The album begins with "Rock Rock ('Til You Drop). The influence of Aerosmith on the band is immediately apparent, and it is easy to see why some lesser informed believe that the band is actually American rather than British. But this is pure 1980s, the rawness of 70s Aerosmith is gone in favor of very digital sounding drums, vocals, and instruments. And that is one of my major issues with this album, far too glossy and thin sounding. Not a bad song, but pretty repetitive and dull. Also the bridge seems to exist in isolation, not really going anywhere, just floating in between the verse and chorus. Snooze.......Next is the ultra-popular hit "Photograph". By any means a decent song, it is the epitome of the "pop metal" sound that would dominate the remainder of the decade. I don't think the song needed as many effects as it had applied to it, but it is easy to ignore the overdone production as the song is actually quite good, and one of my favorite Leppard songs. "Stagefright" comes next. A weird song, it balances between a very heavy, chugging verse, and a very pop-like chorus. Also, it tries to replicate the feel of a crowd by adding fake audience noises. Never a fan of Joe Elliott's "screaming" vocals, I prefer his voice cleaner. Like Tom Keifer from Cinderella, his voice can only be taken in small doses, and I start to feel my nerves grating after the third song. Not a bad song, but not really a stand-out track.
"Too Late for Love" begins with some desolate, sweeping synths, and western-style guitars. Solid drumming from "one-arm bandit" "Rick Savage" is quite good, and its easy to see why Leppard kept him despite his disability, a very good drummer. But the song suffers especially from the over-production of Mutt Lange, too many things and effects going on in the song, almost distorted. Solos are also quite good, but a fairly average track. "Die Hard the Hunter" is my least favorite track on the album. Telling the tale of a shattered soldier, the song's lyrics don't seem to match the instrumentation, which is very bluesy and upbeat. Perplexing, like combining Metallica's "One" with Bon Jovi's "Livin on a Prayer", it just doesn't work for me. Also, the guitars are thickly layered with echo, chorus, and other effects, far too thin and digital. "Foolin'" was another big hit from this massive album. Elliott's verse vocals are quite nice and smooth, avoiding the grunting he is so prone to doing. The chorus far underwhelms however, and lacks the impact of songs such as "Photograph". Not for me, it lacks the grandiosity of most of the other hits on the album.
"Rock of Ages"is one of the most famous songs by the band. I really don't mind it all that much, but is a huge, bloated mess of a song sonically speaking. Layers and layers of instruments and effects make it like a dense soup of digital crap. The synths are totally unnecessary, and take away from any edge the song may have had. Not a bad song, but terrible produced, even for the mechanical 1980s. "Comin' Under Fire" reminds of the band's earlier, heavier days.Easily the best song on the album, it's pretty heavy riff-wise, and features some killer guitar work from Phil Collen and the late Steve Clark. Very catchy, a perfect stadium rock song, very large sounding. "Action! Not Words" takes the music back to a bluesy direction. Clearly about sex, especially making a sex video, the song is fairly sleazy, but that's par for the course for 1980s "metal". The first solo is somewhat strange, being in a middle-eastern type key, but it doesn't detract as it's pretty fast. Pretty shallow lyrically, but it's not a bad song, just fairly standard sounding. "Lastly, "Billy's Got a Gun" comes on the wax (I use vinyl, mostly). Another macabre song with poppy instrumentation, it shows that almost ever song Leppard writes is basically a pop song wrapped in rock clothing. Again, not a bad song, but odd matched lyrics and music come to play again. Also, the keyboards are way too "upfront" in the mix, they overpower the rest of the instruments, the song sounds muddled. Not a bad song, but pretty disjointed sounding, the tracks were clearly recorded over a long amount of time, like a patchwork of sounds developed in band meetings throughout the long production of this album.
I really don't know why this album became such a hit. Less than stellar songwriting and production really can't save this album for me. Leppard's first two albums are a far better choice for hard rock/metal fans, I would even argue that their 1990s output is mostly better. But, the album is a product of its vintage. Like the 1980s themselves, bigger was usually better. And this album is certainly big sounding. Meh....
Rating-5.5/10
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