Def Leppard - Diamond Star Halos (2022) [SHM-CD]

Def Leppard count upon a fair portion of their audience recognizing the title Diamond Star Halos as a nod to a lyric from T. Rex, the glam titans who served as an eternal inspiration for the pop-metal bad. Glam has served as a primary motivator for Def Leppard before -- witness their fine 2006 album Yeah!, where they covered T. Rex's "20th Century Boy," along with Sweet, David Bowie, Mott the Hoople, and Roxy Music -- so it would appear that Diamond Star Halos would once again find the group returning to the glittering well. That's not necessarily the case. If Diamond Star Halos is a throwback, it's to the golden age of the CD, an era when Leppard thrived delivering albums that pushed the running length of a compact disc. Like Hysteria, this 2022 record runs well over an hour; its individual moments may not be excessive -- the grand closer creeps toward six minutes, but otherwise all the songs clock in around three or four minutes, the ideal length for a pop song -- yet the cumulative effect is almost overwhelming, especially as Def Leppard gives it their all in each cut. Leppard crank up the hooks, melodies, and amplifiers, adding little bits of distinctive flair along the way. "Liquid Dust" thrums to a heavy bass rhythm, the harmonies on "Angels (Can't Help You Now)" have an ethereal shimmer, while "This Guitar" feels as if it was mellowed in the sunlight, its country undertones accentuated by duet partner Alison Krauss, who performs a similar function on "Lifeless." These moments help put the craft of the rest of Diamond Star Halos into perspective, as the departures point out that Def Leppard can deliver big, silly arena rock like "U Rok Mi" with aplomb and enthusiasm. Taken as a series of moments, the album is pretty compelling -- so compelling, in fact, that when they're assembled together, they are almost too much to take in one setting. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine