1187. Def Leppard / Pyromania. 1983. 5/5

As has been stated on other episodes of this podcast when it comes to retro-reviewing Def Leppard albums, for a band that was spoken of as one of the early leaders of the NWoBHM movement, they shirked that title at every turn, and rather than go down that path they chose their own, which mainly looked to try and crack the American rock market. And given the brilliance of their sophomore album “High N Dry”, which made a few inroads in that respect but perhaps not the break they were looking for, there was no doubt an even bigger push to have that occur with their follow up album.
Writing and recording of “Pyromania” was again not a particularly easy process. Recording took up most of 1982 as the band, along with producer “Mutt” Lange, searched for the sound that would propel them to the success they were looking to achieve. And while Def Leppard, even in their earliest form, could not be classed as heavy metal, the faster and heavier tracks from “High N Dry” still had the band labelled as such in many quarters. What can be seen on “Pyromania” is a band in transition. There are still the faster tracks here that showcase what the band had been like in their earliest days, bFor ut there are also the tracks here that, while not being pop songs as such, were beginning to develop more into songs that radio stations would be happy to pull up and play on rotation, which in 1983 was still the best way to sell albums.
Along with this, Pete Willis, whose alcoholism had caused some ructions within the group for some time, eventually found he had run out of chances. Towards the end of the recording process he had laid down all of his rhythm tracks for the album, but the band had lost its patience, and he was fired before the album was completed. In his place came Phil Collen, who with the support of Mutt Lange was encouraged to ‘just be a lead guitarist, jump around and have fun’ as he competed the album by coming up with his own lead guitar pieces to complement the songs and bring them all together. And when you listen to the album, you can hear that fun inspiration in the songs because of that. Some may say… well, I may say… that the greatness of the tracks here is that scintillating lead guitar work from the man who came in and gave the album the kick that pushes it into greatness.

For me, there is a common misconception when it comes to Def Leppard albums depending on the era you grew up in. Those who were early Def Leppard fans feel that this album is a diverse change from the first two albums, and that it signalled the real change in the band’s direction, whereas later fans feel that change didn’t occur until the following album “Hysteria”. If you were to play the first four albums back to back, I think you will agree that there is a maturing of the material and the production of each album, but that essentially the songs on “Pyromania” can be collated much more closely with “High N Dry” than with “Hysteria”.
There are the obvious singles here on “Pyromania” that have either been purpose-written to find their way onto radio airplay, or just naturally occurred that way. But none of those four songs could be accused of ‘selling out’ or drifting away from the overall theme of the album. “Too Late For Love” takes on that role lyrically and with a greater concentration of the chorused vocals that would come to define the later sound that the band took, but all three initial singles – “Photograph”, “Rock of Ages” and “Foolin’” are no less hard rock than the songs that came before them. “Photograph” was the song that really broke them in the US, and it had repeated playings of the music video on those video shows as well. The follow up “Rock of Ages” also did well, and perhaps drew in another section of fans because it wasn’t a typical radio friendly song of the day.
But the ore of the album is still, for me at least, that great hard rock style that Def Leppard had produced on their earlier albums. “Die Hard the Hunter” finishes off side one of the album in style, while the triumvirate that completes side two – “Comin Under Fire”, “Action Not Words” and “Billy’s Got a Gun”, are just superb, played and sung with a passion that still gives me goosebumps when I put the album on and listen to, and sing out loud, these songs.
The biggest change on “Pyromania” then was probably the production of Mutt Lange. Whereas “High N Dry” still had that gritty hard rock, almost live feeling about most of the tracks, a lot of that doesn’t exist in the same way here. “Stagefright” is the closest song here to being felt like it was a live song (probably for the faux crowd being inserted onto the track), and I can attest that a song like the opening track “Rock Rock til You Drop” sounds amazingly better live, because it is written to be a live song, but it doesn’t always come across that way here. Lange and no doubt the band was looking for a showpiece to present to the world, and that is exactly how it was prepared, and how it comes across.

The 1980’s decade was where Def Leppard found their way through numerous challenges and blockades to find the fame and sound that they wanted, and the success that it then brought. Nothing was easy about it, and they made lots of fans along the way, and probably lost a few as well.
“Pyromania” came to me by way of my high school metal music dealer, back in 1986, which was before the hype of “Hysteria” drew in every kind of music fan to say “DEF LEPPARD!!! WHOA!!!” And I can assure you that I adored this album at the time, and there were a LOT of bands and albums that I was getting into at the time, and for this to find its way above water level to keep being heard was a feat in itself. And I guess it was also fortunate that, given I didn’t first hear this until over three years after it was released, it didn’t have any new Def Leppard music to compete against it, given the length of time that came between albums. But what always impressed me, and allowed me to fall in love with this album, was that while it wasn’t the traditional heavy metal of Iron Maiden and Black Sabbath or the thrash metal of Metallica that I was gorging on at the time, nor was it soft core. These songs have a great hard rock base, solid drumming from Rick Allen, an awesome bass sound from Rick Savage, sensational guitars from Steve Clark and Phil Collen, and those amazing unique vocals from Joe Elliott, along with the harmony backing vocals that a lot of bands I was listening to at the time just didn’t have. They mixed all of that together to have songs you cold sing along to at the top of your voice, and play air drums and air guitar along to, and make them so catchy that as soon as the album finished, you just had to put it on again to hear them all again. The momentum of the album is never bogged down, each song carries itself and is both wonderful it itself and as a part of the whole.
Having had this on my stereo in the Metal Cavern for the past two weeks on constant rotation, I am still not sick of it. I have it going right now in the background as I record this podcast episode. And it has again raised in my head the question “what is my favourite Def Leppard album?” Because whenever I listen to “High N Dry”, I think it is that album. And now? Well. Honestly. How can you go past this work of art as the best that Def Leppard has produced?

1171. Def Leppard / X. 2002. 1.5/5

The 1990’s had been a journey for Def Leppard, one that had built a wedge between fans of the band. “Adrenalize” had made some subtle changes to the band’s sound but still topped charts around the world. Then came “Slang”, the band’s first album with Vivian Campbell, and the desire to create something very different from their usual music made this an album that created an impasse. Then came “Euphoria”, where the band had tended to feel that they had gone too far on the previous album, and that they needed to reinfuse some of their harder rock roots back into their material. So it was a decade where the band probably experimented with their sound more than they ever had done previously. Sales were still good, but not anywhere near the extent as they had had with “Hysteria” and “Adrenalize”, concerts still sold out, but exactly which direction was Def Leppard trying to head in? Taking in all of the changes that had occurred in recent years with the hard rock genre, stretching to industrial and nu-metal, and the fact that the band had gravitated (somewhat) back towards their hard rock roots on their previous album, would this dictate their sound going forward? As it turns out, the answer to that was ‘no’. Instead, much like they did with the “Slang” album, they came back towards the popular side of music, and created an album that was more pop rock than anything else. And does anyone remember those times, and the style of songs that were being played on the radio back in 2002? Beyond Bon Jovi’s “It’s My Life” single, which seemed to eat up the airwaves the year before this album was released, that kind of rock nostalgia track had grown in popularity, and in some ways, Def Leppard tried to create their own variant of that with the songs on this album.

