Def Leppard - Yeah! (Island/Mercury, 2006)

Finally, Joe Elliott gets the album he's been dying to construct since his earliest days as an NWOBHM punter. On-stage collaborations with Ian Hunter and versions of Sweet and Mick Ronson tunes on the Retro Active odds 'n' ends collection were tasty teasers, but Def Lep pay full tribute to their rock 'n' roll heroes this time around. "20th Century Boy" (T. Rex) finds guitarists Phil Collen and Vivian Campbell straining their voices on the "big girlie vocals," but South African singer Stevie Vann-Lange quells the soreness. Elliott tests his pipes on "Little Bit Of Love" (Free) and does Paul Rodgers proud with the right amount of gritty aplomb. "10538 Overture" (ELO) conducts the ooh 'n' aah procession by waving a Cheap Trick/Enuff Z'Nuff-like baton. Taking leave from his job as a Freddie Mercury impersonator, Justin Hawkins from The Darkness mimics the drunken loon part of Steve Priest on "Hell Raiser" (Sweet). "The Golden Age Of Rock 'N' Roll" (Mott The Hoople) morphs Collen into Steve Jones and reveals "where the 'woah ho' stuff in 'Photograph' and 'Foolin' ' and a lot of our 'call to arms' choruses really came from." The lone American track, "Hanging On The Telephone" (The Nerves or Blondie -- pick a caller), speed-dials the youthful exuberance of TSAR's first slab. Others worth shouting about are Roxy Music, Badfinger, Thin Lizzy, and some dude named John Kongos. In toto, a better noodle dish than G N' R's. Bite it, Axl.