Click to Enlarge

Def Leppard will go down in history as one of the greatest rock bands of all time. At their height they were unmatchable in their brand of rock/pop tracks and even had the honour of conquering both sides of the Atlantic towards the end of their reign. Like most greats though they finally went by the way side and original work stopped.

Fans of the group remained faithful and were rewarded with highlight and greatest hits compilations but until The greatest hits album came out the other offerings were a little on the light side to be spending cash on.

One of the most pleasing points is the sheer variety of the tracks included in the compilation which stretch way back to their beginnings and is brought up-to-date with some of their recent works. Listening to the album while I write this review I can tell you that all the tracks are well known and there are no obscure b-side tracks being dredged out of oblivion to act as a filler. Possibly the only criticism is that the final track Bringing on the heartache seems to cut short the final guitar rift that I really enjoyed when the original track was released way back when. Saying this I guess you can’t please everyone!

In total there are 17 tracks of classic Def Leppard.

If there were any complaints about the album it would be that for every fan you will find that they would have chosen a few more greatest tracks to add into the album. Rather than being a bad point I think this highlights how many great tracks the group actually produced.

What the album does effectively is show the uninitiated what Def Leppard were all about and what rock was about in the 80’s and 90’s as these were some of the best years of rock and pop so far and this group where smack bang in the middle of the action.

As for a favourite I would have to go with ‘Rocket’ as a pure example of a greatest hit by Def Leppard. 

Add as favourite (44) | Quote this article on your site | Print | E-mail