If you are going to listen to this album – and to be honest the ‘if’ is implied heavily – you really have to be able to approach it from two points of view. Because without that, you will either believe it is one of the best pop albums ever released, or one of the biggest travesties from a once great band ever released. And my opinion at the conclusion of the review resides heavily in one court.
So here you go. Do NOT come into this album as a fan of Def Leppard. Whatever your age bracket, whatever your preferred genre of music is, come into this album and accept that this is as close to a 1980’s pop album as you are going to come to for an album released in 2002. So pretend you are 15 again, living in the early 1980’s, and only listen to the radio and the tracks they play. If you do, I guarantee you will get more out of this album than if you come in thinking “oh good! Another Def Leppard album! I wonder if this is as good as Pyromania!”
Will this actually help you get the most out of the album? I think so, and I’ve listened to it a lot over the last 2-3 weeks. There are the full blown ballad tracks such as “Long Long Way to Go” and “Four Letter Word” and “Let Me Be the One”, completely and especially designed for radio airplay and to generate sales from a new target audience. What interests me about this with singles sales is that none of the singles released from this album really charted at all, and though most of this was because file sharing had begun to shrink music sales drastically, my opinion is that it was also because this style of song at that time was not as popular as perhaps these bands thought they were. Nickelback and Creed were filling the void that the old Def Leppard had left, and selling more albums and singles as a result along with Linkin Park and Evanescence. These bands were treading along lines that Def Leppard had created, but were now outstripping them because they either crooned power ballads a bit harder or they were transcending the power of the “High n Dry” and “Pyromania” era into their songs. To me, a single that might have really worked in that era was “Love Don’t Lie”, one that retained the sentimentality that the band was obviously now looking for, but at least had a bit more rock to it and a little guitar riffing to inspire listeners. But no, they went with the two obviously ballads and the opening track instead.
Then there is a track like “Gravity” that sounds like it is trying to recreate a song like ‘Armageddon It’ from “Hysteria” with its attempted upbeat vocal, but it really does fall flat, as I guess you may expect. And there is so much generic material here. “Girl Like You”, “Torn to Shreds”, “Scar”, “Kiss the Day”, “Everyday”... I mean, yes, if this is marketed and approached as a pop album, you have a chance to enjoy it all the way through. If you don’t... well....

The last few weeks have been eye and ear opening in regards to Def Leppard. I have reviewed, and therefore listened to a LOT, four albums from four different eras of the band, and this is by far the most polarising. I had this following Hysteria on my playlist for a few weeks, and the amount this album pales in comparison to that is even more stark when you hear them both back to back like that so often.
It remains completely ridiculous to me, and I’m sure I’ve said this before, that a band with Phil Collen and Vivian Campbell on guitars has so little material that truly showcases their abilities on their instruments. When you see the band live, they both shred, and they are both awesome. Here they barely have to get out of first gear when it comes to playing, apart from the very end of “Kiss the Day” where you FINALLY get some guitar action, but overall it remains my biggest disappointment of this band over the past 30 years. There is no Mutt Lange here curating the material, and pushing the band for perfection. It is, indeed, a new era.
I don’t own this album, indeed I never had the desire to go out and buy it at the time. I heard the singles on the radio at the time (not as much as I heard Bon Jovi and Nickelback and others of that ilk), and there was no need to delve any further. And now here we are, 20 years later, and over the past month I have listened to this album... I would say... ten times more in that period than I had in the almost 20 years before that. And as I have probably intimated already, this just isn’t for me. At work it has been a pleasant enough distraction. It’s a little bit like elevator music, it's there in the background and it provides a nice ambience while I tap away at the keyboard. It’s harmless pop. But the test of any album is to go home, and listen to it in the Metal Cavern, with the stereo at an appropriate volume to get the full effects. And this album fails that completely. I am sure there are fans out there who love this album. They definitely listen to a different genre of music than I do.

1166. Def Leppard / Diamond Star Halos. 2022. 2/5

Like the rest of the world, Def Leppard has been in covid isolation for the better part of the last three years, and while they rested up in their own parts of the world, there was no doubt a need for a reflection on where they stood in the world, and just where they wanted to head once the pandemic had receded. This is the band’s first new album since their self-titled effort in 2015, after which a world tour playing “Hysteria” in its entirety took greater precedence. Well, they know what is going to sell tickets.
We could have a whole new entry started up to discuss how the music in Def Leppard’s discography has progressed from 1979 up to the present day. And while the band has never strayed from the fact that they wanted to be a rock band, not a metal band or any other type of band, it seems as though even that statement has changed over the years. The further infusing of less heavy styles of music in their songs and albums over the years has been obvious. But through that, there appeared some hope of a recovery. “Songs from the Sparkle Lounge” actually had some really good songs on it, and a recovery of sorts stating their wish to infuse the music of their heroes from the 1970’s in their current day music, and the well-received early single released from this album, seemed to indicate that this might be the album that saw the band give us a really good hard rock album for the first time in years.

The album kicks off with the excellent rock groove of “Take What You Want”, an early indication of what style of songs this album is going to produce. It is a very 1970’s glam rock AOR beginning, in perfect Def Leppard style which gives it its relatability to the modern time. Rick Savage co-wrote this track with Joe Elliott, and also wrote the closing track on the album “From Here to Eternity” which also references that age with the same feeling of T-Rex and Queen. “Kick” is a typical Phil Collen penned track, maintaining a familiar structure of song and riff, while allowing both guitarists to showcase their exceptional solo skills for a short space of the song set aside for it. It never ceases to amaze me on Def Leppard albums, with two such fabulous and highly credentialled guitarists in the band, that on the albums at least there is not room for more soloing between the two. I know they want pop rock songs, ones that are basically radio bites, but surely the occasional break out of guitar feuding would be a great addition.
The album contains a lot of harmless songs of that same calibre that I spoke of – the Def Leppard pop-rock. “Fire it Up”, “SOS Emergency”, “U Rok Mi”, “Open Your Eyes”, “Unbreakable”. And then you have the quieter ballad-style Leppard tracks, such as “Liquid Dust”, “Goodbye for Good This Time”, “All We Need”, “Gimme a Kiss”, “Angels (Can’t Help You Now)” - the ones that scream radio airplay... well, in the late 80’s and into the 90’s at least. I’m not sure they will work the same way in this day and age. Two of them, “This Guitar” and “Lifeless”, feature guest vocals from Alison Krauss, which also brings in the country and western style onto the album. It’s all very easy listening stuff, the kind of tracks that can crossover for the band to draw fans from several genres of music loving folk. You know the drill. Def Leppard aren’t going to be re-inventing the wheel at this stage of their careers. The band knows, and the two principal writers in Elliott and Collen know, that their bread is buttered very much on one side now, and that’s what brings in the cash.

I haven’t purchased a Def Leppard album since “Slang”, and I haven’t done so again here, instead utilising the streaming music service to listen to the album. And there is a very simple reason why – because now that this review is done, and I am about to publish this review, I see no reason to ever listen to this album again. Now that isn’t a statement about its quality, or the skills of the musicians involved. It is simply that the style of music that Def Leppard has played for almost the last 30 years just doesn’t excite me at all. They have gone their own path, and I most definitely went on a different one. And the sugar coated soft metal ballads are ones that by now, when it comes to Def Leppard, you become immune to. But I must admit, when we have these country and western ballad songs, such as the duets with Alison Krauss, I really am in a quandary as to what is going on. This is where they cross over another line that surely no one ever thought they would. To be honest, I’m not sure there are any further lines they can cross.
If I am in the mood to listen to a Def Leppard album, I will always head to any of those first five studio albums. They are the ones that sit proudest on my CD shelves. Those albums and the songs are what I love about the band. Everything from that point on has been a completely different style, and not one that appeals to me much at all. And given the excitement and burst of tingling sensations I got when I first heard the two singles the band released off this album before its release, the end result is a little disappointing. But as I said, with Def Leppard, you know what you are getting, and if you enjoy what it is they are releasing then you will probably love this album, and if you are of my vintage and grew up with a different band, you will probably sigh and nod knowingly as you move on to the next band and album being released, and never look back.

864. Def Leppard / Mirror Ball: Live & More. 2011. 4/5

It is perhaps a little unusual that it took this long for Def Leppard to release a live album. Most of us purchased the live VHS video of In the Round, in Your Face on its release back in 1989 which is still one of the standard bearers of live videos, with a cracking set list and the band at the top of its game, and featuring the sadly passed Steve Clark. It was not for another two decades that we had a repeat to be placed on CD for us all.

Mirror Ball: Live & More covers the majority of eras of the band, harping on the golden albums for the majority of the tracks, and for the most part delivering in all respects. From the top you can be assured that the band still sounds fantastic. Rick Savage's bass could probably be more prominent in the mix, but you get that sometimes. Both guitars of Phil Collen and Viv Campbell are brilliant, as are all of the back up vocalists, they really do a sterling job in the live environment in keeping the song balanced. Joe Elliott's vocals are remarkably good, and hold up exceptionally well especially on the older material. Where he really screamed it out in his youth, he now sings with composure. Best of all for me is the drumming of Rick Allen. I love how he has moved back to a semi-acoustic kit to get that real drum sound rather than a completely electric kit, and you can still marvel at the way he plays some of those rolls alternating between his arm and his feet. His kit sounds brilliant on this album.
You will always get an argument with me about the best set list, because it will always contain material from the years after 1992, from which point I find it hard to give an unbiased opinion of their music. And even some of the songs before that are too flowery or sugary for me to enjoy fully, such as "Love Bites", "Hysteria" and "Pour Some Sugar On Me" (which doesn't stop me singing all the words). So songs such as "C'mon C'mon", "Make Love Like a Man", "Two Steps Behind" and "Nine Lives" are ones that just slow the whole listening process down. I understand that there are plenty of people out there who love this songs, but I can't be numbered amongst them.
But check out the great stuff, starting off on the front foot with "Rock! Rock! (Till You Drop)", "Rocket" and "Animal", before later serving up "Too Late for Love", "Foolin'", "Rock of Ages" and "Let's Get Rocked". there is also the wonderful acoustically started and electrically finished "Bringin' On the Heartbreak", before my favourite part of the album when they continue on, as is done on High 'n' Dry, straight into "Switch 625". Awesome. Brilliant. I must also mention the great version of "Bad Actress" from the Songs From the Sparkle Lounge album, which is my favourite track from that album and comes up great here.
There are also the two cover songs that came from the Yeah! album, those being David Essex's "Rock On' and Sweet's "Action", neither of which fill me with any ecstasy. Also as a part of the 2 CD package there are three new songs, those being "Undefeated", "Kings of the World" and "It's All About Believin'", which are no better or worse than anything recently released by the band. Except "Kings of the World". It is pretty awful.

So there are no real arguments here. As a live album performance wise it is terrific. It showcases the band in its most favourable light and gives the fans something to listen to in that environment. As a collection of songs it has its moments and its lacklustre ones as well.

Rating:  And I want, and I need, and I lust.  4/5

706. Def Leppard / Viva! Hysteria. 2013. 4.5/5

Earlier in 2013, Def Leppard took up a short term residency in Las Vegas. The highlight of this was that for the first time the band was going to play their biggest selling album, Hysteria, in full every night. Obviously this created quite a surge of interest, and given that it was going to be a limited season, and that it would only occur in the one city, there was little doubt that it would be released both audibly and visually so that fans from all around the world could enjoy the occasion. Thus we are presented with Viva! Hysteria.

Playing the entire album live more than 25 years after its release must have been a gamble, but it the end it is a triumph. Joe Elliott's voice, which I always felt was perhaps going to be the major issue in attempting most of these songs, covers all steps wonderfully. Of course, given that the majority of the songs on this album have still remained in the band's setlist over the years certainly helped. But the first time I put on Viva! Hysteria was a trip down memory lane. It took me all the way back to 1987, the year I finished high school, and played the original Hysteria over and over. The band here is terrific, not only instrumentally but vocally. Everything comes together in a great performance of a terrific album. My favourite songs from the album were always "Animal", "Gods of War" and "Run Riot", and they are still the best songs here. The performance is completed by the addition of two of the band's biggest songs from the Pyromania album, "Rock of Ages' and "Photograph". Terrific stuff.

But wait - there's more! And what's more, the extras are even better! In support to themselves each night, the band came on under the assumed name of Ded Flatbird, which apparently was one of the misheard names the band was called in their early days. On separate nights, the band would play a different setlist as the support band, containing songs that they hadn't performed live for years. For me, the great part was that the majority of these songs were from their first two albums which have been buried in the mists of time. And it is a real buzz to hear the band play songs like "Good Morning Freedom", which was only ever released on the single for "Hello America" off their debut album On Through the Night. Brilliant. Then add other songs from that album such as "Wasted" and "Rock Brigade" - how is a song like "Rock Brigade" not in their setlists more often? I love it. Then there is the brilliant "Mirror Mirror (Look Into My Eyes)" from High 'n' Dry. But it is the second support gig that really smokes, headed up by "On Through the Night" and "Slang", before playing the entire Side A (for those that remember the vinyl release) of the brilliant High 'n' Dry album - "Let it Go", "Another Hit and Run", "Saturday Night (High 'n' Dry)", "Bringin' on the Heartbreak" and "Switch 625". Just fantastic! What an awesome spectacle for those that got to attend this gig on that night.

