I'm a huge Def Leppard fan. A loan of their "Hysteria" album in 1987 changed my musical preferences forever, and I've counted them as my favourite band ever since. Much like with my favourite novelist, Stephen King, I've spent the last few years getting everything I can on the day of release and enjoying it but, often ending up disappointed in some way.

Musically, my concern was that the lead single from the album, "Now", wasn't really all that impressive, and the available snippets from the website didn't inspire much more hope. Worse was to come when the NME rated the album very highly indeed. They did the same with Terrorvision's "Shaving Peaches" album, which turned out to be the worst of the band's career. They also called it "the best rock album since Andrew WK's 'I Get Wet'." Damned with faint praise, maybe, as that album is only about a year old and wasn't actually all that good! I'd hope that this would be better than that.

It's the traditional sound of Def Leppard, polished soft-rock, with harmonies running through most of the album. There's some big ballads, some rockier tunes, all with the guitars close to the fore and Joe Elliott's distinctive, slightly rough vocals in front of it all.

"You're So Beautiful" gets things going a little more, and is certainly my favourite track on the album. The vocal harmonies through the chorus are present, but the overall sound, especially the guitar work is more towards the rock end of the pop-rock spectrum, evoking thoughts more of 1983's "Pyromania" album than any of the band's later work.

Still, while they have seemed to concentrate largely on the ballads for a while, Def Leppard can still put a rock song together. With a guitar riff that sounds as if it?s been taken from "Armageddon It", one of the rockier tracks from "Hysteria", "Four Letter Word" has everything you want from your favourite rock band. The vocal harmonies are there, the rock guitar is there, and Joe's voice means you can't escape this being nearly classic Def Leppard.

"Cry" has a great rock guitar, but the vocal is distorted, a little like "Truth?", again from 1995's "Slang". As that was, in my opinion, Def Leppard's worst album, it's not a well-received inclusion. "Girl Like You" has a vocal that wouldn't sound too out of place as an American TV theme tune, which is not meant as a compliment, and by the time the chorus comes in, it would again fit quite nicely on "Slang", or perhaps 1999's "Euphoria". NME described this track as a "Hard-rock banger", which is true, I guess but, appropriately enough for barbeque season, the banger seems to be only half cooked, not really ready for consumption. Again, happily, it's a short track, at just under three minutes.

The bonus tracks comprise "Kiss The Day", a mid paced ballad, with the guitar and vocal harmonies sounding a little Beatles like at times, and an acoustic version of "Long Long Way to Go", making me think of "Retro-Active", which had two versions of "Miss You in a Heartbeat". On that occasion, the acoustic version was the better one, and the same is also true here. It's a light, fluffy ballad, and does better in this format, as it's not got the strength to be a proper rock power-ballad.

Phil Collen has recently said that "looking back, 'X' is the album that should have followed 'Hysteria'." He could well be right. It's not as good as "Hysteria" by any means, but would bridge the gap between that and 1995's "Slang" better than 1992's "Adrenalize" did. The problem with that statement is that this is an album that would have been perfect 10 years ago. Now, it sounds like something that's been done before, and by the same band.