Def Leppard - Drastic Symphonies (with The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra)

[Stefan]

 

 

I think this will be pretty cool. I love the new version of 'Hysteria'. Album out today.

From defleppard.com:

On May 16th, the world will see Rock and Classical royalty unite on Drastic Symphonies - a brand-new euphoric album featuring Def Leppard’s greatest produced tracks dramatically reimagined, and sounding more exhilarating than ever before, via the band teaming with London’s iconic The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

This album represents a bold new approach to Def Leppard’s most loved songs. Def Leppard have deconstructed and rebuilt not only some of their most well-known tracks, but also some of their hidden gems as well. By and large, they have intertwined the audio from the original tapes and performed them alongside The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, consistently ranked as one of the world's leading orchestras. The album additionally includes new vocals and guitars that culminate in stunningly beautiful symphonic arrangements, which at different points you can hear Joe Elliott duetting with his younger self.

Vocalist Joe Elliott says, “Def Leppard has always enjoyed veering off the expected path - working with the likes of Tim McGraw, Taylor Swift & Alison Krauss for example. So, when the offer to revisit some of our back catalogue with the Royal Philharmonic was presented to us, we all jumped at it. Although we’re far from the first band to ever do this, working directly with an orchestra at Abbey Road on some of our more orchestrated songs seemed too good of an opportunity to pass up.”

The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra was recorded at Abbey Road in March 2022 and is produced by Def Leppard, Ronan McHugh & Nick Patrick (producer of the following RPO/Orchestral albums - xElvis, Roy Orbison, Beach Boys and Buddy Holly), with arrangements by Eric Gorfain (Neil Diamond, Ryan Adams, Christina Aguilera).

Guitarist Phil Collen says, “When the offer of doing an orchestral album with the RPO was suggested, we were honoured. But we didn’t just want an orchestra plonked over our previous recordings. We decided to create something special where we would have something classic but present it in a brand new way that would involve making everything work in the context of Drastic Symphonies. Recording new parts, remixing previous sounds, taking some of our instruments out so the orchestra could breathe, and literally making a new album. It was an amazingly inspirational process culminating in the live recording of the RPO at Abbey Road studios in London. An absolute team effort that took a good part of a year. It’s a new Def Leppard album, it’s a greatest hits plus album with some songs rarely heard before, it’s a live RPO album and we think it’s perfect. We’re so proud of how Drastic Symphonies turned out and can’t wait to share it to the world.”

The album will be available on CD, 2LP black vinyl, limited 2LP colored vinyl, limited 2LP picture disc, CD/Blu-Ray (Atmos) and digitally. Building upon elements from the album artwork, a collection of exclusive merch is now available for pre-order in the band's official store.

Album tracklisting as follows:

• Turn To Dust
• Paper Sun
• Animal
• Pour Some Sugar on Me (Stripped version)
• Hysteria
• Love Bites
• Goodbye For Good This Time
• Love
• Gods Of War
• Angels (Can’t Help You Now)
• Bringin’ On the Heartbreak
• Switch 625
• Too Late for Love
• When Love & Hate Collide
• Kings Of the World

The vinyl and Atmos versions will also feature an exclusive bonus track

• Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 21, 2023 by Stefan

[tts42572]

Huge Def Leppard fan but I can't say I'm very interested in this and haven't cared for the songs I've heard so far.

I think part of my problem is that the originals are just too ingrained in my mind.   To me the two songs I've heard sound like much lesser versions of the original.   I don't mind orchestration when it's tastefully inserted into a song to enhance it but the orchestration has taken over these songs too much for my liking.

That said, some of the ballads might work better for me and it could be interesting to hear songs like Bringin' on the Heartbreak, Too Late For Love, Love Bites, etc.  Something tells me I'll still much prefer the original versions though.

I think this would be more appealing if they had just done a live performance with the Orchestra and recorded it for a Live CD/DVD.  They'll probably still do that at some point though.

[Captain Howdy]

I like Def Leppard and I like orchestral scores. This tho does nothing for me. The mix seems horrible to my ears with the orchestral part way too loud and sometimes drowns the vocals out.

I will wait for this to drop in price before I even consider buying it.

[Mr.AOR]

Love Def Leppard but this for me ia a massive PASS!

[tts42572]

Gave this a listen jut so that I could say I did.  And basically dislike it as much as I thought I would.

First the positive...There are maybe one or two songs I do like better than the originals....Goodbye For Good This Time and Angels (Can't Help You Now).  The both sound much improved to me, especially GFGTT.  Now granted, those two songs were among my least favorite songs on the last album but a lot of that was because I just thought they were very boring as piano ballads.  I feel like the orchestrated version suits those songs well and they probably would've been better off if they had been done that way to begin with.

As for the rest, it mostly just feels like excessive sound to me and is just too busy.  I mean, if these were the first versions of Animal, Sugar, etc. that were released back in the day, would they have ever been massive hits?  I think not.  Nice novelty I guess but not something I'll revisit.

 

[lettard]

Haven't had a full listen through yet , but the version of Sugar is just a NO...awful...sounds like that dross they churned out on the last album with Alison Krauss  on the plus side I really like Love Bites , Paper Sun ,Gods Of War & When Love & Hate Collide...and they should have included Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad on the cd instead of some of the others..it sounds so good on the Blu Ray  

Edited May 19, 2023 by lettard

[heavyharmonies]

Much of this is solid, but.... Sugar.... What the everloving FUCK is that steaming pile of donkey shit? Yeet that thing the fuck outta here!

Good Lord...

[heavyharmonies]

On 5/16/2023 at 2:36 PM, tts42572 said:

 

I think this would be more appealing if they had just done a live performance with the Orchestra and recorded it for a Live CD/DVD.  They'll probably still do that at some point though.

They did. I purchased the UK CD + Blu-Ray version. Haven't watched it yet though.

[lettard]

1 hour ago, heavyharmonies said:

They did. I purchased the UK CD + Blu-Ray version. Haven't watched it yet though.

I have the same version...but the Blu-Ray is just the tracks with images/artwork , hoped for a live concert type thing filmed at Abbey Road  

[heavyharmonies]

Well fuck.