Fans of Def Leppard - certainly those that have been fans since the 1980's - will love this. Not only is it a homage to their most popular and biggest selling album, it pays respect to many of the songs that paved the way for that album, and ones that haven't been performed in a long, long time, as well as the sprinkling of other songs from the era since that found their foundation in Hysteria. This CD/DVD set is a wonderful moment in time, one that all Def Leppard fans will love.

649. Def Leppard / Yeah! 2006. 2.5/5

There is a certain art to preparing and recording a covers album. Obviously, in the majority of cases, the songs that you cover are going to be ones that influenced you at sometime in your life, whether it was to get you started into playing a musical instrument, or as a band influenced the way you go about writing your own songs. Whether those songs actually relate to your listening audience, and then translate into sales of the said covers album, is another thing altogether.

Def Leppard come from a different  set of influences than many of their so-called contemporary bands. That is very well defined by the selection of songs they perform on this album. It is an eclectic bunch of mostly early1970's bands, and the songs themselves are most often from the experimental psychedelic form of music that was still prevalent during the early part of that decade, or the straight rock variety. No metal or early forms of that music here, and that isn't surprising given the band's constant statement that they don't consider themselves a metal band of any description.
Quite simply, if you are of the band's vintage, then you too would have grown up with these songs, and you probably know them all, and have a very good chance of liking them. If you are a bit younger, and grew up listening to Def Leppard rather than the other way around, then you may well have missed most of this class of music. That doesn't mean you won't or can't like them, but it may not be a familiar style of music for you.
Songs like T.Rex's "20th Century Boy", Blondie's "Hangin' on the Telephone" (which is apparently by a band called The Nerve, but to me it will always be Blondie), Sweet's "Hell Raiser", Roxy Music's "Street Life", Thin Lizzy's "Don't Believe a Word" and David Bowie's "Drive-In Saturday" are the songs here that I find the best, the ones with a bit of rock about them. Some of the songs Def Leppard had no say over, because I have always hated David Essex's "Rock On" and every version of "He's Gonna Step On You Again".

Those who like this 70's music and enjoy Def Leppard will get the most out of this album. Those that don't may find it is boring and boorish. My advice is to give it a chance. because there are some gems to be found here, perhaps most of all Phil Collen singing "Stay With Me" by Faces (Rod Stewart's group for those not in the know). It's a great version, and well worth listening to. This album took me a few listens before I began to get much out of it, but once I was in I found that not only did it give me a better perspective of Def Leppard the band, but also of the artists they had covered. Again, as with all cover albums, it is rare that I pull this out to listen to. Now, however, i don't have any qualms about it when I do.

555. Def Leppard / On Through the Night. 1980. 4/5

The beginnings of what would become the band Def Leppard can be traced back to three students who were attending Tapton School in Sheffield, England. Bass guitarist Rick Savage, along with drummer Tony Kenning and guitarist Pete Doubleday, all attended school together and decided to form a band, initially named Atomic Mass in 1976. The following year, a second guitarist was added in the form of Pete Willis. As is always the case when a band has formed, especially in high school, there were a lot of comings and goings to the line-up. Several changes occurred through the months of 1977 including three different lead vocalists. Towards the end of 1977, Willis had a chance meeting with an 18-year-old named Joe Elliott when he had missed a bus. Fortuitous it turned out to be, as Elliott then tried out for the band...as a guitarist. However, it was during his audition that it was decided by the rest of the band that he would be better suited as lead singer of the band, and as such his place was set.
Elliott’s next major piece in the band’s puzzle was to propose a new name, that being “Deaf Leopard”, spelt as such. Apparently, this was a name that he thought of while he was designing band posters in art class at school. This seemed to go across well, although Tony Kenning did suggest that the spelling was slightly modified to make it seem less like the name of a punk band, the genre with whom the band was currently in competition with at that time in the UK. Which is why we have the now well-known spelling of as such. In January 1978 the band was back to one guitarist, Pete Willis, and decided to audition for a second guitarist replacement. It was at this time that Steve Clark arrived on the scene. According to an interview with Elliott, Clark secured his spot in the band by playing Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Free Bird" in its entirety during his audition. The band then played extensively through the UK for much of the year, before deciding to record an EP. However, in November 1978, just prior to recording sessions for the three-song release that would become known as “The Def Leppard E.P”, Kenning abruptly left the band. With a fast option required to complete the recording, he was replaced for those sessions by well-known drummer Frank Noon. Sales of the EP soared after the track "Getcha Rocks Off" was championed by BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel, an influential person at the time in the cause of emerging punk and hard rock bands considered at the time. By the end of the month, Rick Allen, then only 15 years old, had joined the band as its full-time drummer.
On the back of the success of the EP and their constant gigging, Def Leppard found a devoted following through the UK. The burgeoning NWoBHM movement had taken them on board, though the band themselves never felt as though they belonged in the group of bands that were being coined with that term. While their sound did fit in nicely to what those British bands were producing at the time, their music direction was closer formed to the bands they admired from the 1970’s rock and glam era, and their focus was firmly on making a break into North America. Their growing popularity led to a record deal, and on the back of changing their management team the band spent December of 1979 in Startling Studio in Berkshire recording what would become their debut studio album, titled “On Through the Night”.

