DEF LEPPARD Diamond Star Halos Review

It's been seven years since the release of "Def Leppard," the self-titled album by the English band. After touring for quite a bit, It took almost three years to record this new album, "Diamond Star Halos", recorded across the United Kingdom, Ireland, and the United States, and the result of that is 15 brand new songs. Too many? Yes, considering that we can't expect anything new from bands there for 40 years, I think the album is definitely too long but there are for sure good songs in this new release. 

Starting from the first two singles, Take what you want and Kick (the third single Fire it up is not as good as the first two, in my opinion), then we've good songs 100% Def Leppard like Sos Emergency (one of my favourites of the album), Liquid dust and Gimme A Kiss. We have lots of slow songs/ballads like Angels (Can't Help You Now) - great arrangement and solo for this one, and two with the presence of Alison Kraus, already collaborating with Robert Plant in the very recent past, This guitar and Lifeless (not really a fan of the last one). And if we maybe didn't need tracks like U rok mi (how old are they?), very interesting and different from the rest is the closing track From here to eternity, very 70s inspired (great riff!) and a definitely a perfect closing track.

Diamond Star Halos (oh, great album cover by the way) is the album we were expecting from Def Leppard: usual great production and usual great performance, with lots of great guitar solos. Too many songs in the tracklist (I would have cut at least 4) as the album is not all inspired, in my opinion, but I'm sure you will find songs that you like. 

Rating 66/100

Top tracks: Take What You Want, Kick, From here to eternity. 

Skip track: U Rok Mi, Lifeless. 

Tracklisting:
01. Take What You Want
02. Kick
03. Fire It Up
04. This Guitar
05. SOS Emergency
06. Liquid Dust
07. U Rok Mi
08. Goodbye For Good This Time
09. All We Need
10. Open Your Eyes
11. Gimme A Kiss
12. Angels (Can't Help You Now)
13. Lifeless
14. Unbreakable
15. From Here To Eternity