Retro Active - Def Leppard (CD 1993)

Whereas their seventh album, Vault, was a collection of greatest hits from 1980 to 1995 (successfully rounding-out the first chapter of the band's as-of-then 16-year career), Def Leppard's sixth LP, Retro Active, is a collection of B-sides and unfinished song ideas from the Pyromania, Hysteria, and Adrenalize recording sessions. Released in 1993, it proved to be a very solid rock album, not only by the band's own traditional standards, but by itself in a heavily-dominated "grunge" market, as well.

It had been two years since the death of guitarist and close friend, Steve Clark (1961-1991), and the band had released their fifth official studio album, Adrenalize, without him. They had embarked on a world tour to support the new album, and were now ready to move on and put the past behind them. They had also had to face the grueling challenge of replacing Steve with another guitarist in the band, no matter how much they wanted to or not. No easy task, by any means...

But first, the Lepps were faced with a dilemma. Before any further musical progression could take place in the studio, they had to do something with all of the left-over material that Steve worked on with the band before his untimely death. This included both B-sides and demo tapes by the late guitarist, as well as many other musical ideas he had written with the band. So, in an effort to wipe the slate clean, Def Leppard compiled all the previously cut B-sides from their past albums, added the finishing touches, and Retro Active was the result.

Although it's a collection of songs which the band obviously thought weren't good enough to make the albums that they were written for, the material in Retro Active is surprisingly GOOD when compared to all their other albums. It rocks just as hard as High 'n' Dry did, with tracks like Desert Song and Ride Into the Sun being the primary examples. And yet, at the same time, the album sneaks up and soothes you with soft rock ballads like Miss You in a Heartbeat and Two Steps Behind, the type of songs that made them kings in their Hysteria heydays. The production of Retro Active, however, didn't seem to have the same quality of previous Def Leppard albums, mainly because infamous producer Mutt Lange didn't sit behind the controls this time to give it his "midas touch." Despite this little fallacy, however, the album still sounds GREAT, and kudos go to Def Leppard for producing an album that gives even Mutt Lange a run for his money.

I really have no problem with Retro Active at all. Being a Def Leppard fan, I was there in the music store the first day it came out to buy it, and naturally wore it out in my CD player a few months later. It's got a lot of musical diversity on it, with each song reminiscent of one of the band's other albums. From the Inside is an acoustic collaboration between Def Leppard and another group called The Hothouse Flowers, and fits just as good on this album as it would on Slang. She's Too Tough and I Wanna Be Your Hero are both rockin' tunes that would have fit perfectly on Adrenalize. There are also great covers of other artists, as well, such as Sweet's hard-hitting Action and the late Mick Ronson's Only After Dark.

But the real highlight of Retro Active, in my opinion, comes in the form of one song only --- the electric remix of Miss You in a Heartbeat. This is an intensely singable, great sounding ballad that first appeared as a B-side to Make Love Like a Man in 1992. I felt that the band just should have left this version of the song on the album, instead of making two other piano versions of it. Two Steps Behind suffers this same fate...why couldn't they have left just one version of each song on the album, and make room for other possible great B-sides?

Besides that flaw, Retro Active is an awesome album that deserves 4 stars from me. It showcases Def Leppard's uncanny ability to write both heavy metal and soft rock songs, and somehow make them successfully co-exist on the same record. Why some of these songs were cut from their intended albums, I'll never know. But Retro Active packs one heck of a big impact, one that you'll be feeling for years to come, and I highly recommend it to anyone. You won't be disappointed.


Track Listing:
1. Desert Song
2. Fractured Love
3. Action
4. Two Steps Behind (acoustic version)
5. She's Too Tough
6. Miss You in a Heartbeat
7. Only After Dark
8. Ride Into the Sun
9. From the Inside
10. Ring of Fire
11. I Wanna Be Your Hero
12. Miss You in a Heartbeat (electric version)
13. Two Steps Behind (electric version)


DEF LEPPARD REVIEWS:
Hysteria (1987)
Adrenalize (1992)