The album opens with the hard blazing styles of “Rock Brigade”, a song that praises their fan base and gives them an anthem to sing along to from the very beginning. It’s a great start to the album, and gives their fans of their harder material a song to grab a hold of and ride down the wave with. “Hello America” on the other hand is a very direct message to everyone across the pond from where Def Leppard were currently plying their trade. And that message was – here is a very commercial hard rock song that we think will appeal to your audiences, and the lyrics themselves are pointedly asking you to love us and adore us, and will you please take us on? It is a real change from the opening track on the album and of course is a pointed as to where they wanted their music to go in the future. So, although it did appear to alienate some of the local media and some of their local fans, it was an indication from very early on that they wanted to make it big in America, and if the rest of the world followed that would be great.
“Sorrow is a Woman” is a song of two parts, again with the first half trying to incorporate itself into a soft rock ballad with the kind of AOR sound that was proliferating the US FM radio market at the time, and was of the kind of genre their favourite bands were making music in. “It Could Be You” picks things back up again nicely, moving along at a good clip and with a great bassline throughout and a nice solo slot for the two guitars to fill in. Joe’s vocals don’t seem to be able to find their calling in this song though, they are a bit hard up and almost break as he reaches for the higher tones. “Satellite” again moves along like a softer rock song, never really getting out of second gear and with Joe singing effectively but not with a real feeling in his voice. The solo section again comes across as the best of the song with Clark and Willis delivering again. “When the Walls Came Tumbling Down” is perhaps the one song on this album that showcases the band’s love of prog rock and then deciding to incorporate it into their own music. The verses seem muted and yet musically crashing into each other, before the chorus kicks in and becomes more streamlined with the lyrics and then the guitars and drums breaking into their own artform.
Side Two kicks off with the awesome “Wasted”, where we get as close as Def Leppard can on this album being the heavy metal band many wanted them to be. The music is terrific, Clark and Willis’s riffing throughout here is superb, and driving along with the great drumming from Rick Allen and bass line from Ric Savage. Joe’s vocals don’t really go to full throttle though, preferring to sit back without extending themselves into ta stratosphere that would really have made this an all-time classic metal track. Steve Clark’s soloing in this song is superb. This is followed by the perfect riposte in “Rocks Off”, which sticks to that perfect hard and heavy tempo with a great riff again. The bass riff from Savage underneath again is ripping and holds the song together throughout, joined in the middle of the song by Allen terrific drum beat that pushes the song to a harder tone again, followed by Clark’s solo again. The faux live sound is unnecessary but adds its piece at the song’s conclusion. “Don’t Matter” is reminiscent of this era of the band Kiss in tempo and on off staccato guitars with Joe singing over the top in the gaps. A change of singer would almost have you believing it was from another band. Deliberate or coincidence? You be the judge. “Answer to the Master” has the kitchen sink thrown at it musically. Everyone gets a chance to shine within the song, Allen’s solo drum piece, Savage’s excellent bassline up and down the fretboard is particularly impressive here even though it is low in the mix, and both Wills and Clark have the chance to individualise their solo.
The album concludes with “Overture” which initially appeared on the debut EP. This is a return to their prog rock loves, the longest track on the album at almost eight minutes, and reminiscent in places of Rush and bands of their ilk. It is so unlike the music that they went on to make over the rest of their career that it is still almost a shock when you listen to this album and get to this final track. It is completely out of place on the album, and yet it is a terrific song. It’s one that it is very unlikely that the fan base that came on to the band anytime after this album was released would even know was a Def Leppard song. And that is a great shame.

Is there are reason that this album doesn’t quite match up to the next two in their catalogue? For me, there is a distinct lack of true energy and excitement in the delivery of the majority of these songs. As they are written they certainly seem to have all the ingredients you need to push this hard and make it a really great hard to heavy album. And perhaps that is the first indication that Def Leppard didn’t want to BE that, because most of the tracks here have the bones to do so, and the soloing of both Steve Clark and Pete Willis is generally where the songs sound at their best as they both push to increase that energy, but as to the rest of the song – in almost every song – it feels like the band is turning up to work but only putting in the bare minimum. Perhaps that is a harsh judgement, but this album has always annoyed me because of the perceived perception that here is a perfectly good debut album that could be a real headbanger, and yet it doesn’t often live up to that. Songs like “Rock Brigade” and “It Could Be You” and “Satellite” and “Answer to the Master” should have been hard rock anthems, but they lack that vital kick over the top both musically and vocally that would have done that, and that could only have been a deliberate decision to keep them how they are.
These are the musings from someone who adores the band’s second and third albums. The first Def Leppard album I heard was “Pyromania” which came via my heavy metal music dealer, and I just loved that album to pieces, which is in fact what eventually happened to the cassette he recorded it onto for me, through overuse. I then got “High and Dry”, which I loved just as much if not more, and then came the release of “Hysteria” which blew up all over the world. So, when I finally picked up a copy of this album after all that excitement and brilliance, I was obviously expecting more of the same from their debut album. It is quite possible I was overhyped and expected too much. Well, no, that wasn’t it. What I wanted was a hard rock come heavy metal album like the first two albums of the band that I’d heard. And what I found is almost as I have described earlier. I heard an album that was… heavy metal adjacent. It was an album with songs that sounded like they wanted to be heavy metal songs of the era of its release, but the band who composed them wanted something… not quite that.
I’ve had the album on again this week, and it has been great. It really is an excellent debut album. I have offered some slight criticisms here of the album, but only from the point of view of what I was hoping for rather than what it is. It sounds like albums released in that era in the UK, and you can hear why they were spoken of as one of the leaders of that new wave. But the band themselves weren’t interested in that, they already had their eyes on another direction.
Of Def Leppard’s 12 studio albums to this point, this is ranked #4 on my list. It has the most varied song material of any Def Leppard album and as a result is still a great listen. It is a shame that, for the most part, the band seems to ignore this part of their history, which is a real shame.

518. Def Leppard / Hysteria. 1987. 4/5

On the back of the excellent “Pyromania”, Def Leppard’s third studio album, there’s no doubting that the band felt that they had a real opportunity to springboard off that success, and parlay that into a bigger and more conclusive success with their next album. No doubt the idea was to get it written and recorded, and out among the masses, to funnel back into the next big world tour. Of course that wasn’t to be.
The album process was marred by several different incidents that caused the lengthy delay between albums. Firstly the band’s successful producer and collaborator, Mutt Lange, pulled out of the album early on, citing exhaustion from a never ending schedule he had been keeping. This meant a change that the band hadn’t been expecting, and they went through several producers in a short space of time – Jim Steinman (of Meat Loaf’s ‘Bat Out of Hell’ fame), Neil Dorfsman (of Dire Straits’ ‘Brothers in Arms’ fame) and Nigel Green (a future co-producer of Iron Maiden albums) were all brought in, and all three were found not to be conducive. All of the initial recording sessions were eventually scrapped.
Secondly, drummer Rick Allen flipped his Corvette on a country road on NYE 1984, and eventually had to have his left arm amputated as a result. This was a massive trauma for Allen and his bandmates, but from the outset he was adamant that he would return to his drumkit and continue with the band, and the band was fully supportive of this. Along with the time it would have taken for his convalescence, it meant coming up with a combination acoustic and electronic kit that he would be able to play to trigger snare and tom beats that he would normally have played with his left arm. All of this took time and tweaking, which slowed up the actual writing process as well. In some ways this was fortunate, as because of the length of time taken to get the album underway, Mutt Lange reappeared on the scene and agreed to produce the album again. Of course, this couldn’t be the end of it, and Lange then was away for a period of time due to his own car accident, and then singer Joe Elliott contracted mumps which put him out of action for another period as well. This might all seem like a normal time period of albums in the modern age, where bands can go 3-5 years between releases. But in the 1980’s, record companies were pushing bands to release albums every 12-18 months in order to get their vial of blood from their contractors. So for a band to go four and a half years between albums was almost unheard of. And the hype for the release of the album was real, and the first single “Animal”, that came out the week before “Hysteria's” release, was pushed on music video shows heavily to promote it. Now it came time to wait for the fans response to what they had been waiting so very long for.

