JOE ELLIOTT AT HIS BEST AS DEF LEPPARD TOOK TWO STEPS BEHIND

DEF LEPPARD are renowned as being the quinessential practitioners of stained glass, crystal clear soft metal and melodic hard rock, their albums HIGH AND DRY, PYROMANIA, HYSTERIA, ADRENALIZE and EUPHORIA all bearing the hallmarks of studio precision, but rarely allowing the band's lead singer JOE ELLIOTT to prove he could really sing. When the band ventured out briefly in the mid 90`s on an alternative rock tangent to record the album SLANG, the traditional DEF LEPPARD melodies were missing, the fans disowned it, and the band reverted back to the ADRENALIZE formula for EUPHORIA. Yes SLANG was a contrived album recorded at a time when melodic rock was about as cool as safari suits, the bootleg album RETROACTIVE, which was released the year after ADRENALIZE, was a much better attempt by DEF LEPPARD to deviate away from their chartbusting 80`s sound to dabble in a few musical styles that would have been completely out of place on previous albums. Listening to SLANG gives me a headache, on the other hand i have really come to like a few songs off RETROACTIVE, ones i didn't particularly like around the time of its release in 1993. The standout track for me is the acoustic version of TWO STEPS BEHIND, a song that displays the egg cracking fragility of Joe Elliott's voice, but sung with warmth and sincerity not possible within the band's standard format. The album also features an electric version of the song. MISS YOU IN A HEARTBEAT is also another stripped down ballad which goes one better than TWO STEPS BEHIND, there are three alternative versions of it, including a gem piano based one. The album is a tweaked collection of outtakes, it is not an album of new recordings, and the songs on it were recorded anytime between 1984 and 1992. Some of the rockier tunes sound a bit too try hard, thus explaining probaly why they didn't make it onto the band's 80`s albums and were recycled on RETROACTIVE. I'll let you go digging for those songs if you like, the main point of me writing this blog was to showcase JOE ELLIOTT actually singing a song and not shouting one. Up until now i have thrown brickbats at him and his ability as a singer, but in an acoustic setting, the guy has proven he can sing better than JUSTIN BIEBER - only just (laugh).