The Leps look back forty years to a groundbreaker of a record. No serenade, no fire brigade, just the Pyromania.
Release Date: 26th April 2024
Label: UMC – Mercury
Format: 4-CD / Blu Ray Box, 1LP Half Speed Master, 2LP Black Vinyl, 2LP Coloured Vinyl (D2C Exclusive), 2CD and digital (phew)
To celebrate the 40th Anniversary of their iconic album Pyromania, Def Leppard do the deluxe expanded edition version of all things Pyro overseen by Joe Elliott who’s becoming established as the Leppard archivist and historian.
“A labour of love and I loved every minute of it !!….” he says about the project. “Rediscovering dusty old cassettes which were brilliantly restored and finding the long lost unfinished 11th track was a journey only few of us are lucky enough to take … what a trip !!”
Originally released in 1983 and given the first deluxe treatment a decade or so ago, Pyromania launched Def Leppard into rock legend status particularly in the USA. The album featured global hit singles Photograph, Rock! Rock! (Till You Drop) and Rock of Ages which are still staples of the live set and went on to achieve platinum status across the globe (including a # 2 chart entry in the USA). Although Pyromania was topped by Hysteria a few years and a few tragedies alter, it’s the album that broke the ice for Leppard and now comes in a remastered version that takes up the first CD.
The Mutt Lange factor set the template for what was to follow. The talent evident on their first two albums became a precise, polished and intricate that would culminate in Hysteria, as he refined the raw hard rock sound from the first two albums into the sound that Rick Savage always knew Def Leppard was about. Checking the remaster on a stream – well, not ideal, but the ten tracks are familiar enough and to be frank the need for another tweak seems a little superflous.
A second disc is packed with all manner of studio doodles, rough mixes and demos. They range from half minute soundbites of guitar riffage of which there must be a busload, to what sound not too far from the finished article, just requiring that Lange polish and tweak of finesse. The LA Forum live set from September 1983 – is the same set as the deluxe already available in a previous life? It gets supplemented with further live material with half a dozen songs from Dortmund in December 1983 by which time you may be getting a little fried with the unburdening of Pyromania, yet a Bluray offers up all the trimmings in terms of 5.1, Atmos, (more) new stereo mixes and instrumental options that can’t be part of a reviewers stream but allowing the audiophiles to dissect every nuance and note, probably much the same way that Mutt did back in’83.
The full package includes a book containing the history of the album written by Mojo and Classic Rock writer Paul Elliott, as well as rare and unseen photos by noted photographer, and long time band collaborator, Ross Halfin. An album that will always be in a toss up with Hysteria for the Lep’s best work. Forty years on, “it doesn’t seem like forty days!” says Savage.
Having said all that, it’s hard to disagree with Phil Collen when he describes Pyromania as:“ a really special album for obvious reasons. It was the first time we all worked together with Mutt Lange, and I was able to play with my incredible friend Steve Clark – who was such a gifted and wonderful guitarist. ” The definitive Pyromania collection so far.
Here’s Photograph:
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