One of the most interesting quotes from the band in regards to how they wrote “Hysteria” came from Mutt Lange, who was quoted as saying that the band wrote every song as though it was going to be a potential hit single. So not just writing songs and riffs and lyrics, but the actual aim for each song to a chart topping single. In the end, seven of the 12 songs on the album WERE released as singles, so I guess they succeeded in their plan. But it does actually explain a lot about the album and the songs it holds, when you listen to them both collectively and on their own. Because there are similar qualities in each of the songs that bind them together to this album and this era of the band, and then if you throw them into a playlist and press random, you can actually here them as individual songs that have those qualities to be released as singles.
The album can be divided up into three sections, in my opinion at least. You have the pop songs, the ones that are specifically designed to be attractive to the radio-listening public, and in the majority the female fans. Because they are the pop ballads, or soft rock songs that are inoffensive to those kinds of fans. And you know what those songs are - “Love Bites”, the full on soft rock ballad, “Pour Some Sugar on Me”, the more rock variant of the genre, and the final song written for the album, the title track “Hysteria” and the closing track “Love and Affection”. All but “Love and Affection” were released as singles for that radio-friendly market. They are evenly spaced throughout the album so that they don’t dominate it but are obvious in their appearance. Then you have the middle ground songs, the ones that stretch that ground between the soft rock tracks to the hard rock tracks. And again, know which ones they are – the opening track “Women”, the follow up “Rocket”, the last track on side one “Armageddon It”, and the side two track “Excitable”. All but “Excitable” were released as singles, no doubt to counteract the soft rock singles to show their older fans that they still had the ability to write the kind of songs they had in the past. And then there is the final group of songs, the ones that for the fans of “High N Dry” and “Pyromania” are probably still their favourite songs from this album – the first single “Animal” that hinted at the album being as rocking as the first three albums, the brilliant “Gods of War” that combined the brilliant atmosphere of the bass and drum beginning into the guitars riffing in and Joe’s vocals combining to create such as great song, “Don’t Shoot Shotgun” that picks up the energy immediately following it, and then “Run Riot”, the fastest, heaviest song on the album that truly proves that def Leppard still had plenty to offer that side of music. Is it a coincidence that these final three songs start off Side 2 of this album, picking everything up and driving you through the middle of the album? I don’t know, but as I said, the track list does have a hot and cool kind of vibe throughout, with high octane thrills followed by cool down vibes, and then back again. Perhaps this is part of the reason that it has held its charm for all of these years.

I guess in some ways I’ve been fortunate in that I was involved in the great Def Leppard love-fest that occurred with the release of this album back in 1987, and was one of the people that pushed my non-heavy metal loving friends into enjoying it too. And I am also the older, slightly more cynical listener of the album today, having experienced what has followed this album in the past 35 years. Time and insight can certainly provide different perspectives, or at least allow those perspectives to change through that passage of time.
From the perspective of the 17 and 18 year old back when this was released, I thought it was just brilliant. It wasn’t as heavy as the other bands I was infatuated with at the time, and it was certainly different from their earlier releases, but hey, they’d had a few dramas in recording the album, and their drummer had lost an arm, so give ‘em a break! Still, even then it was the heav(ier) tracks that grabbed my attention, and the softer ones I tolerated because I loved the album so much. Again, perhaps because they had made that track list so well that it managed to cover up any real qualms that I may have had with a couple of the songs, I eventually owned all three formats of this album – cassette, vinyl and CD, and it was played on rotation for probably a good 12 months before it finally found other material replacing it. It was a gem.
That is the retrospective.
Swing back to the present, and the two dozen or more times I have again listened to it over the last few weeks, coincidently along with their brand new album that I reviewed a few episodes ago, and one from 20 years ago that will have its own episode coming up shortly on this podcast. And there are a few things that still stand out for me now, 35 years later. There is no denying that the album is still catchy, and that a few of the songs still hold their own after all these years. “Rocket”, “Animal”, “Gods of War”, “Run Riot” and “Don’t Shoot Shotgun” are still my favourite songs from the album, which was the case back in the day as well, and given they are what I have classified earlier as the hard rock tracks on the album I guess that is no surprise.
If one was to try and pinpoint when the slide for this band began, perhaps it was the super success they had with the slower and sugary songs that came from this album – “Pour Some Sugar On Me”, “Love Bites”, “Hysteria” and “Love and Affection”. Sure, they are fine in their place, but they certainly don’t rate in the higher bracket on this album for those that enjoy their music hard and heavy. But their success must surely have directed the band down the path that their music has taken in the past 35 years, and in many ways that is a real shame, but that direction can be seen occurring here on “Hysteria”, and if that’s what the band wants... well... you can only admire them for sticking to their guns, so to speak.
Back to Hysteria however. I know I now rate this album slightly lower than I did all those years ago – partly through a change in the style of metal I prefer, and partly through my disappointment in the direction the band has taken since. Would Steve Clark’s head be spinning? I don’t know. "Hysteria” still brings back great memories of the band and the time for me, especially as yet another album from the year of 1987, where every listen brings back great memories of that time of my life. And having seen them play this entire album live prior to covid in Sydney, with my then 11 year old son singing every word beside me... well, you can’t argue with that, can you...

491. Def Leppard / High and Dry. 1981. 5/5

The reason that I started out (almost three years ago) to catalogue, rate and review all of my albums was because I was sure that there had to be brilliant albums I had totally forgotten about as my collection grew so large, and I wanted to hear them again. That has proven to be the case. Until I put High and Dry on my iPod two weeks ago, I had forgotten just how exceptional this album is. It has rarely been off my playlist since.

THESE were the days when Def Leppard was a band, when they wrote songs that had attitude, great rolling lyrics and a bit of edge to their music. Back in the day when they could certainly be classed as hard rock, with great riffs and great vocal melodies with Joe Elliott at his finest.

There is not a weak moment on this album. Each song has great anthemic sections, where you just can't help but sing along like you are in an English pub 30 years ago. Side One (for those that remember it on vinyl) is just sensational, incorperating the three great rocking tunes to start, moving into the single "Bringin' on the Heartbreak", which was basically the song that got me into Def Leppard in the day, and the brilliant instrumental "Switch 625". Awesome stuff. Side Two may not quite be as brilliant, but it loses nothing in comparison.

Has this album grown in my estimation purely from the fact that I haven’t listened to it for the better part of fifteen years, and that the stuff Def Leppard have released in that timeframe I consider to be pure trash? It’s a fair point, and may have a great deal of truth attached to it. Believe me, having indulged in the album a great deal in the past fortnight, the two things I have wondered is ‘why have I not listened to this in so long’ and ‘why can’t they put out an album like this now?’
But it isn’t the whole truth. When I first listened to it again, I remembered how much I loved it, and remembered sitting in front of the stereo with the album cover in my hands (ahhh, the days of vinyl…).This is Def Leppard at their best, when they were still a hard rock band and hadn't begun to soften and sweeten themselves into the parody they are now. The fact that it is rare to see a song from this album on their current playlist sums their current position up for me.

