Cover albums, you either love 'em or loathe 'em and there' not much room for any sentiment in between. They can often be perceived as a cop out from a band who has not much left in the tank from a writing perspective or, alternatively, they can be seen as a band providing a fresh take on old numbers and more often than not allow the listener the chance to hear  the songs and styles that have influenced their favourite artists. And so Def Leppard join the growing list of bands who have dipped their toes into the covers arena. The big question is though which of the two camps above does Yeah! fall into? Well hopefully the latter but only time will really provide that answer when the next studio album proper hits the shops.

As for Yeah!, well it mainly consists of tracks culled from the '70's although the inclusion of the Kinks' classic 'Waterloo Sunset' does stretch the timeline, briefly, back to 1967. Where the album is strongest is on the songs from the glam era seventies. OK so '20th Century Boy' is a safe choice to open the album but the band give it a decent stab, not straying too far from the original in terms of arrangement and sound and likewise the inclusion of The Sweet's 'Hellraiser' follows on nicely  from 'Action' which was included on the 'Retrospective' album. This type of glam anthem suits Elliot's voice perfectly and the production, whilst not raw, has more of a live feel that perhaps is the more usual Leps fare. 'Rock On', again from the same era, perfectly illustrates the influence this era has had on the Leps as you can see the direct lineage from this to 'Rocket' on the 'Hysteria' album both lyrically and in the melody of the song.

There are, however, some strange choices of songs on Yeah!. 'Hangin On The Telephone', made famous by Blondie and 'He's Gonna Step On You Again' both seem out of place and don't really work in the whole context of the album being from a totally different genre to the remainder of the material, whereas 'Waterloo Sunset', which sat perfectly well on last years 'Greatest Hits' album, seems out of place purely by dint of the Mutt Lange-esque production and the polished sonic attributes amid the rawer songs that surround it. A bigger mistake perhaps though is the inclusion of Bad Company's 'Little Bit of Love'. Joe Elliot is certainly no Paul Rodger's in the vocal stakes and struggles throughout to bring the song to life. If you want to hear how this song should be covered then go listen to Steve Overland on FM's 'No Electricity Required' opus.

I guess ultimately 'Yeah!' is a filler between studio albums and gives the band something to flog on their summer jaunts round the mega-domes of the USA. It certainly won't bring in many new fans I wouldn't have thought and is probably an album that preaches to the already converted. Interesting perhaps from a historical perspective, but nothing startling and certainly not on a par with the last 'filler' album, the glorious  'Retrospective'.

Steve Cummings