This
collection of power ballads from Def Leppard is allegedly all new material, but
it seems to have been transmitted directly from somewhere deep in the mid-1980s.
Of
course, that's when the British arena-rock group had its greatest success with
1987's "Hysteria," featuring such air-guitar enthusiast anthems as
"Pour Some Sugar on Me" and "Love Bites."
"X,"
so-named because it's their 10th studio album, is a pale echo of their sexually
charged rock 'n' roll past, and its songs could be lesser B-sides to their more
popular singles.
The
music is standard guitar and drum dirges with lyrics straight out of adolescent
angst poetry. "I can't sleep at night/ The darkness enslaves me/ I turn out
the light/ And no one can save me" begins "Gravity," the album's
eighth track.
Virtually every song is a hopeless collage of cliches, whining for love or warning about the power of love. "X" has little to offer that countless glam-rock albums of the past haven't already expressed.
_
Anthony Breznican, AP Writer
article resource: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020802/ap_wo_en_po/arts_audio_reviews_1