Rating: A brilliant snapshot of a band in their ultimate element. 5/5

282. Def Leppard / Euphoria. 1999. 2.5/5.

For better or for worse, Def Leppard had chosen their path musically through the mid-1980's, systematically abandoning their hard rock roots as each album progressed, and becoming more of the commercial rock band that they were searching for, especially in their dominance of the American and UK markets. With albums such as “Hysteria” and “Adrenalize” they had crossed over from hard rock icon to popular music gargantuan, and in the process becoming one of the biggest bands in the world.
As the music world changed through the 1990’s however, the band had to decide if they were going to continue along the same path or look to adapt to what was occurring and make themselves more accessible in this regard. The result was the album “Slang”, on which the sound produced was a departure from what they had done before, along with being the first album in 15 years without the input of producer Mutt Lange.
Three years on, and while for “Slang” there seems to have been a conscious decision to try something different from the sound they had always played, here on the follow up “Euphoria” the attitude basically came with a ‘don’t rule OUT the past completely’ attitude. And while Pete Woodroffe retained his position as producer of the album, Mutt Lange did return to the studio for a short time to not only help pen three tracks for the album, but sing back ups on those three songs as well. He was not the only guest to appear, with former Formula 1 champion Damon Hill, who was apparently a neighbour of bassist Rick Savage, playing a guitar solo on the opening track of the album.
So while the mid-1990's had appeared to heavily influence the previous album, it was a return to the basics of the band’s sound through the late 80’s and early 90’s that was to be the driving force of the new album. The question that had to be asked was, would this still appeal to the band’s fan base after such a lengthy amount of time?

Having turned in a different direction on their previous album “Slang”, the opening three tracks here on “Euphoria” certainly bring back a sense of the past, all of them channelling the sound and structure that can be found on both “Hysteria” and “Adrenalize”. The opening salvo of “Demolition Man” is excellent, up tempo, energetic, with great guitars from both Phil Collen and Vivan Campbell, and vocals from Joe Elliott that are in top form. Def Leppard are generally excellent at composing opening tracks on their albums, and this one follows that pattern perfectly. This is followed by “Promises”, which was the first single released from the album, and this is most definitely written in that late 80’s era style. In fact, you could easily imagine this coming straight off the “Hysteria” album. It slots right back into the pop rock sound that Def Leppard had been cultivating for over a decade and is inoffensively enjoyable for what it is. The third track here is “Back in Your Face”, with the attitude and spark that you would expect from a song with this title. The lyrics are playfully belligerent and the song again harks back to those earlier days of the band. Overall, the first three tracks on the album showcase the blueprint that the band had set out for itself.
From here, the album begins to branch out into those other areas that I’m sure are excellent for many fans, but I begin to question the logic. “Goodbye” is exhibit one, the third single released from the album, and a clear cut sugar sweet ballad that is aimed directly at a very specific part of their fan base. The band does them well, but there are reasons I have a hard time getting around them, which I will get to later. “All Night” follows, and is a real cringefest. Honestly, as much as I dislike ballads, the previous track outstrips this easily when it comes to enjoyment. The lyrics here are just... awful... here, take a listen to this. “I like a woman who loves to drive, loves to do it fast, yeah, above 95. Oh, yeah, oh, yeah, oh yeah. I love a woman who likes to make me sweat, who'll come on round lookin' for love, get what she can get show me babe what's on your mind, I wanna feel ya one more time”. I mean, this is on a Paul Stanley/Gene Simmons Kiss level of cringe factor. Phil Collen and Mutt Lage, seriously, give yourselves an uppercut. This song is basically unlistenable.
“Paper Sun” breaks the mould of a Def Leppard song, not only with deep and heartfelt lyrics about the subject matter, but with two great and separate guitar solos from the two guitarists, both showing off their abundant talent in setting alight the song and retaining the emotional impact of the track. It’s a creeper, it's a song you need to listen to a bit to get the most out of it, but it is worth it. “It’s Only Love” winds us back to the Def Lep ballad, with choral vocals throughout. You’ve heard it all before, there is no need for me to expand on my thoughts here. We have the same with “21st Century Sha La La La Girl”, not in the ballad way but in the same way as “All Night” is composed. The music is upbeat and enjoyable enough, but lyrically it's not one that is going to raise your IQ by listening to it. The power ballad “To Be Alive” comes from Vivian Campbell and one of his side projects called ‘Clocks’, and has been suitably Def Leppardized here.
FINALLY we return to something great, with the instrumental track “Disintegrate”, written by Phill Collen and concentrating entirely on great hard rock and guitars. When he unleashes, and when you watch him live, Collen is one of the great guitarists, and here he and Viv especially get the chance to do so. If only they did it more often. Sadly it doesn't last with the return of the power ballad in “Guilty” which will hit the majority of the fan base in all the right areas. “Day After Day” follows along the same lines, though does have an energetic and powerful guitar solo slot in the middle that is the highlight of the song. The album then concludes with “King of Oblivion” which does allow the album to finish on an upbeat note.

I have been a fan of Def Leppard since the mid-1980's, prior to the release of “Hysteria”, and grew into that love on the back of those first three amazing albums. The gradual morphing of the band and their music did not stop me loving those albums, or the band and the albums that followed this period. “Slang” had been a turning point though, and so although I had heard a couple of the singles from this album on the radio, I hadn’t rushed out to buy it, and it was in fact a couple of years later before I did listen to the album.
When I did, an age old question almost immediately rose in my mind - Why does this band do ballads when you have two of the best guitarists on the planet in your mix? Anyone who has seen Phil Collen live, and heard Vivian Campbell on Dio and Last in Line albums, know what they can do. The answer of course is – they love those kinds of songs. That’s why they write them, and that’s why they play them, and why I still continue to say – what a waste.
For me this album is a 50/50 proposition. When I first got it, it just couldn’t retain my interest over the other albums that I was listening to at the time, which increasingly was of European power metal bands. However, other bands from the 80’s that I still listened to were in the process of releasing some of their worst ever material (stay tuned for Megadeth and Queensryche over the coming months), so this album at least was familiar in sound which did give it an advantage.
Having had this on again for the last two weeks, the good songs are still good, and the average songs are still average. I don’t have time for ballads, there has to be something spectacularly good about them for me to listen to them, and these ones don’t have that. The songs that verge on hard rock are still listenable. The problem for Def Leppard is that, in my opinion, they reached a zenith with “Adrenalize” that they have been unable to approach or better since. Some of their song ideas are good, but the attraction to the ballad does hinder them, and restricts their growth in that way. Especially since even in that regard, they had done that kind of track far better back in the day than they can reproduce after that fact. “Euphoria” is fine, I have listened to it beyond my reservations and still find enough here to like. They have better albums.

