Look what you've done to this rock 'n' roll clown...

Def Leppard, for a lot of people, were like the Huey Lewis & The News of hard rock. They were disrespected, yet insanely popular. However, like fellow Backstreet-Ozzys Bon Jovi, DL left at inarguable canon of classic rock which still rocks. Rock Of Ages: The Definitive Collection expands on their previous greatest hits set Vault to a two disc set, including newer singles and album cuts.

The 2-CD set is almost like a mixtape, putting songs out of chronological order and frontloading their best known songs, "Pour Some Sugar On Me", "Photograph" and "Love Bites" to kick it all off. I remember the controversy over whether "Pour Some Sugar" was supposed to be an ode to crack. Doubtful, but silly nonetheless. "Photograph" remains their signature song, and for good reason. Like a beacon into the music darkness between the soft-rock early 80s and the new wave of '83, it taught us you can still rock and have a melody that sticks in your head. From their debut On Through The Night are the primitive Lepp-sound "Wasted" and "Rock Brigade", which while having corny proto-metal lyrics, already proved the band had the guitar riffs down pat. High 'N' Dry contributes no less than six of its ten songs here, including the classic "Bringin' On The Heartbreak" and "Mirror Mirror". That fact alone ups the quality of this collection over Vault. With their breakthrough success Pyromania, this set contains all the top-40 singles like "Photograph", "Rock Of Ages", and "Foolin'" (the precursor to "Love Bites") while also serving up album cuts like "Billy's Got A Gun" and "Too Late For Love". I know seven songs from an album is amazing, but the selfish side of me would've like to see "Action Not Words" and "Comin' Under Fire" included (especially since they both got play on rock radio).

As popular as Pyromania was, nothing was as much a surprise as the gradual success of its follow-up, Hysteria. Herald by the rockin' single "Women", which unfairly only reached #80 on the pop chart, the album debut down at #36. However, with each subsequent single, the album churned out 6 more singles that hit the top-20 on the pop chart. With the help of "Mr. Shania Twain" Mutt Lange, the band crafted strange lyrics ("I Cry Wolf, give it mouth to mouth"?) around the double punch of a punchy bridge and anthemic chorus. And as cool of a song as it is, what exactly does "Armageddon It" mean? Only "Rocket" shines a little less brightly than before, only because probably it rehashes the "It's The End of the World As We Know It/We Didn't Start The Fire" pastiche. No album cuts are her, but with all 7 singles, I'm not complaining.

After losing guitarist Steve Clark to death-by-overdose in 1991, Def Leppard continued not by eulogizing but by coasting on their next album, Adrenalize. Ushered in by the craptacular "Let's Get Rocked" which is in the pantheon of my top-10 worst rock songs of all time. Unfortunately it portrayed a "cartoon"-type version of the band, and I think in the long run hurt the ability to grow on Hysteria. Mind you, this album still put in 5 singles on the pop charts in the US, and another, "Heaven Is" over in England. However, the biggest of them, the great "Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad" got only to #12, the same as the last single from Hysteria. They must've thought the same, only including 4 songs here, even omitting top-40 song "Make Love Like A Man" (which, though it should've been put in here to make this collection complete, does truly suck) and final single "Tonight" (which doesn't suck as much).

Next up are a series of forgettable albums and compilations which are represented by the odd track or two here. The odds-n-ends album Retro-Active did give the band their last two top-40 singles, the softer songs "Two Steps Behind" and "Miss You In A Heartbeat", which are thankfully included here to save you from buying that album, though including another song like the rock radio semi-hit "Desert Song" or the UK single "Action" would've been a great addition. "When Love And Hate Collide", the only new track on the Vault collection and the band's last Hot-100 pop chart hit, makes its appearance here as well. From the disjointed Slang album comes the title song and "Work It Out", neither which sound at all like a Def Leppard record. It sounds like the band is trying to adapt to be a band they're not. They got back (somewhat) to form on Euphoria, with the rockin' "Promises" and the lesser so "Paper Sun". And from their latest original album, X, comes only one song, the darker "Now", which brings it back to Bon Jovi's "thoughtful" period. Finally mixed into the second disc is the set's single, a cover of Badfinger's "No Matter What", which though skillfully done, doesn't add anything to the original.
Like Def Leppard's career, Rock Of Ages: The Definitive Collection is most hit and a little miss. It would've been great to include a couple more songs. But taken as a sum of it's parts, it truly epitomizes the best that pop-metal has to offer.

Grade: A-
Best Cuts: "Photograph", "Love Bites", "Animal", "Foolin'", "Armageddon It", "Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad", "Rock Of Ages", "Hysteria", "Bringin' On The Heartbreak", "Too Late For Love", "Mirror Mirror", "Stand Up (Kick Love Into Motion)", "Billy's Got A Gun"
Weakest Links: "Paper Sun", "Work It Out"

Buy it here...