I am probably one of the few music critics out there who
actually would go on the record and admit I liked
Slang, Def Leppard’s 1996 release. Granted, it was an album
that took some getting used to, with its more down-to-earth beats
and songwriting that was as far removed from
Hysteria as anything you could have imagined Joe Elliott and
company doing. But once you gave it a chance, it turned out to be a
pretty good album.
I’m sincerely hoping that Def Leppard’s latest,
Euphoria, is also an album that has to grow on you. Despite
a return to the guitar and vocal style that catapaulted them into
superstardom on albums like
Hysteria, it often feels like the band misses the mark – but
not by a whole lot.
Euphoria is notable because it reunites the band – vocalist
Elliott, guitarists Phil Collen and Vivian Campbell, bassist Rick
Savage and drummer Rick Allen – with Robert John “Mutt” Lange, who
contributes his songwriting talents to three cuts. These cuts –
“Promises,” “All Night” and “It’s Only Love” – happen to be some of
the best material on the album, qhich raises the question: Had
Lange been more involved with this album, what could the final
product have sounded like? Regrettably, the answer will remain a
dream.
It’s not that the other members of Def Leppard are incapable of
writing a decent song; tracks like “Goodbye” (written by Savage),
“Disintegrate” (written by Collen) and “Guilty” all prove that Def
Leppard knows what it takes to make a decent track. If they know
all this, then why do they have to resort to sophomore bragadoccio
like on “Back In Your Face”? It’s been my experience that if you
have to declare you’re back, people never noticed you left.
What is disappointing about
Euphoria overall is its sound. It just feels like the spark
of energy that you heard on
Hysteria (an album that was a definite return from the past)
just isn’t present here. Tracks like “Demolition Man” and “Paper
Sun” are listenable, as is a good portion of the album, but there
just isn’t a sense of urgency to the music, making the listener
wonder what these guys have been up to.
Of course, Def Leppard still has its diehard fans (and I’d call
myself one) who would stop at nothing to lay their hands on a copy
of
Euphoria, and that alone should bring the band some chart
success in the beginning. But without the urgency and energy behind
the music, the
Euphoria wears off quickly.
