''Drastic Symphonies'' is a remix album by English rock band

Def Leppard Def Leppard are an English Rock music, rock band formed in Sheffield in 1977. Since 1992, the band has consisted of Rick Savage (bass, backing vocals), Joe Elliott (lead vocals), Rick Allen (drummer), Rick Allen (drums), Phil Collen (guitar, ...

with the

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) is a British symphony orchestra based in London, England. The RPO was established by Thomas Beecham in 1946. In its early days, the orchestra secured profitable recording contracts and important engagemen ...

, released on 19 May 2023 through Bludgeon Riffola and

Mercury Records Mercury Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group. It had significant success as an independent operation in the 1940s and 1950s. Smash Records and Fontana Records were sub labels of Mercury. Mercury Records released ...

. It was produced by Nick Patrick and Ronan McHugh, and contains 16 of the band's songs re-recorded with orchestral accompaniment from the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and arrangements by

Eric Gorfain Eric Gorfain is an American violinist and founder of The Section Quartet, a string quartet that plays cover versions of rock songs. He is married to singer-songwriter Sam Phillips, with whom he has toured and recorded. Gorfain studied music at U ...

, recorded at

Abbey Road Studios Abbey Road Studios (formerly EMI Recording Studios) is a music recording studio at 3 Abbey Road, London, Abbey Road, St John's Wood, City of Westminster, London. It was established in November 1931 by the Gramophone Company, a predecessor of ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

in March 2022. Most tracks contain the vocals from the original recordings. The album contains at least one song from Def Leppard's previous studio albums with the exception of ''

On Through the Night ''On Through the Night'' is the debut studio album by English rock band Def Leppard, released on 14 March 1980. The album was produced by Tom Allom. It charted at No. 15 on the UK Albums Chart and No. 51 on the ''Billboard'' 200. The album feat ...

'' (1980), '' X'' (2002), '' Yeah!'' (2006), and ''

'' (2015).

Critical reception

John Aizlewood of ''

Classic Rock Classic rock is a radio format that developed from the album-oriented rock (AOR) format in the early 1980s. In the United States, it comprises rock music ranging generally from the mid-1960s through the early-1990s, primarily focusing on comm ...

'' commented that Def Leppard "have gone down the orchestral route" but "done it properly, so it's the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at Abbey Road, rather than some chancers in Joe's garage" and remarked that "the song selection is smart" and "one of the joys of the album is that it's not quite so predictable". Gary Graff of ''

Ultimate Classic Rock Townsquare Media, Inc. (formerly Regent Communications until 2010) is an American radio network and media company based in Purchase, New York. The company started in radio and expanded into digital media toward the end of the 2000s, starting wit ...

'' wrote that "the results are unquestionably intriguing and fresh – a genuinely new way of approaching these tracks, even if you'd be hard-pressed to pick any that would become the preferred version", and called the "only outright dud" the stripped version of "

Pour Some Sugar on Me "Pour Some Sugar on Me" is a song by the English rock band Def Leppard from their 1987 album ''Hysteria''. It reached number two on the US US ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart on 23 July 1988. "Pour Some Sugar on Me" is considered the band's signatu ...

" due to its lyrics "sound ngsilly in such austere sonic trappings".

Track listing

Charts

References

External links

* * * {{Authority control 2023 remix albums Albums produced by Nick Patrick (record producer) Def Leppard remix albums EMI Records remix albums Mercury Records remix albums Royal Philharmonic Orchestra albums Symphonic rock albums