38. Def Leppard / Adrenalize. 1992. 4/5

If ever a band has succeeded under its own merits, following its own decree rather than ride on anyone’s coattails, and done so under several pieces of unfortunate luck and tragedy, it is Def Leppard. Initially thrown in with the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, they quickly shunned that metaphor and pronounced themselves as individuals and found their own way to fame by going their own route. This they did by putting out consistently excellent albums and finding their niche in the 1980’s conglomerate of new wave, pop, glam metal and heavy metal music. It wasn’t without trouble though, first with drummer Rick Allen losing an arm in a car accident that delayed their album “Hysteria” from hitting the shelves, and then it was the loss of guitarist and songwriter Steve Clark that paralysed the band. Eventually, Def Leppard got into order and released their long awaited follow up to “Hysteria”, titled “Adrenalize”.

Despite the building popularity of the first three albums that the band released, “On Through the Night”, “High ‘n’ Dry” and “Pyromania”, the out and out explosion of success that came with the release of the Def Leppard's “Hysteria” album exceeded all expectations, from the media, fans and surely band alike. A thousand singles from the album were released, all of them seemed to get to the top of the charts around the world, the album sold in the millions, and it crossed the generations and genres of music, being adored by headbangers, glam metallers, rock lovers and even pop single music lovers all in the same instance. 15 year olds and 65 years old, and everyone in between, seemed to love the album, the songs and suddenly the band. The mega success that the band had worked so hard for, and been so careful when it came to image crafting to ensure they were not pigeonholed into one area of music, had come to fruition.
There had been a three year gap between the release of “Pyromania” and “Hysteria” - an unheard of length of time between albums at that time, though that has changed significantly since. With the length and popularity of the Hysteria tour, that time frame went out the window when it came to writing and releasing the follow up, which was begun in 1990. And there is little doubt that trying to follow up that album’s success would have been something playing on the band’s mind. However, the biggest problem for the band was the alcoholism suffered by guitarist Steve Clark. Despite urging and prompting from his bandmates to go into rehabilitation in order to do something about his illness, he was unable to commit to any program himself to its conclusion. Eventually, with the band in the process of trying to write the new album, Clark was given what the band called a ‘leave of absence’ for six months, to go away and enjoy his life. Joe Elliott was quoted as saying “But instead he spent most of his time in the pub round the corner, and do things like get so drunk he'd fall down the stairs and crack his rib. So he'd be on serious medication for cracked ribs. Then he'd carry on drinking”. Tragically, on January 8, 1991, Clark was found dead on his couch, a blood alcohol reading of 0.30 and morphine in his system.

After grieving their loss, the band chose to move forward with the new album, and record as a four piece, with Phil Collen playing all of the guitars on the album, though he is quoted as saying that for what can be considered as Steve’s parts on the songs he had been involved with before his death, he had watched how he had approached those songs, and he tried to replicate that in his playing for those parts. The other major change was that their long-time producer “Mutt” Lange was away producing an album with Bryan Adams, so the band chose to produce it themselves along with long time engineer Mike Shipley, with Mutt offering support and advice via the phone. With all of this going on, is it any wonder that, five years after the release of “Hysteria”, “Adrenalize” finally hit the shelves.

By the time “Hysteria” was a couple of years old, there had been rumblings of the band having ‘sold out’ their roots, and turned towards a much more commercial sound than many early fans liked. To be fair, and retrospect is a wonderful thing, that had always been the way the band was directing itself. This then became a louder cry from those fans when “Adrenalize” was released, who claimed it was even further down that track than “Hysteria” had gone. Now, views can change over the years, but if anything, this album is actually a more stripped down rock album than Hysteria was, less experimental and with a song list that you could probably categorise into two subsets should you be that way inclined. The album still absolutely has those soft rock ballads, the ones that can cause grown men to gag when they hear them begin. But all of those songs here are less sugary than anything produced on the previous album. “Tonight” is the first one to appear, but given it has no overlays or overly sugared vocals it does sit in a more ‘Pyromania’ era than ‘Hysteria’. “Stand Up (Kick Love in to Motion)” again showcases the difference between this album and the last, sticking to guitars and drums without delving into any synths. “Have you Ever Needed Someone So Bad” and “I Wanna Touch U” both have the now trademark Def Leppard soft rock touches. “Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad” drops into ballad territory, while “I Wanna Touch U” has more energy to it, a typical soft rock song aimed at the ladies.
But then you have the hard rock songs – polished, sure - that Def Leppard has always done well. The opening track “Let’s Get Rocked” was more infamous on its release for its music video, which for the time utilised the most modern computer animation technology. It looks terribly clunky now, but at the time it was a winner, and the song itself is catchy enough to keep you interested. “Heaven Is” is probably a little from column A and column B, but the opening riff from Phil is enough for me to push this into the rock category and override the slightly flowery chorus. “Make Love Like a Man” again settles into a typical Leppard beat and allows the band to do what they do best as individuals, including the combined vocals in the chorus. “White Lightning”, the last song Steve was involved in writing, could probably nestle somewhere between the two lists, and is the longest on the album at a tad over seven minutes. “Personal Property” is a beauty, picking up the pace of the album and driving with energy through Rick Allen’s harder drum work and Collen’s excellent guitaring. These are the kind of songs the old fans will enjoy.
“Tear It Down” is arguably the best song on the album, one that had its earliest demo forms back around the time that “High n Dry” was recorded, and you can certainly hear that throughout. Joe’s vocals are supreme, the support from the Rick’s and Phil are brilliant, the verse riff is terrific and drives the song throughout. It’s still my favourite, and it rounds out the album in style.

I was one of those ‘old’ fans I’ve mentioned within this episode, who fell in love with ‘Pyromania’ and “High n Dry’ before ‘Hysteria’ was released, and which I loved equally as much, though perhaps with a slight twinge about a couple of those real fairy floss like ballads. By the time “Adrenalize” was released, the band had hired Vivian Campbell, one of my music heroes, as Steve Clark’s replacement, and toured Australia in mid-1992, where I saw them for the first time. It was an amazing concert, Vivian was brilliant, Phil his equal, and the set list tremendous. And any doubts you had about Def Leppard as a live band could be washed away completely.
When I first bought this album and was hoping and wishing for another ‘Pyromania’ which didn’t come, there was some disappointment. But I still listened to that album a lot over that six month period, and enjoyed it, and eventually found some other albums in 1992 that caught my fancy a bit more, such as Fear of the Dark, The Crimson Idol, Countdown to Extinction and Dehumanizer. But that didn’t mean this album paled in comparison. It was just a different style, and seeing the band live made me retain a lot of love for the album.


In the years since, I have really come to enjoy it all over again, and without doubt I love it more now than I did as a 22 year old. It really is the last of their hard rock albums, and the fact that it was recorded as a foursome may well have contributed to that. With the only keyboards coming on “Stand Up (Kick Love into Motion) it has a real guitar feel much like their early albums, and with Phil Collen pulling double duty there’s not necessity for showing off twice as much, which in the end actually makes it a tighter album. And the performances are all great. Rick Allen’s drums have a much better feel and sound on his second album with his new kit. Rick Savage as always is great on the bass, and Joe Elliott’s vocals are still terrific. All of that makes this an album that is still worth revisiting.