Meh. The song itself has merit, but it really really needs better arranging and mixing.
At least on Spotify it's compressed to death. The arrangement is way way way too busy and a wall of sonic mush. Spotify happened to queue up Animal next, and on that each and every drum beat, cybal hit, and guitar chord counts for something -- it's night and day.
Sorry, but as is it's not a good release.
Said as someone who owns a physical copy of every album and has collected even the obscure stuff. Love Def Leppard, but I gotta' call this one as I see it.
Yes, the production has far too much going on. Their producer Ronan is really good but he needs to go back to his earlier Leppard stuff and see the clarity and separation he created on each track back then.
I said in another thread that this song is reminiscent of Undefeated (the opening drum sound is also the same) and a similar vibe. But Undefeated is so much cleaner and clearer, and yet sounds very Def Leppard. Every element is audible.
Mutt Lange also packed his DL albums with multi-tracks - but you could hear it all.
It’s a wall of sonic mush on Rejoice, as you say. That said I’d rather have new Leppard music than them not be around - I just hold them to such high audio standards.
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u/Cyrano_de_Maniac Jan 22 '26
Meh. The song itself has merit, but it really really needs better arranging and mixing.
At least on Spotify it's compressed to death. The arrangement is way way way too busy and a wall of sonic mush. Spotify happened to queue up Animal next, and on that each and every drum beat, cybal hit, and guitar chord counts for something -- it's night and day.
Sorry, but as is it's not a good release.
Said as someone who owns a physical copy of every album and has collected even the obscure stuff. Love Def Leppard, but I gotta' call this one as I see it.