Yeah! (CD - 2006)

Riding a wave of renewed popularity that began with 2005's well-received ROCK OF AGES retrospective, Def Leppard released YEAH! the following year. Rather than issuing new original material, however, the U.K. group opted to record a set of songs by its late-1960s/early-'70s British (and, in one case, U.S.) rock precursors, effectively going back to its roots. As the lighthearted liner notes and humorous accompanying photos (featuring each band member inserted into a different classic album cover) indicate, frontman Joe Elliot and company clearly had a good time making this disc. While the ensemble offers up fairly straightforward versions of T. Rex's "20th Century Boy" and Blondie's "Hanging on the Telephone," David Essex's "Rock On" gets a bright, metallic facelift. Despite the absence of original material, the ensemble hasn't sounded this full of life since '87's smash HYSTERIA. minimize