Def Leppard - Euphoria

Details:

• Year of release : 1999
• Label : Mercury 546 307-2
• Review format : CD

By ‘99 Def Leppard appeared to be in somewhat of a quandry. Whilst the line up of Joe Elliott, Rick Savage, Rick Allen, Phil Collen and Vivian Campbell was solid enough, it was now some 13 years since the masterworks of Hysteria and they seemed to be irrelavent to modern day rock music following diminishing returns through the 90s.

1992’s Adrenalize had failed to emulate the mega-sales of Pyromania and Hysteria and a significant change to the Leppard sound on 96’s Slang had met with distinctly indifferent reviews. Compilations Retro-Active and Vault had done decent business but this appeared to back up the view that they were a band of the last decade and the big question was what would they do next?

The answer is Euphoria!

Def Leppard made the superb decision to not try to fit the trend as they had done to some extent with Slang but rather to do what they did best; pop-tinged rock with a crystal clear sound, plenty of guitars and, where needed, layers of trademark slick harmonies. Mutt Lange was also back involved, although in a supporting role and not twiddling the knobs.

Rockers like Demolition Man (featuring Formula One World Champion Damon Hill on guitar!), Kings Of Oblivion and the instrumental Disintegrate proved that the Pyromania era ability to forge melodic metal had not deserted them after all. Well crafted songs drawing not just from their own past but from their influences as well - just note the Queen sound in places on Kings Of Oblivion as it closes the album. Exploring their influences would of course be something Leppard would do in even more depth in future of course with the covers album but here they use it to drive an original composition to great effect.

Lighter extracting ballads have always been a part of the Leppard canon as well of course and its no different on Euphoria. Goodbye and Its Only Love bear all the hallmarks of previous albums’ slower moments without obvious cloning.

Fans of mid-paced chart friendly material a-la Animal are also particularly well catered for on this album. Lead off single Promises ticks all the boxes, including the false ending whilst Guilty impresses despite bearing a strong resemblence to the track Hysteria and Day After Day features some great guitar work from Collen and Campbell.

Track 3, Back In Your Face harks back to the Adrenalize track Make Love Like A Man with its fast vocal delivery nearly being an attempt at rap and doesn’t really come off, whilst the Glitter influenced All Night and staccato attack of 21st Century Sha La La La Girl are neither essential listening or really bad.

Final mention though must go to the centerpeice of the album Paper Sun. One of the best tracks of what is now a long and successful career. This epic displays so many of the traits that make Leppard’s best moments so good - quiet opening, building guitars, stunning harmonies, a great lyric and a brilliant solo. Joe Elliott sings this track as though his life depends on it. In the live set this was awesome. On Pyromania or Hysteria it would be acknowledged accordingly alas Paper Sun will largely remain unknown to the masses.

Summary : A marked return to form for Leppard. Criticised in some quarters as being Hysteria II but hell, isn’t this the sort of stuff we want Leppard doing? It took three albums for them to deliver a worthy successor to Hysteria, next album is three since Euphoria so I’m keeping my fingers crossed for something special again!

If You Listen To One Track Listen To : Paper Sun

Score : 3.5/5