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In an age of five-CD deluxe versions creaking with armfuls of outtakes that were outtakes for a good reason, Def Leppard have cut to the chase. This newly remastered set is available as a single vinyl album in two vinyl packages: one pressed in standard black in a matching textured black sleeve, the other, the 2026 tour edition, on ‘blood red marbled’ vinyl in a picture sleeve.

The look of the minimalist first package begs comparison with Queen’s original Greatest Hits album from 1981. That shifted 25 million copies and became the band’s biggest seller, so it might also be what Leppard had in mind. But Queen’s collection ran for nearly an hour and had 17 tracks; Leppard’s lean, mean fighting machine clocks in at just under 48 minutes and settles for a (near) perfect 10. The Eagles’ 1976 collection – still the planet’s fifth-best-selling album of all time – had 10. Elton John went for 10 tracks, too, in 1984. And Leppard deserve a place among such company.

Def Leppard - Photograph - YouTube

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Dig into the 10 that made the cut here and you realise that this actually omits half a dozen Top 20 hits – but unless you rate Adrenalize or Retroactive as their best albums, you probably won’t miss ’em.

There’s nothing from the past 30 years, either, because it quite rightly majors on the alchemic touch of producer ‘Mutt’ Lange and his High ’n’ Dry, Pyromania and Hysteria masterworks. The one exception is When Love And Hate Collide from the band’s original hits album, Vault (actually an out-take from three years earlier), which peaked as the UK’s No.2 in October 1995.

So, what’s not to like? Well, not every track is a banger – there are three ‘power ballads’ in Hysteria, Love Bites and the aforementioned When Love And Hate Collide. Older fans might have preferred the first album’s Hello America to any one of those. Bringin’ On The Heartbreak sounds odd without its Switch 625 coda. And you could plead a case for Rocket (No.11 in February 1989) or best-loved Adrenalize track Let’s Get Rocked (their first No.2, in March ’92).

But really, stop being churlish and suck it up. The crux and scale-tipper is that 90 per cent of the songs in this collection are still knockin’ ’em dead in Leppard’s live sets.

Freelance contributor to Classic Rock and several of its offshoots since 2006. In the 1980s he began a 15-year spell working for Kerrang! intially as a cub reviewer and later as Geoff Barton’s deputy and then pouring precious metal into test tubes as editor of its Special Projects division. Has spent quality time with Robert Plant, Keith Richards, Ritchie Blackmore, Rory Gallagher and Gary Moore – and also spent time in a maximum security prison alongside Love/Hate. Loves Rush, Aerosmith and beer. Will work for food.