This section looks at the 'Songs From The Sparkle Lounge' UK album peaking at Number 10 in the UK. The album entered the UK charts on this day in 2008.
"People keep saying it's way better or more aggressive than X."
Def Leppard's ninth studio album Songs From The Sparkle Lounge entered the UK chart at Number 10 on this day in 2008.
The album had been released on 5th May in the UK, a few days after the digital and North American releases.
It entered at Number Ten on 11th May 2008. The second highest new entry of that week.
Their first Top Ten UK album since the 'Best Of Def Leppard' compilation reached Number Six in 2004. The first studio album in the Top Ten since 'Slang' in May 1996.
On the same day the album also entered the Rock Album chart at Number One as it had in the USA.
'The Sparkle Lounge' was the name given to the room where the band recorded new ideas in the backstage area of various venues. In March 2007 Phil Collen revealed they were using 'Sparkle Lounge' as the album's working title.
The first single 'Nine Lives' had been released digitally on 24th April. A second single 'C'mon C'mon' would follow in July.
Below are some quotes about the album from the band.
Def leppard 2008
Scooter were at Number One with their 'Jumping All Over The World' album.
The only other rock act in the Top 40 that week were Nickelback at 18 with their 2005 album 'All The Right Reasons'.
They would go on to release the album 'Dark Horse' in November 2008 which was produced by Robert John 'Mutt' Lange.
UK Album Chart - 11th May 2008
- 01 - Scooter - Jumping All Over The World - (New Entry)
- 02 - Madonna - Hard Candy
- 03 - Duffy - Rockferry
- 04 - Sam Sparro - Sam Sparro
- 05 - Portishead - Third
- 10 - Def Leppard - Songs From The Sparkle Lounge - (New Entry/Peak Position)
UK Rock Album Chart - 11th May 2008
- 01 - Def Leppard - Songs From The Sparkle Lounge - (New Entry/Peak Position)
- 02 - Nickelback - All The Right Reasons
- 03 - Paramore - Riot
- 04 - Whitesnake - Good To Be Bad
- 05 - Muse - Black Holes & Revelations
The cover art, which was heavily inspired by The Beatles 'Sgt. Peppers', featured various photos of the band along with family members, friends, employees, record company staff, management as well as some historical references.
The first single 'Nine Lives' had been released digitally on 24th April. A second single 'C'mon C'mon' would follow in July in the UK.
Below are some quotes about the album from the band.
USA Today - 2008 News Quotes
Tim McGraw joins Def Leppard on Nine Lives, the first single from the band's Songs From the Sparkle Lounge album. Nine Lives came about after the country singer sang Pour Some Sugar on Me with the band at a 2006 Hollywood Bowl concert. They reconnected at a Nashville show. McGraw tour manager, Robert Allen, is Leppard drummer Rick Allen's brother.
Sparkle Lounge also breaks a 25-year pattern of using single-word album titles. The name refers to a backstage area on the 2006 tour for the members to write songs.
"The whole record's got a '70s feel," Leppard's Joe Elliott says. "By our standards, it's a very adventurous album. It's not OK Computer, but it's got moments that some of our fans are going to think have gone slightly left field. "Sparkle Lounge is out March 18, nine days before the band starts its tour with Styx and REO Speedwagon.
May 2008 - Joe Elliott Interview Quotes
"There was a thought process behind it that we wanted to deliver a specific kind of record, but that specific kind of record was, if you like, a non-specific kind of record."
"With this one it was a case of, "Let's just hone in on the songwriting and we'll use 2008 production techniques, if you like, to make it sound more like a '70s record." It sounds very complicated, but it actually wasn't."
"I think a lot of it is overspill from the "Yeah" album. When we went in to do the covers record we didn't have to worry at all about one word or one note from a writing point of view; all we did was ... record these songs that made us all, [at] the age of 10 or 11 or 12, plead for our first guitar."
"So then when it came to this one it was a case of, "Alright, let's try to sit down and write some songs that, if we were out buying records, they would be the kinds of songs we [would] want to buy." So we all just sat down and wrote what we thought were meaningful songs."
"What we did with [the Sparkle Lounge] was we took a lot of songs that were already half-written and it was a lot easier. We'd go in and really work on these songs, and by the time we started recording them we knew them really well and there was not that much of a learning process because.... So it was probably the best recording situation for new music we've ever had."
10th March 2007 - Phil Collen Interview Quote
"I can't mention any songs yet but the working title is Sparkle Lounge."
March 2008 - Phil Collen Interview Quotes
"In a sense, it was a lot easier because we didn't have to finish the tour and then start thinking about what direction we wanted a new record to go in," Collen said. "It was already done, and that's what was so cool about it."
"By our standards, it's a very different album, as we've been very adventurous musically on certain numbers," Elliott said in a statement. "There will definitely be some moments on it where anybody that's familiar with our music will go, ‘Whoa! I wasn't expecting that!'"
(On Tim McGraw) "He's such a pleasure to work with, someone who's both inspiring and creative," Collen said of McGraw. "He's just an infectious guy to be around."
May 2008 - Phil Collen Interview Quotes
Sparkle Lounge is way closer to the classic Leppard style than last album X...
"People keep saying it's way better or more aggressive than X but I'm not sure it's that massive a progression. Sure there are elements of classic Leppard but we've kept it simple too. We've brought out the elements we like, but haven't gone for the huge production that we would have used back in Hysteria days. We didn't consciously try to get back to our roots; what you hear is just how the songs came out."
What exactly is the Sparkle Lounge?
"It's the name our crew gave to the trailer we practice in when we were out on tour - and seeing as we worked up most of these songs while on the road, it seemed an appropriate title. We'd have little amps set up and these tiny decorative lights all over the place to give it some vibe. I think it was something Jane's Addiction used to do. The way we wrote this album was a lot more spontaneous than normal."
The Sparkle Lounge - (by dltourhistory)
The Sparkle Lounge refers to a backstage area used at every show on the 2006 YEAH! tour in North America. A room would be set up by the road crew with portable recording equipment for the band to come in whenever they felt like it and record new song ideas. The crew decorated the room with sparkly lights and it became jokingly known as the 'Sparkle Lounge'.
This name was then used as the main album title to reflect the origin of many of the songs. The songs were later added to at Joe's main studio in Dublin during the early part of 2007. Vivian later said that Sav had been working on the song 'Love' for over 15 years before it was finished for this album.
May 2008 - Phil Collen Article/Interview Quotes
"With Songs From The Sparkle Lounge we wanted to make something that makes people think we can still cut it."
On the success of the latest album, which has a midweek of No.4, Phil added: "I am pleased but mildly irritated by the fact that we haven't done anything different but simplified it."
"I am irked that people didn't pay this much attention to the other albums which I felt were just as good.
"This one is stripped down and people seem to be going nuts for it."
October 2008 - Joe Elliott Interview Quote
"We delivered a record that couldn't be ignored. For the last five or six years we haven't had the greatest of support from our record label. We signed our contract in 1979, a lot of regimes ago. Once upon a time there was respect for what you'd done but it's all just bean counters now. I find that very sad."
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