"Let It Go" should have been on Vault as it's a classic Leppard tune it finds its proper place here on disc two. "Mirror, Mirror", "Another Hit & Run" are a testament to the band that they sound this good two decades down the road. 1981's High 'N Dry is represented by a staggering six tracks. Where this package leaves Vault in the dust is with the inclusion of tracks prior to 1983's Pyromania. It's an incredibly comprehensive collection demonstrating the range of Leppards nearly three decade career. So why is it that when this new collection of hits appeared in my mailbox recently that I opened it with more than just a passing interest? I owned every single song on this collection, except for the cover of Badfinger's "No Matter What", but I chose to see the distinctive qualities it did have. The irony is that both of Leppard's albums are superior to the Bon Jovi albums, Crush and Bounce. Here is a band that created two of the best radio records of the last decade (1999's Euphoria and 2002's X) and yet a Bon Jovi "It's My Life" style comeback has eluded them. Def Leppard's albums over the last decade have been so poorly marketed I'm amazed they are still around. I'm going to be honest without pulling any punches. But then, in 1998, with the help of "Behind the Music", the album found its way into the top-ten of the Billboard Pop Catalog chart where it stayed for over six years and now has sold upwards of close to five million copies. Upon its initial release in 1995, the album went platinum, but then disappeared from the charts and the consciousness of the American public. Rock of Ages: The Definitive Collection, at its core, is an expanded re-release of their 1995 collection, Vault. Just recently, Def Leppard joined the ranks of artists revisiting their past hoping to give the world a new perspective on their catalog. Other acts like the Counting Crows and Everclear had packages which put into perspective how talented and underappreciated their catalogs are. However, just last year they released "Words & Music" a wonderful two-disc package that had every single top-forty hit he ever had along with essential other tracks, wonderful liner notes and two noteworthy new singles. A prime example of this is John Mellencamp whose first retrospective covered a scant eight years of his career and was less than sixty-minutes long. In fact, the world of downloading has made artists and record companies create far superior packages than they were even doing a decade back. I love hearing long forgotten tracks remastered and getting those cool collectible packages with liner notes and great photo's and if we're really lucky the extra tracks will be worth their weight in gold.
You don't see them compiling their best chapters and scenes from respective books and films? However, musicians are not only expected to do this, but unless you are Metallica or AC/DC, you will have to do it at some point in your career. Book authors and film directors never do this. If you're an artist you are basically chopping your children (aka albums) up into smaller pieces of much larger palettes. If you're a fan, you find yourself forking over money for what are most likely one or two new songs and a slew of songs you already own. Album collectors and artists usually hate "Best Of" packages.
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