Customer Reviews

Retro-Active

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Not too long ago, Def Leppard was one of the most exciting bands in rock; they were popular AND talented, a dynamite combination of one part brain, one part heart, and one part libido, that mixed up one of the best formulas around. Unfortunately, critics started blaming them for just that - "The Formula." Then, in recent years, as they've been trying to fight their way out of "The Formula" label, fewer people have been noticing/caring, and critics that DO notice make sure to slam them for trying to be something they are not. Alas, in the case of Def Leppard, I DO agree with that unfortunate claim.

Regardless of what type of person you are, Leppard Hater, Leppard Lover, Leppard "They [stunk] since Hysteria" -er, Leppard "I stumbled on this page by accident" -er, or other - er -, if you, like me, wish the real Def Leppard would please stand up, buy Retro Active and prepare to get more of your 15 bucks worth than you have in awhile. It's been a decade since this last great Def Leppard Album, but a decade isn't as much as one might think, given it would take another quick decade after this to go back to their Pyromania days. And the bottom line is that, not so long ago, they really were on a role, musically speaking. I can't believe how much I almost forgot how much I loved this band till I threw this on the stereo a few weeks ago - and subsequently haven't been able to stop listening to it. "X" really is a bad album, so bad, it brainwashed me into temporarily losing too much respect for the band. It's hard for me to tell if they really have always been a little too money hungry, but regardless, if you like good music, let's put everything aside and proclaim the wonderful evolutionary direction the band was going in the early 90's, with the wonderful succession of Pyromania to Hysteria to Adrenalize to ironically, a "retro" album.

Without giving it all away, here's a quick runthrough of the wonderfully long (did I mention you get your money's worth) and successfully diverse (keyword - SUCCESSFULLY) song roster. "Desert Song" took awhile to grow on me, but once it did, I woke up to the AMAZING guitar solos -- they were showing signs of prog with their choices of scale usages and rhythmic motives! And they STILL managed to be catchy. I wish they would have taken that idea and made all of their subsequent music with that in mind. "Fractured Love" has highly effective percussive elements while still keeping a shoutalong chorus (think the next logical step after "Rocket"). The way they covered "Action" really blows me away, as I wish their own writing was as experimental yet quality filled as those that influenced them. There are the hits "Two Steps Behind" and "Miss You in a Heartbeat", both with acoustic and electric versions. The latter has a piano/vocal version also.

Personally, the electric version of "Two Steps Behind" is one of their best all time moments, it just takes me to another world. Fans of the "Leppard Layering technique" - with guitars upon guitars and vocals upon vocals - will not be disappointed. Joe Elliot plays some cool (albeit inexcusably short) boogie woogie piano as the intro to a revision of one of their earliest songs ("Ride into the Sun"), and REALLY hits the jackpot with the gutwrenchingly highly artistic collaboration with the Hothouse Flowers ("From the Inside"). The marriage of music to lyrics here is supreme. The driving d minor riff to "Ring of Fire" will have you hypnotized into playing it yourself for hours on end, and "I wanna be your hero" and "She's Too Tough" are way too strong to merely exist as B Sides.

I could go on forever, but I believe my point is made. Who REALLY is Def Leppard? It's always controversial to answer a question like that with one particular album, released, years ago, and ESPECIALLY when the answer isn't "Hysteria." And in fact, it's not that it's not "Hysteria". Again, "Retro Active" is a collection of all sorts of various material, much of which was originally given birth along with that landmark album from 1987.

Bottom line: THIS is why today's rock music is inexcusable. It (including Leppard) has only gotten worse since then, and with an album like this, there really is something here for everyone. Why aren't today's bands feeling more of a kick in the [rear]? It's because not even the record companies think that music is in a lot of trouble.

If you feel the same way, email me.

I have never been disappointed with a Def Leppard and this album is no exception. Two Steps Behind is a beautifully crafted ballad and was included on the Last Action Hero soundtrack. Miss You In A Heartbeat is a great song. I WANNA BE HERO is another of my favorite songs from this album. Def Leppard delivers on this album. Retro Active is an excellent collection and every Def Leppard fan should have this album!!

While Def Leppard had an an "official" album a year earlier, Adrenalise, it was lacking they very important songwriting influence of Steve Clark due to his passing a year earlier, and as a result the focus was lacking, and also the result was dramatically overproduced.

While these were outakes and unfinshed tracks, the results here were dramatically differnt. Here Clarks influence in songwriting and his actual guitar tracks were present. Also, the production here was their most stripped down since High and Dry, the result is a solid album full of rockers and a couple of high quality ballads.

