Euphoria - Def Leppard (CD 1999)

Ah, I remember it fondly. The year was 1999. Bon Jovi s Crush was still a year away. Rap rock was vying with Britney Spears for airwave dominance. Except for the tragically now-defunct Buckcherry, no band was doing REAL rock and roll anymore. All looked lost.

Then, it happened. I heard that unmistakable guitar riff. I heard reverse drum-shots. Sounded all the world to me like Photograph . But something was different because this was a different song. That song was Promises from Def Leppard s 1999 release Euphoria . Promises was about as much of a time warp of a song as one can possibly think of. The sound was absolutley, positivley straight from Leppard s heyday. I thought people forgot how to get those sounds out of a recording studio by now.

Everyone, that is, except for Mutt Lange.

Some of you may remember Def Leppard s ill-conceived Slang , a great, different, but misunderstood album released in 1996 to try and keep hip. Most of you do not. That s why when Promises hit the airwaves in mid 1999 and soared all the way to #1 on Billboard s Mainstream Rock charts, most people were simply flabbergasted. Where did Def Leppard come from, after almost 10 years of being out of the light, being the poster-boys for the anti-grunge movement? And why was it so successful?

Euphoria was trumpeted as a cross between Pyromania and Hysteria . Sounds overhyped? The amazing thing is, the hype mostly holds up for this release. At first, I was disappointed that the new directions that were explored in Slang wern t taken to fruition, demoting that album to nothing more than a footnote. But Euphoria is Leppard at their best, doing what they do best.

The opening three songs are especially exceptional efforts and make a great combo-punch to welcome the band back. The high-octane opener Demolition Man has Hysteria s sound with On Through the Night s speed, and Leppard has always been at their very best when they simply rock out like this. Promises follows. A Photograph rehash through and through, yet somehow it sounds so fresh and vibrant, with whale-sized hooks, a killer chorus, and Phil Collen turning his fretboard into mush with a guitar solo that just brings back fond Brit-flag t-shirt memories. And, capping off the rock-out first part of the album is the backbeat-dominated Back in Your Face . While the lyrics here are a bit trite (I can scare the pants off the holiest ghost??) the chorus of Back in your face, like I never went away! Back in your face and it s where I m gonna stay! (note to the boys: X isn t exactly in your face ) is precisely the message Leppard wanted to send; We don t care if we re out of time , we re back ANYWAYS.

Then the first power ballad rolls in and while Goodbye isn t a bad song anyways (A decent lyrical twist is thrown in, you would expect a song called Goodbye to be sad, but it s rather quite positive), the boys made the critical mistake of releasing this song as a single to follow Promises . Guys, guys, guys. Unless you hire Diane Warren to write for you (please don t), you will NOT have another #1 hit again. They ve done this too often, following up a hard-rocking single with a ballad, but in their heyday it was acceptable. Goodbye slows the momentum of the album, and it also killed the momentum of their comeback when radio wouldn t play it.

Sex songs are still part of Leppard s reportoire, but the only time true cock-rock turns up here is the slinky, funky All Night . Mutt Lange co-wrote three songs on this album with the boys, Promises, this one, and the middle-of-the-road ballad It s Only Love , which doesn t really spark anything. Neither does the other ballad To Be Alive . There s just not much to them, although at least To Be Alive changes the sonic pallate somewhat. The worst-titled song of Leppard's career appears with '21st Century Sha la la Girl', however, even a hideous title doesn't change the fact that this is pure Hysteria-styled Leppard pop-rock, garunteed to satisfy.

Leppard was so intent on proving they still could churn out a classic-styled album they even did something they ve only done on one album previous (High and Dry) and laid down an instrumental track! Disintegrate isn t Switch 625 by any means but it s still quite a rocking track, with great instrumental work and production polishing it out. It leads into the mid-tempo pop-rock of Guilty , which Leppard can do quite well still. One problem with Guilty is that apparently, Leppard thought it sounded so good, they thought they could throw 9 tracks that sounded exactly like it onto their current release X . (Gee, does anyone get my impression of THAT album yet?)

For good measure, Leppard wanted to remind people they could still whip out a couple of their old epic White Lightning / Gods of War rockers as well. Paper Sun is the better of the two, with a killer Viv Campbell guitar solo and vieled political commentary, but Day after Day is also quite nice, bringing back memories of Too Late for Love .

The album closing Kings of Oblivion does it s job quite nicely. Absolute walls of guitars dominate this song, and this, as well as Demolition Man , do a great job in illustrating that cross between Pyromania and Hysteria theory. The polish of Hysteria is there but the speed and metal-savvy of Pyromania still remains existent after all these years. What happened boys? You remembered how to rock after almost 15 years with this album, but forgot how to after 3 with X ?

Euphoria is an aptly titled release. As good as it got, Slang was a pretty dark, serious album. Euphoria has this giddy sense of fun running throughout, like this could ve been their 3rd or 4th album, not their 9th. They bring a conviction to the rockers, so it never comes across as old guys trying to play fast again. Their endearingly nonsensical lyrics still work perfectly, and Mutt Lange, while he was only officially present for 3 songs on the album, has his fingerprints all over the place, which is exactly what the boys need. Most people say that this band died with Steve Clark, I say it lives, and dies, with Mutt Lange. The production on this album is pure Lange, less mechanized than Adrenalize , more polished than Pyromania . The ballads bring the album down somewhat, and Leppard would ve been better off leaving all of them off, to tell you the truth (well, they could ve kept To Be Alive , simply because it s something different).

Needless to say, this album sold respectably, but not gigantically, so they needed to follow it up with something great. X , however, is not something great, so don t even worry about that album. The best song on X (Scar) would barely be a B-side to Euphoria . Anyone who appreciates Leppard s classic albums will definitley find plenty to like about Euphoria , it s the album that Adrenalize should ve been. Get this album if you re a fan of the band in any way, shape, or form. Even the diehards can appreciate this. It s seriously humorous how much of a drop-off there is between this album and X , almost like the boys made a deal with the devil for this one. Either way, Euphoria is definitley worth your time.