This promo CD of Def Leppard "Yeah" is low budget affair with the CD only along with a piece of paper that displays the artwork. There is no information about the origins of the songs, which is a shame, since there are a couple of unfamiliar choices from bands that all inspired Def Leppard. This promo doesn't have Universal's usual quality mark.

Oh, well. .. on to the music, which of course is the most important! "Yeah" has 14 cover songs taken from the song treasure of the 1970's. Def Leppard already put out Waterloo Sunset as a teaser on their greatest hits album and the song was perfectly integrated on the album, since sounds like a Def Leppard song.

Most of the "Yeah" songs are played without the usual Def Leppard touch, which makes them just another bunch of cover songs. Namely Waterloo Sunset is the best performance along with Thin Lizzy's Don't Believe a Word. A Thin Lizzy song is not an obvious choice for Def Leppard, but they managed to re-create the classic Thin Lizzy twin guitar sound and still make it sound like Def Leppard.

Hellraiser and 20th Century Boy are no-brainers, almost note for note performed covers. I think a lot will miss the classic Def Leppard sound and Joe Elliott's unique vocals. Joe sings varied but most of the time he tries too much to sound like the original - listen to his performance on Stay With Me. You can credit him for adapting to Rod Stewart's hoarse vocals, but I rather would have heard it old school Def Leppard style.

Except for the already highlighted, the best songs are Hanging on the Telephone, 10538 Overture and No Matter What. All in all only a handful of great songs is quite disappointing for a Def Leppard release.

To conclude maybe Universal knew this wasn't going to be a chartbuster, since they put out such a low budget promo.

"Yeah" is an anonymous transit record that just gives more appetite for a the next real Def Leppard album

Written by Michael
Sunday, June 4, 2006
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Ratings

Michael: 5/10

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Comment by thomas (Anonymous) - Monday, September 11, 2006

Just so you know, Joe does not actually sing on Stay with Me. That would be the guitar player Phil Collen. Some album critic you are!

Comment by Michael, RevelationZ (Anonymous) - Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Sometimes our readers forget that we get advanced CDs prior to the release date and it is NOT the product that you buy in stores. We don't get the booklet with information and I quote from the review; "This promo CD of Def Leppard "Yeah" is low budget affair with the CD only along with a piece of paper that displays the artwork" If you listen to the first 2 Def Leppard albums (and most of Pyromania) and compare them to the later Def Leppard albums, you'll hear that Joe has changed his style a lot. A song like "Deliver Me" from "Slang" shows that Joe spans wide as a vocalist. However, he doesn't hit that many high notes and these days his voice is a lot more polished on record. "Stay with Me" was the perfect excuse to go back and show the critics that he hasn't lost all his vocals range and still got the hoarse tone. Like I stated in the review - this promo CD is low budget with no information at the time I wrote the review. Sorry.

Comment by saini (Anonymous) - Wednesday, November 15, 2006

Hysteria and Pyromania are their best album. The rest suks