Def Leppard nearly complete with "Sparkly" album

NEW YORK (Billboard) - British rock band Def Leppard is "about 85, 90 percent finished" with its next album, its first set of new material since 2002's "X," front man Joe Elliott said.

The album, tentatively titled "Songs From the Sparkle Lounge," runs the gamut from "classic Def Leppard" to "new wave-type sounding stuff," he told Billboard.com.

"There's definitely some moments on it where anybody that's familiar with our music will go, 'Whoa! I wasn't expecting that!' We've just been very adventurous, musically, on certain numbers."

The album title refers to a room the group maintained backstage during its 2006 tour dates, where the musicians would work on ideas.

"We've never, ever written on the road before, so this definitely came from a different head space," Elliott said.

He said Def Leppard finished 11 songs during month-long stints in January and April in Dublin. He expected the group to work on at least two more songs before settling on a final track list and release date. Def Leppard's most recent release was the 2006 covers collection "Yeah!" It promoted the set on a co-headlining tour with Journey.

But Elliott said the group won't preview any of the new songs on the road this summer, where it's touring mostly with Styx and Foreigner. "Nowadays, you play one song and it's gonna be on YouTube two minutes later and everyone will know it six months before the thing comes out," Elliott said. "That's just a sad indictment of the way things are."

Reuters/Billboard