Songs From The Sparkle Lounge

Songs From The Sparkle Lounge
BAND RETURNS WITH BRAND NEW STUDIO ALBUM
"SONGS FROM THE SPARKLE LOUNGE"
SET FOR RELEASE ON APRIL 29

Album Release Kicks Off With U.S. Spring Concert Tour!

Album Contains 11 NEW Original Songs Including the Single
"Nine Lives" Featuring Tim McGraw

Def Leppard, Great Britain's premiere arena rock band, is back with a bang--kicking off 2008 with the release of their 14th studio album and a U.S. arena concert tour scheduled for this spring. Entitled Songs From The Sparkle Lounge (Bludgeon Riffola/Island/UMe), the album contains 11 new songs including the highly-anticipated single "Nine Lives" featuring a groundbreaking collaboration with country music superstar Tim McGraw. Songs From The Sparkle Lounge is Def Leppard's first album of brand new material since 2002's X and begins yet another remarkable new chapter in the band's 30-year recording career.

Recorded last year during month-long stints at lead singer Joe Elliott's Dublin studio, the album's title refers to a backstage area called "The Sparkle Lounge" on Def Leppard's 2006 tour where the band would go to write songs. Tracks from the album have been described by the group as written in the style of Hysteria, with the production of High 'n' Dry.

"The whole record's got a great '70s feel," said lead singer Joe Elliott. "By our standards, it's a very different album as we've been very adventurous, musically, on certain numbers. On the album there are classic Def Leppard songs and then there's also tracks that are very new-wave influenced while others sound like middle-to-late '70s AC/DC. There will definitely be some moments on it where anybody that's familiar with our music will go, 'Whoa! I wasn't expecting that!'"

The foundation for the album's collaboration with country music superstar Tim McGraw was layed at Def Leppard's 2006 Hollywood Bowl show where McGraw joined the band on stage for an encore performance of "Pour Some Sugar on Me." The artists stayed in touch following the performance, and when the band started writing the song "Nine Lives" they immediately thought of reaching out to McGraw to sing on it. Guitarist Phil Collen flew to Nashville to play it for McGraw who loved it and recorded the song in Nashville shortly after. Other standout tracks on the album include "Go," reminiscent of the band's classic track "Rocket" in its power and aggressive tribal beat; "Love," an emotive and moving epic song; and the anthemic "Tomorrow," a song written by guitarist Collen about the death of his father.

With more than 65 million albums sold worldwide and two prestigious Diamond Awards to their credit, Def Leppard--Joe Elliott (vocals), Vivian Campbell (guitar), Phil Collen (guitar), Rick "Sav" Savage (bass) and Rick Allen (drums)--continues to be one of the most important forces in rock music. Over the course of their career, the band has produced a series of classic groundbreaking albums that set the sound for generations of music fans and artists. The group's spectacular live shows, filled with powerful melodic rock anthems, have become synonymous with their name and they are an institution in the touring industry as they continue to sell out arenas worldwide.

Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 0602517660373
Label: Mercury
Manufacturer: Mercury
Number Of Discs: 1
Publisher: Mercury
Release Date: 2008-04-29
Studio: Mercury


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Spotlight customer reviews:
Customer Rating: Average rating of 4/5Average rating of 4/5Average rating of 4/5Average rating of 4/5Average rating of 4/5
Summary: Progressing towards ..... Slang
Comment: Now this is a good thing. Slang IMHO is DL best album. They should have stayed on that road. Problem for most of their fans was it was too much of a change from Adrenalized. So they freak out a bit and went back to Adrenalize with Euphoria. A good ablum that should have followed Adrenalized, then X and then this album and then Slang. Just my opinion.
Customer Rating: Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5
Summary: Sparkle Lounge sparkles
Comment: Great new album - really love the songs!!! Much better than the last one..
Customer Rating: Average rating of 2/5Average rating of 2/5Average rating of 2/5Average rating of 2/5Average rating of 2/5
Summary: Doesn't quite work for me
Comment: This album has kind of a Euphoria sound to me. If you can imagine that album with the worst in some cases God awful songs not being as bad and the good songs not being as good then you have this one.

Go 8/10 - My favorite song on the album. It doesn't quite reach classic status, but it's good none the less. It's kind of an anthemic rocker. It's a mid tempo song with a thunderous beat.

Nine lives 4/10 No. Just no. I hate country and even though this isn't a country song I don't need a country singer in my music. The lyrics are also God awful. The music and vocal melodies are actually pretty good. With better lyrics and no country singer this could've been the best Leppard song since Paper sun or Demolition man.

Cmon cmon 6/10 It has a fun beat. Kinda up tempo. They use way too many Cmon's in the chorus though. I don't hear the Rocket comparison another reviewer mentioned.

Love 5/10 Some call this a ballad and some don't. To me a song has to be poppy to be considered a ballad. Just because it's a slow song doesn't mean it's a ballad. I like the effort here. The acoustic guitars sound great. The whole song itself sounds kind of arty if that's a word. Unfortunately the chorus is kinda weak which makes this only an ok song for me.

Tomorrow 8/10 This is another of my favorites on the album. It has a great chorus and great vocals. It's a mid tempo softer song,

Cruise Control 7/10 I like the distorted bass sounding intro. It's kind of a mid tempo softer one. I like the vocals. The chorus isn't overly catchy, but its servicible.

Hallucinate 5/10 This one is kind of an upper mid tempo rocker. It's just missing something I can't put my finger on.

Only the Good Die Young 5?10 Starts off with some piano. I like the style of this one, but the lyrics in the chorus are a little too repedative, only the good die young crash into the sun. It's a little too much for my liking.

Bad actress 3/10 I feel similar to this one as I do to nine lives. It's a faster song, probably the fastest on the cd, but the lyrics are even worse. Solid music and good vocals, but that's about it.

Come undone 5/10 A slower sort of rocker I guess. This one just doesn't do it for me. Like Only the good, it's just missing something.

Gotta Let It Go 5/10 The album ends on a somewhat softer song, with a heavier chorus. The song does feel like it's trying to move somewhere, but the overly repedative chorus again ruins it for me.

Overall this is just a collection of ok songs mostly with a couple pretty good songs and a couple awful ones thrown in. Its the best thing they've done since Euphoria, but then again it doesn't have much competition, an ok covers cd and a terrible pop album and a whole lotta nothing which is probably the best thing they've done since Euphoria. The album does feel like they had fun recording it. It just didn't grab me as much as I would've liked.
Customer Rating: Average rating of 4/5Average rating of 4/5Average rating of 4/5Average rating of 4/5Average rating of 4/5
Summary: Interesting
Comment: Still excellent music, not quite as hard rock as I like from them, but still an wicked cd.
Customer Rating: Average rating of 4/5Average rating of 4/5Average rating of 4/5Average rating of 4/5Average rating of 4/5
Summary: Def Leppard is Back!
Comment: This is the first new Def Leppard album that I have picked up, in ages. I haven't been interested in any others, since Euphoria, to spend my money on them. A friend of mine recommended that I pick this one up. So, after listening to the music samples on Amazon and watching the video with Tim McGraw on VH1.com, I thought it was worth the $10 Amazon was charging for the CD. LOL! I was pleasantly surprised. I like most of the songs on the CD. Although, I absolutely hate the song "Love" and haven't been able to listen to that one all the way through. Overall, the CD is enjoyable. Def Leppard seem to have gone back to their "Hysteria" sound.
Buy it now at Amazon.com!