Hard rock kitsch in leopard skin, or Def Leppard in 2008. The veterans return with a new, tenth album, a country singer as a guest and a European tour with another naphthalene rock band - Whitesnake. Anybody who has listened to Def Leppard knows what to expect of them - insipid hard rock that was selling so very well during the 80’s, but in the following two decades it caught patina and a big part of the bands remained in the hearts of their grown-up fans only with their classic albums. The situation with the British posse led by Joe Elliot is not different. From their last platinum record “Adrenalize” 16 years have passed, plus a bunch of compilations and three studio attempts (not counting 1993’s “Retro Active”) at a comeback in the top of the charts. Here is the fourth one. In short, “Songs from the Sparkle Lounge” offers 11 new compositions that do not surprise with anything, but at the expense of it they bear nice mood and promise good company in the coming hot summer days. “Tomorrow” and “Hallucinate” are dancing rock tracks with the typical Def Leppard signature and the recognizable from the first notes guitar of Phil Collen, offering a walk through the calm and sunny alleys of soft rock. The opener “Go” is adequate hard rock with heavier guitar sound and a catchy riff, but the first single “Nine Lives” (does it remind you of another classic band with something?) is absolutely slime, finished off by the caterwaul of country singer Tim McGraw. And so, cliché by cliché with some fresh enterings, the CD unnoticeably reaches its end with the jolly-impersonal “Gotta Let It Go”. Def Leppard are here again with a pleasantly non-committed album that in no way would get back their lost glamour.