Yeah! (Def Leppard Album)

''Yeah!'' is the ninth studio album by English rock band Def Leppard. It is the first cover album by the band. It was originally intended to be released on 20 September 2005, but it was announced on 31 March 2006 that the album would be released on 23 May 2006. The album charted at No. 16 on the ''Billboard'' 200 and No. 52 on the UK Albums Chart.

Artwork

The accompanying booklet contains photographs of the band members recreating classic images from 1970s album art.
* Rick Savage – Freddie Mercury from the album ''Queen II''
* Vivian Campbell – Marc Bolan from T. Rex's ''Electric Warrior''
* Joe Elliott – David Bowie from the rear cover of ''The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars''
* Rick Allen – Lou Reed, ''Transformer''
* Phil Collen – The Stooges, ''Raw Power''
There are also four group photographs in the CD booklet – on the cover, the centre, inside back cover and the back cover.
*The inside back cover (back of the CD holder) has a picture with the original triangle Def Leppard logo (from the '' On Through the Night'' album), with a shaft of light passing through it and creating a rainbow, a la the cover of Pink Floyd's ''The Dark Side of the Moon''.

Reception

Rating the album 4.5 out of 5, Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic praised ''Yeah!'' as the band's best effort since ''Hysteria'', noting how the band "no longer sound as slick and calculated as they did on their albums after ''Hysteria''; they sound alive and vigorous, making a convincing case that they're now their own best producers." Erlewine concluded that "few bands could achieve an artistic comeback via a covers album, but as this glorious record proves, there are few bands like Def Leppard."

In a 3 out of 5 review, Andy Greene of ''Rolling Stone'' wrote that ''Yeah!'' was the band's "most convincing album in fourteen years", citing "Rock On" and "Stay With Me" as highlights. He concluded by saying that "none of the arrangements veer far from the originals, but they don't need to - it's good enough to just hear the band having fun and to see where all the ''Hysteria'' came from."

Track listing

Bonus material

* All of bonus song recordings were later included in ''Yeah! II'', a bonus album of cover songs released as part of ''The Collection: Volume Three'' box set released in 2021.

Personnel

* Joe Elliott – lead vocals, piano, all instruments "Space Oddity", art direction on inner sleeve
*Phil Collen – guitar, backing vocals, lead vocals on " Stay with Me" and "Search and Destroy", all instruments on "Search and Destroy"
*Vivian Campbell – guitar, backing vocals
* Rick Savage – bass, backing vocals, lead vocals and all instruments on "Dear Friends"
* Rick Allen – drums, percussion

Additional personnel

* Emm Gryner—backing vocals, piano on "The Golden Age of Rock 'N' Roll"
* Ian Hunter—spoken intro on "The Golden Age of Rock 'N' Roll"
* Justin Hawkins – backing vocals on "Hell Raiser"
* Marc Danzeisen – drums and harmony/backing vocals on "American Girl"
*t42design – artwork
*Vartan – art direction on cover
*Clay Patrick McBride – photography on cover art, back cover, trays
* Mick Rock – photography on inner sleeve

Charts

References

External links

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Def Leppard albums
2006 albums
2000s covers albums
Island Records albums
Mercury Records albums
Albums with cover art by Mick Rock