When
bands choose to release an album of cover versions it can mean one of three things
- they've run out of music ideas themselves, their career is in free fall and
they desperately need to release material the listening public will recognise
or they've got enough talent to reinvent classics in a new and exciting way. Take
a listen to the free CD with the latest Q magazine and you'll see how clever artists
can be. Even Sugababes give a new twist to the Arctic Monkeys. Sadly
Def Leppard have taken the easy route - straight cover versions…so straight
they hardly differ from the original. All of which begs the question - why bother? On
trips through The Kinks Waterloo Sunset, T-Rex 20th Century Boy, even The Sweet's,
Hell Raiser, every note is perfectly played, exactly like the original. One
can only assume Def Leppard have given up any hope of playing arenas again and
are releasing this album to give to working mens' club managers in the hope of
being booked for a tasty Friday or Saturday night gig. This
could have been very exciting, instead it's drab, predictable and worthless. i-Pod:
Rock On
Label: Mercury
Rating: 2/5 | 
