Def Leppard nearly complete with "Sparkly"album

British rock band Def Leppard is
"about 85, 90 percent finished" with its next album, its first
set of new material since 2002's "X," front man Joe Elliott
said.
The album, tentatively titled "Songs From the Sparkle
Lounge," runs the gamut from "classic Def Leppard" to "new
wave-type sounding stuff," he told Billboard.com.
"There's definitely some moments on it where anybody that's
familiar with our music will go, 'Whoa! I wasn't expecting
that!' We've just been very adventurous, musically, on certain
numbers."
The album title refers to a room the group maintained
backstage during its 2006 tour dates, where the musicians would
work on ideas.
"We've never, ever written on the road before, so this
definitely came from a different head space," Elliott said.
He said Def Leppard finished 11 songs during month-long
stints in January and April in Dublin. He expected the group to
work on at least two more songs before settling on a final
track list and release date. Def Leppard's most recent release
was the 2006 covers collection "Yeah!" It promoted the set on a
co-headlining tour with Journey.
But Elliott said the group won't preview any of the new
songs on the road this summer, where it's touring mostly with
Styx and Foreigner. "Nowadays, you play one song and it's gonna
be on YouTube two minutes later and everyone will know it six
months before the thing comes out," Elliott said. "That's just
a sad indictment of the way things are."
Reuters/Billboard