Not to say the album doesnt have a couple of duds, such as the cover of Mick Ronsons Only After Dark, plus the electric versions of Miss you in a heartbeat and Two steps behind, but otherwise this is a top shelf effort. The real shame here is this album was not released 3 or even 2 years earlier than it was, it would have topped the charts for months and sold millions of copies, but it came out in 93, 2 years after Nirvana hit. None the less any fan of 80s style hard rock, a era that emerged with Van Halens debut in 78 should get this CD, it was a fun 15 years, and this album is a fitting end.

[The reason I am being so critical here is because I'm a Def Leppard fan.]

When Def Leppard reached the nineties, things weren't what they used to be. Guitarist Steve Clark had died at the beginning of the new decade, and the band recruited replacement Vivian Campbell (previosuly of Sweet Savage, Dio, and Whitesnake). The band wasn't ready to record a full-blown album with Campbell yet, but at the same time they didn't want to keep their fans waiting. Accordingly, in 1993, the band released a collection of B-Sides - Retro Active. Read on for my review.

PROS:
-If you're the Def Leppard die-hard who wants those hard-to-find B-Sides from the Hysteria era, you've come to the right place! There is no shortage of rare material here.
-The version of Ride Into The Sun (2-2) featured here features an opening piano solo by ex-Mott The Hoople vocalist Ian Hunter!
-These tracks have received some remixing and revamping so they sound better than ever (for example, the acoustic version of Two Steps Behind now has a string arrangement - done by the one and only Michael Kamen!).
-For two of the tracks, Miss You In A Heartbeat and Two Steps Behind, you get acoustic AND ELECTRIC versions! Don't overlook the less popular electric versions; they're better than their well-known acoustic counterparts.
-There is a hidden bonus track - an all-piano version of Miss You In A Heartbeat (wait for a while after the last listed track ends (god, I hate Nirvana for starting that trend... but I DO like their music.))
-Honestly, is it humanly possible NOT to like the cover of this compilation?

CONS:
-This set is a wasted opportunity, plain and simple, because there are NO TRACKS FROM THE PETE WILLIS PERIOD! That means no Def Leppard EP tracks, no early demos, no B-Sides from the era, and so on.
-The recordings of these tracks have been ALTERED. Sure, you may say "these sound better than ever now", but THEY AREN'T THE ORIGINAL VERSIONS! It's almost like the band did to their songs what Phil Spector did to the Beatles album Let It Be - and you know what a controversy that's been over the years.

OVERALL:
If you're a die-hard Def Leppard fan or completist, this is a compilation worth owning. Just be warned, these AREN'T THE ORIGINAL VERSIONS, and THE BAND HASN'T RELEASED THE RARE TRACKS FROM ITS EARLY DAYS ON CD YET. If the members of Def Leppard are reading this, you need to put out a Retro Active Volume Two, featuring those rare early tracks, and the original versions of everything on here! Final verdict? This is a good compilation, but I only recommend it to Def Leppard die-hards.

Very good album, unfortunitly it gets overlooked. If you like the Steve Clark era of Def Leppard you'll like this album.

Despite bad reviews, I like this cd. I like it better than adrenalize for sure. One of my favs. is there cover of "Action" the sweet classic.

