Retro Active

Retro Active is an album by British hard rock band Def Leppard, released in 1993. The album features touched-up versions of B-sides and previously unreleased recordings from the band's recording sessions between 1984 and 1993.

After releasing only three albums over the course of a decade, Def Leppard used Retro Active to break that habit, provide a treat for diehard fans, and close the door on the "Steve Clark" era of the band. It reached platinum sales in many countries.

Although many tracks were found on single releases, some parts were re-recorded on the road during the Adrenalize tour.

Two unfinished songs from the Hysteria recording sessions, "Desert Song" and "Fractured Love", were completed exclusively for the album. "Two Steps Behind", an acoustic ballad originally recorded in electric version, was given strings by conductor Michael Kamen and included onto the Last Action Hero soundtrack. It would become the band's last Top 20 single in the US, reaching #12.

The album also had covers, Sweet's "Action" (which would chart higher than the original in the UK) and Mick Ronson's "Only After Dark". Although guitarist Phil Collen had written "Miss You in a Heartbeat", it was released first on the self-titled 1991 debut by The Law, a band featuring Paul Rodgers and The Who drummer Kenny Jones.

The version of "Ride into the Sun" is not the version that appeared on the Def Leppard EP, but rather the 1987 re-recording. It differs slightly from the version of the recording used as a B-side in the Hysteria era, though. The one used as a B-side had a Rick Allen drum solo intro, whereas this one has a piano intro.

Retro Active features a hidden (final) track ; a piano/vocal version of "Miss You in a Heartbeat". It is the first Def Leppard album to feature songs recorded with newly added guitarist Vivian Campbell.

The album cover, by Nels Israelson and Hugh Syme, shows a lady sitting at a dressing table, looking in a mirror. However, if you hold the cover at arm's length or look at it from a distance, it takes the form of a skull ( a type of vanitas art), the woman's head forming the left eye socket, and her reflected head in the mirror forming the right eye socket. The mirror itself forms the shape of the skull and the accessories on the dressing table form the nose, nostrils and teeth. It was inspired by Charles Allan Gilbert's most famous work, All Is Vanity (1892).