Reckless Love vs. Def Leppard

Finnish rockers Reckless Love are bringing back Glam. Yesterday, I was working on another project when I came across their cover of Def Leppard's "Hysteria." Now, anyone who knows me, knows I love "Hysteria." When I came across the Reckless Love cover I was both excited and nervous. I must admit, I'm on the fence about the whole thing. I just don't think anything can come near Def Lep's tune. You decide.

Reckless Love "Hysteria"

Def Leppard "Hysteria"

Comments

[Kenny Ozz]

I friggin LOVE this band. One of my favorite newer bands by a mile. But this cover is really bland, boring, and unnecessary. There are some REALLY flat notes in there, which is odd because that dude is a great vocalist. But yeah, this is bad....

[Jean Jeanie]

sounds like a leppard 4 track demo of the song....not impressed...they bit off more than they could chew here !!!

[Vesa]

Have to correct here that Reckless Love is a Finnish band not Swedish.

[Brian L]

Not good at all and I love Reckless. Remember...if Joe E was stripped down without all that production and sound mending technology, he would prob sound that bad too. I'm sure that this newer band just is not as equiped as the Def Lep boys. Thanks for sharing.
Is this song on a new CD??

[RockyRhoads]

Although Hysteria doesn't have those trademark Joe Elliot throaty high notes, it's a very hard song to sing.

You can't belt it out - you have to SING it. I've seen a number of live shows in which Joe himself was flat, especially during the time he had issues with his voice, but it also happens when he was simply tired from all those high notes...

Also, this is a relatively slow song, but it's not a ballad, so it's not easy to keep the listener - espescially a rock fan, intrested throughout the whole thing. There's no big solo, no extreme singing, it's catchy, but not exciting.

The only reason this song works so well for Leppard is their over-produced-very-layerd recording style, which keeps the listener interested throughout the whole 5:55 min. of this song. There's always somthing extra going on in the backround - a guitar lick or effect, harmonies, echo on Joe's voice - something...

Reckless Love stripped the song down to it's basic form, and have the vocals a bit too high in the mix compared to Joe's "whispery" singing style on the original, which brings out those little imprefections Kenny Ozz refered to. This left them with a Boring cover that sounds like it was recorded in a home-studio by a decent cover band...

This would be a fun cover to hear from them live, but you have to be very selective with the covers you RECORD.

Overall I give it a 7/10.

[Metalboy!]

I'm with most everything everyone's said here.

Love this band and dyin' to see 'em!

But, yeah, this is bland!

And whoever talked 'em into strippin' all the guitars out really messed up. If anything, they shoulda cranked up the guitars even more! Instead, it sounds mailed in.

These guys can do better!

p.s. Hate to break it to ya, but Elliot's flat on the original production also.

[Metalboy!]

p.s.s.t. Don't get me wrong. Def's original is perfection, flat notes and all. It's definitive and, to be honest, I don't think Reckless should have even bothered unless they really cranked it. And don't they realize when you call something "COOL" in the title, in this case, "Cool Edition", that's UNCOOL? ("Way Cool Jr." being the exception, of course, hahaha!!!)

[Allyson]

Yes, they are Finnish. Thanks for catching the Typo. The song "Hysteria" is from their self-titled album - the "cool" edition (I linked to it above).

- Allyson

[glamrockerarchie]

i like this band also but this cover sucks never mind bland i feel like im in someones basement listenin to a shit band

[Bob]

I had so much to say about this cover, but rockyRhoads absolutely nailed it.

[scott whitt]

I'm with Jean and thinks this sounds like a demo. A slowed down demo. I find it curious that many people do not like this note for note cover but many of the same loved the Skid Row cover a week or so ago.
Is it just the production? Feelings for the original? Just curious.

[Metalboy!]

Note for note?

This just plain has to rock out more. They shoulda punched up the guitars at the very least.

[Christian]

Trouble is, Hysteria as an album had a ton of money spent on production. That alone makes any cover of a song from it hard to get right.

[Metalboy!]

Nothing a quick heavied-up treatment wouldn't cure.

As Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top once said, "It's gotta have crunch."!

[steve]

you got nervous about hearing a song?
jesus.
imagine if you got hit with bad news

[ahappypunk]

Hahaha Steve.

[glamfly]

You have to understand that this is just a bonus track. The cool edition was released after the album and includes other weird stuff like a dance version of their best song. Not intended as a single and probably recorded as an afterthought for the Japan release. Listen to back to paradise, beautiful bomb, or romance to see what these guys are really like. They are probably the best chance to "bring back Glam" we have at the moment.

[Metalboy!]

I agree, Glamfly. Reckless Love are our current best shot to Bring Back Glam!

Still, calling the "Cool Edition" "COOL" is UNCOOL!

p.s. What is Reckless Love's best song they discofied? "Beautiful Bomb"? To me, that's their best song.

[glamfly]

Back to paradise. There are 3 versions of it on the "cool" album. Beautiful bomb was the first song I heard from them and I love it, but back to paradise is just as good IMO. Beautiful bomb is a bit more Glam sounding

[glamfly]

Speaking of Def Leppard, check out Loud Lion....they make no bones about it that they are trying to recreate the Mutt Lange/Def Leppard sound of Hysteria era Leppard. Sounds pretty damn good. They are working on their debut now. bit.ly/myKU9I
They also have a myspace page that has a ballad similar to Love Bites.