s great news that they also looked after the vinyl maniacs, since vinyl releases are more the exception than the rule with Leppard. The last vinyl album they put out was way back in 1996 (Slang), for example. Frontiers Records (Def Leppard’s new distributor in the EU) also released a triple vinyl edition of this album on July 1, to the great delight of longtime fans.
Lineup
Joe Elliott – vocals
Rick “Sav” Savage – bass guitar, vocals
Rick Allen – drums
Phil Collen – guitar, vocals
Vivian Campbell – guitar, vocals
Production
Def Leppard & Ronan McHugh
Track List
CD 1:
01. Rock! Rock! (Till You Drop)
02. Rocket
03. Animal
04. C’Mon C’Mon
05. Make Love Like A Man
06. Too Late For Love
07. Foolin’
08. Nine Lives
09. Love Bites
10. Rock On
CD 2:
01. Two Steps Behind
02. Bringin’ On The Heartbreak
03. Switch 625
04. Hysteria
05. Armageddon It
06. Photograph
07. Pour Some Sugar On Me
08. Rock Of Ages
09. Let’s Get Rocked
10. Action
11. Bad Actress
12. Undefeated (new studio track)
13. Kings Of The World (new studio track)
14. It’s All About Believin’ (new studio track)
