As happy as I am that Mutt Lange continues to eschew the golf course in favour of the recording studio, I can’t help wishing that he’d retired his Def Leppard snare sound! Putting that aside, though, this production certainly exhibits that juggernaut directness that I associate with so many of Lange’s classic stadium–targeted productions, staking everything on the quality of the song, the performance/personality of the singer, and the song’s basic groove and sonic signature. Less confident producers (me included!) would probably have caved in to the temptation to tease the listener’s ear with additional layers, spot effects or section contrasts — one of Lange’s strengths is his ability to imagine himself into the head of the everyman first–time listener and then strip out anything that distracts from the essentials of that punter’s experience. We mere studio mortals effectively stop appreciating the importance of the bare bones of the track by the time we’ve heard it a hundred times during the recording and mixing process, so we tend to add extra arrangement frills for our own benefit that only serve to distract the less musically sophisticated majority of the public from what we actually most want them to buy into.

As admirable as it is, however, the Lange approach has one important downside: it leaves a less–than–stellar song and/or vocal performance with nowhere to hide. Oh well. Better luck next time, lads…