#Def leppard high n dry series#

Joe Elliott’s vocals are a bit rougher and less smooth in the delivery, though that’s not really a criticism, I like his vocals regardless of style. Instead, the sound of the music feels a bit raw and definitely has more of an edgy vibe at times.

Even with Mutt Lange as the producer for this album, they hadn’t quite streamlined the sound you would grow familiar with on both Pyromania and then Hysteria. The one thing I keyed in on first was that for all the complaining fans of the first two albums do about how Def Leppard changed their sound, they aren’t exactly wrong about that. Of course they aren’t but it has been a while since I last checked out the album. Well, I have to say that listening to the High ‘n’ Dry album for this article, I got a chance to dig into the tracks almost like they were new. So by now, you might be wondering what I think of the songs themselves. Oh, and according to the album’s Wikipedia page, the remixes were done to make the songs sound more like the material on the Pyromania album. In fact, they weren’t restored to the High ‘n’ Dry album until 2018. “Me & My Wine” closes out Side One while the remix of “Bringin’ On The Heartbreak” opens Side Two of the cassette.īut, here’s twist…remember I mentioned that CD edition I bought recently? Well, when the album got its original release in that format, the two bonus tracks were dropped from the album. Unlike bonus track releases these days, where the extras are at the end of the album, these two tracks are mixed in the main part of the release. The other bonus track is for the 1981 B-side track “Me & My Wine”. Both tracks are remixes, the first being for the High ‘n’ Dry classic track “Bringin’ On The Heartbreak”. What’s the difference? Well the newer version has two bonus tracks on it. Instead, I have the version that was re-released in 1984. And I was surprised to realize that my cassette edition is not the original 1981 release. Now that I was surely going to write about it, I had to look some stuff up. Yes, I own the cassette copy of the album and had never upgraded until just recently. So the fuse was lit to pull the High ‘n’ Dry album out of my personal collection and give it a listen for this series.īut the deciding factor in writing about the album this week was actually me stumbling over a CD edition of the album at my friend’s record shop. But I do like the first two Def Leppard albums, even if I admittedly don’t listen to them quite as often as some other releases. Now, I tend to like most of the band’s releases, though there are some I have never particularly warmed to.

Those latter fans have seemingly never gotten over the band’s sound changing and evolving over the ensuing decades and every time Def Leppard releases a new album, they come out of the woodwork to insist the first two albums are the only ones worth listening to. In that review I mentioned how the band’s fan base somehow manages to break down between those who like everything (generally speaking) Def Leppard has done from Pyromania onward and those who think the band “died” after their first two albums. About three weeks ago (at the time this article is posted), I reviewed the new Def Leppard album Diamond Star Halos for another web site. It’s funny the things you learn when you are least expecting it. These opinions are strictly my own and do not reflect the views of anyone else at Limelight Magazine. There will be some review analysis and my own personal stories about my connection with various albums. Some of the albums I have known about and loved for years, while others are new to me and were music I’ve always wanted to hear.

#Def leppard high n dry series#

The aim of this series is to highlight both known and underappreciated albums from rock, pop and metal genres from this time period through the cassette editions of their releases. The Cassette Chronicles is a continuing series of mini reviews and reflections on albums from the 1980’s and 1990’s.