Drastic Symphonies

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So you’re listening to “Drastic Symphonies” and you’ve gone through “Turn To Dust” (from one of those favourite records) and your notes say things you expected them to, like “cinematic” as “epic as Game Of Thrones” and you’ve done “Paper Sun” and remembered how good a chorus it had, but then there comes the acid test.

Def Leppard 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 had to be over the whole career. I mean we didn't touch On Through The Night. I suppose we could have done Overture. There is more laughter from Sav when he admits that working with musicians of such a high calibre was at times humbling. And we could've kept going but it's like why do that you know. Why do that when you've got this amazing album. So Gods Of War, spectacular yeah." But Steve was completely on board. And when Phil came in he was like well yeah that makes total sense

Def Leppard go orchestral on Drastic Symphonies: treading water has never sounded so legacy-enhancing

But it kind of made sense that Kings Of The World which was one of the new songs on Mirrorball fro about 2011 I think it was. Yeah. It's maybe ten, fifteen seconds long. When we originally recorded it was massively longer. But it was just a bit Def Leppard members Joe Elliott and Phil Collen were interviewed on 11th May and mentioned the new Drastic Symphonies album and new song versions. But Switch which has always been joined onto Bringin' On the Heartbreak, I mean it's like the end of Layla." All of a sudden it's like. it's a different beast. Again it's James Bond. Or choose your spy movie or car chase

The more finished they are when they hear them. The more chance that they're gonna go OK cool that's fine." And it was the same thing with the ones that we did on Love And Hate Collide which were done by Michael Kamen." But I think as good as Heartbreak sounds. Switch takes it to a completely different stratosphere really." Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad" (Japanese SHM-CD, Blu-ray Audio, vinyl and digital editions only) The two only real missteps come with ‘Animal’ and ‘Pour Some Sugar on Me’. The former has had its drums removed and this seems to have ripped the heart and the urgency out of the song, leaving it a little aimless. ‘…..Sugar’, meanwhile, has been re-worked into a slower, Jazz-leaning ballad with some Disney-round-the-edges orchestration inspired by what singer Emm Gryner did on an original cover version that the band heard and wanted to explore with her here. The piano vibes and slower pace seem to emphasise what is not Def Leppard’s greatest moment, lyrically, making the listening experience a little awkward in duet, ballad form.A couple of unsurprising selections, Have You Ever Needed Somone So Bad and When Love & Hate Collide could even be interchangeable – interesting to hear if someone could do a mash up or blend/mix the two as even to these untrained ears, the choruses have that potential to merge in and out of one another. Again, more obvious choices hinted at what might be in their original form, now following a natural succession. Nice work in the middle eight of the former.

Def Leppard have just secured their highest UK album chart position in 32 years with “Drastic Symphonies”. The album goes one better than 2022’s “Diamond Star Halos” that charted at No 5 in the UK album charts.Def Leppard: Drastic Symphonies (With The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra) has officially been announced! Release date is May 19, 2023.

So there wasn't really a great deal to take away so there didn't seem to be any point to try and change But we were always leaning that way with that song. It had, it wasn't really like Procession by Queen off Queen II, And Love Bites was a great example of a melody that was like just a bitch for me to like try and do. Despite this, there are still some special moments across the record. The arrangement of hits “Animal” and “Pour Some Sugar On Me”, both which largely see a solo Elliot along with the orchestra verge on being beautiful, while the use of strings enhances the tension and excitement of “Love Bites”, “Bringin’ On The Heartache”, “Switch 625” and the closing “Kings Of The World”. Perhaps Drastic Symphonies would have fared better as an EP, but even in these stronger moments, it is apparent that the album would have benefited from a live performance between Def Leppard and The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra as a means of showcasing the musicianship and songwriting from the band. Def Leppard’s Drastic Symphonies debuted at #1 on Billboard‘s Classical Albums chart — a first for Def Leppard! (The album debuted at #54 on Billboard‘s mainstream top U.S. albums chart.)

The first single 'Animal' was released to digital and streaming services on the same day as the announcement - listen below. Sav's a huge Queen fan and that's leads symphonies right there you know because his stuff is kind of an amalgamation of There is a very different version of “Pour Some Sugar on Me” on the album. Who is singing with you? Well Bringin' On The Heartbreak is one of the few songs on the album that we didn't really mess with the I went to a Bowie gig in Dublin,” Joe recalls, “and it was Mark Plati, who was Bowie’s bassist and co-producer, who introduced me to Emm. He said, ‘You’ve got to meet her – she’s a huge Leppard fan!’ So we got talking and she said, ‘I’ve done a jazz piano version of Sugar.’