Slang - Def Leppard (CD 1996)

Most casual fans of 80's music and Def Leppard honestly have no idea this peice of work even exists. In the mid 90's, floundering 80's bands were trying to compete with grunge, and, except for Bon Jovi, failing misreably. Leppard had the potential to succeed on the level Bon Jovi did, being the only band of the 80's that outsold them, and arguably, with just as good of a sense of songcraft. Sadly, with the VERY different sound of 'Slang', Leppard saw nothing but poor sales and half-sold ampitheatres.

Guess what? This album is good. At times, VERY good. You just have to go into this album not expecting a single song like 'Let's Get Rocked', 'Pour some Sugar on Me', or 'Photograph'.

Obviously, in 1996, when this album was released, Leppard was extremely 'uncool', with their previous effort, the contrived 1991 effort 'Adrenalize', only giving the grunge movement fodder to go against. Sales were poor and radio play of the two singles (Work it Out and Slang) was nonexistent. The band was also slammed as 'hopelessly out of touch' and 'trying to remain hip'.

Yes, to a degree, Slang cops from the then-dying Grunge movement. But it's honestly minimal. For the most part, Slang sounds like a whole new Leppard, and the beginnings of sounds and musical territories that could have, and SHOULD have been seriously explored in future works, instead of returning to pop-metal (albiet decent pop-metal) with 1999's Adrenalize and the newly-released 'X'.

On to the music... this album, admittedly, starts off quite weak. The first two tracks are nothing to write home about, with 'Truth?' trying to find an industrial-style hook and failing, and 'Turn to Dust' finding the band experimenting with Eastern instrumentation and an almost-typical layered-Leppard chorus. It doesn't work very well, to say the least.

However, things get suprising starting with song 3, the album's title track. Every single track from this point out is at the very least GOOD, and some are downright fantastic.

'Slang', the song, is, according to the Leps themselves, the most 'Leppard-sounding' song on the album, and I must agree. The verses are rapped in that wierd sing-songy rap that only Joe Elliot does (brings back 'Sugar' memories at times). The beat is awesome, considering Rick Allen is playing a REAL drum kit enhanced only by an additional pedal, for the first time since his arm-loss in 1984. Phil Collen also helps out here, vocally. In fact, this is the first Leppard record since the debut where the harmonies are not entirely Joe Elliot and his many overdubs. And as little as they appear on this album, they sound great.

'All I Want is Everything' should have been a huge hit and should have cemented this band's true musical credibility. This song is a fantastic mid-tempo ballad with a great lyric and soulful vocals from Joe AND Phil Collen, with an absolutley killer bridge. 'Breathe A Sigh' is much in the same vein, except this one relies more on groove and backbeat. It's slightly cheesey but nowhere near as bad as, say, 'Goodbye' from Euphoria. The last ballad, track 10, is the in-betweener 'Where Does Love Go When it Dies?'. The highlight of this particular track is it's lyrics, which take the forefront while the Leppards breath a sinewey instrumentation to back it, something that really hadn't been done since the masterpeice 'Love Bites'.

The ballads may or may not put some people off, and Leppard responds with suprisingly authentic rockers to back them. 'Work it Out', the first single, finds Joe singing in the low register he hasn't explored since, well, ever. Not a single screechy wail is in this song, or the album, for that matter. Just real SINGING that didn't sound half-as*ed live. The song is very contemporary sounding, even today, and like the rest of these songs, deserved a much better radio-fate.

The heaviest moments on this album are the Nirvana-ish 'Deliver Me' and the killer, out-of-the-blue agro-rockfest 'Gift of Flesh'. Both should satisfy fans of mid-90's rock, done right, that is. The album closer 'Pearl of Euphoria' is a slow, brooding monster of a song with a strong chorus and more great singing by Joe and the boys.

The best song on this album, though, and one that must be heard even if you don't like the rest of Leppard's experimentation is the chilling 'Blood Runs Cold', yet another tribute to fallen guitarist Steve Clark. Joe demonstrates great vocal range, and the instrumentation is dark and haunting. It's sad that this classic song was placed on an album that sold so poorly because it deserved to be much more well-known.

The production on Slang is far different from any other Leppard album since On Through the Night. No Mutt Lange in sight, no wall-of-guitars, minimal overdubs, and no studio magic. It's worth mentioning again that Rick Allen is playing an acoustic kit for the first (and only) time since 'The Accident', and also, the songwriting is much more diversified, split amongst the members, not a 'team effort' each and every song.

Slang deserved more respect. Joe said that Def Leppard could've released Sgt. Peppers in 1996 and it would've failed, and he was probably right, due to their 'unhipness'. Still, this is not a misguided attempt to stay with the times, it was a SUCCESSFUL attempt to stay with the times, and it's a crying shame Leppard went back to the old 'formula' after this. There was a definite foundation here, and one listen to 'Slang' just makes you wonder what might have been.