10 Perfect Rock Songs Wasted On Terrible Albums

10. Long Long Way To Go - Def Leppard

Def Leppard has always suffered with a bit of an identity crisis throughout most of their career. Before they became the hair metal icons we know them as today, they were originally a hard rock band in line with the New Wave of British Heavy Metal. When they faced another setback once grunge kicked in though, X saw them go in the exact opposite direction of rock in the early ‘00s.

Compared to their other hair metal counterparts, there’s hardly any rock present on here, with the band trying to cash in on the modern sounds of the early ‘00s and sounding a lot more like Avril Lavigne than Bon Jovi. For an album that’s all straight pop songs though, it’s no surprise that the band still knocked it out of the park with the ballads, with Long Long Way To Go being one of the best slow burns they’ve made since their glory days. Sticking to acoustics for the first time since Two Steps Behind, this is pretty much a standard rock and roll ballad that found its way onto the track listing, with Joe Elliott wearing his heart on his sleeve about the long road he has to take to accept that his lover doesn’t want him anymore.

Even without pop producer Mutt Lange this time, the harmonies still sound better than ever, giving you that raspy version of the Queen-like vocal sound that Leppard were always masters at. X is definitely not any rock fan’s favorite Leppard album, but for a pop record, you can certainly do worse than a song like this.