Not too long ago, Def Leppard was one of the most exciting bands in rock; they were popular AND talented, a dynamite combination of one part brain, one part heart, and one part libido, that mixed up one of the best formulas around. Unfortunately, critics started blaming them for just that - "The Formula." Then, in recent years, as they've been trying to fight their way out of "The Formula" label, fewer people have been noticing/caring, and critics that DO notice make sure to slam them for trying to be something they are not. Alas, in the case of Def Leppard, I DO agree with that unfortunate claim.
Regardless of what type of person you are, Leppard Hater, Leppard Lover, Leppard "They [stunk] since Hysteria" -er, Leppard "I stumbled on this page by accident" -er, or other - er -, if you, like me, wish the real Def Leppard would please stand up, buy Retro Active and prepare to get more of your 15 bucks worth than you have in awhile. It's been a decade since this last great Def Leppard Album, but a decade isn't as much as one might think, given it would take another quick decade after this to go back to their Pyromania days. And the bottom line is that, not so long ago, they really were on a role, musically speaking. I can't believe how much I almost forgot how much I loved this band till I threw this on the stereo a few weeks ago - and subsequently haven't been able to stop listening to it. "X" really is a bad album, so bad, it brainwashed me into temporarily losing too much respect for the band. It's hard for me to tell if they really have always been a little too money hungry, but regardless, if you like good music, let's put everything aside and proclaim the wonderful evolutionary direction the band was going in the early 90's, with the wonderful succession of Pyromania to Hysteria to Adrenalize to ironically, a "retro" album.
Without giving it all away, here's a quick runthrough of the wonderfully long (did I mention you get your money's worth) and successfully diverse (keyword - SUCCESSFULLY) song roster. "Desert Song" took awhile to grow on me, but once it did, I woke up to the AMAZING guitar solos -- they were showing signs of prog with their choices of scale usages and rhythmic motives! And they STILL managed to be catchy. I wish they would have taken that idea and made all of their subsequent music with that in mind. "Fractured Love" has highly effective percussive elements while still keeping a shoutalong chorus (think the next logical step after "Rocket"). The way they covered "Action" really blows me away, as I wish their own writing was as experimental yet quality filled as those that influenced them. There are the hits "Two Steps Behind" and "Miss You in a Heartbeat", both with acoustic and electric versions. The latter has a piano/vocal version also.
Personally, the electric version of "Two Steps Behind" is one of their best all time moments, it just takes me to another world. Fans of the "Leppard Layering technique" - with guitars upon guitars and vocals upon vocals - will not be disappointed. Joe Elliot plays some cool (albeit inexcusably short) boogie woogie piano as the intro to a revision of one of their earliest songs ("Ride into the Sun"), and REALLY hits the jackpot with the gutwrenchingly highly artistic collaboration with the Hothouse Flowers ("From the Inside"). The marriage of music to lyrics here is supreme. The driving d minor riff to "Ring of Fire" will have you hypnotized into playing it yourself for hours on end, and "I wanna be your hero" and "She's Too Tough" are way too strong to merely exist as B Sides.
I could go on forever, but I believe my point is made. Who REALLY is Def Leppard? It's always controversial to answer a question like that with one particular album, released, years ago, and ESPECIALLY when the answer isn't "Hysteria." And in fact, it's not that it's not. Again, "Retro Active" is a collection of all sorts of various material, much of which was originally given birth along with the that landmark album from 1987.

Bottom line: THIS is why today's rock music is inexcusable. It (including Leppard) has only gotten worse since then, and with an album like this, there really is something here for everyone. There has been since 1993. Why aren't today's bands feeling more of a kick in the [rear]? It's because not even the record companies know that music is in a lot of trouble.

If I hadn't read it here I wouldn't have believed that this was an album of B-sides. If so, this has to be the best album of B-sides that I've ever heard. You must listen to this one if you like Def Leppard. My favorite is Fractured Love. About half the songs, maybe a bit more, are ballads and other laid back fare. I think it has a pretty sophisticated sound. Many of the tracks have acoutics guitars or instruments other than electric guitars, which I think is a nice touch.

The album cover is great. One of the few that I actually look at. No skull, it is a clever optical illusion of a woman sitting in front of a mirror.

Retro active, Def Leppard's compilation album of B-sides totally rocks, the songs are really heavy and the ballads are perfect, Desert song is an awesome opening song with an amazing guitar solo by Steve Clark and cool chorus, the song mostly tells a story about a person trapped in the desert. Fracured love the second song starts off soft but then gets really heavy, really cool song. Action is a song by a band called Sweet and leppard did a cover version and the song really stands out. Two Steps Behind is a really nice acoustic ballad that makes you want to sing along with the chorus. She's Too Tough is another song the band covered and is a fast rocker. Miss u In a Heartbeat is another really nice piano ballad and there is 3 versions of it on the album, GOD WHY SO MUCH!. Only After Dark is another cover song the band did, originally recorded by Mick Ronson it is a catchy melodic song. Ride into the Sun is a epic tune on the album, it was the first song the band ever committed to vinyl on their first ep, all they did was change some of the lyrics,but a really hard driving rock song. From the inside is a folky ballad telling about the pitfalls of herione use, probably the softest song on the album. Ring of fire is a cool heavy rock song with a really awesome guitar riff, (I wonder if the band got the title from Johny Cash?) I Wanna Be Your Hero is a ballad and a rock song mixed in one, alot like Too Late For Love. The last two songs on the album are electric versions of Two Steps Behind and Miss u in a heartbeat,both sound great. Listen for the piano only version of Miss U In a Heartbeat stuck at the very end.

This was an excellent experiment and throwback to the glory days of their beginnings. Desert Song is a driving and anthemic beginning and Two Steps Behind and Miss You In A Heartbeat are the familiar sounding and up to date ballads. Only After Dark is a funky, kind of bluesy, just plain fun number. Action! is a great song, just straight up fast and hard rock 'n' roll. It's more of the no nonsense Def Leppard from the beginning, just a little bit later in thier careers. It's really good and it's true to their classic style, great addition to a Def Leppard fan's collection or any fan of rock'n' roll for that matter.