In 1996, Def Leppard was a remnant of a long-gone musical glory
\nperiod. Once a leader of the hard rock world, with albums like
\nPyromania<\/i> and
\nHysteria<\/i> to their credit, the band had gone through more
\npersonal turmoil than you get in an average soap opera: drummer
\nRick Allen lost his left arm in a 1984 car crash, only to return
\nusing an electronic drum kit, unimaginable delays hitting
\nHysteria<\/i> and
\nAdrenalize<\/i>, the death of guitarist Steve Clark after a
\nhistory of alcohol problems, the accusations that Allen had beat
\nhis girlfriend, blah, blah, blah. To top it all off, hard rock was
\npersona non grata on the radio, and it seemed like public interest
\nin the band was all but gone. Clearly, they had to reinvent
\nthemselves.<\/p>\n
Then came
\nSlang<\/i>, an album that is not held in high regard among some
\nDef Leppard fans. The lead-off single “Work It Out” was a major
\nchange from the overdub-laden tracks they had become known for, and
\nthe vocals lacked the harmony lines that had become their
\ntrademark. The track flopped, and the album became a footnote. Even
\nI cringed when I paid two bucks for an unopened tape copy at my
\nlocal used record hangout a few weeks ago.<\/p>\n
Ah, but here’s the rub:
\nSlang<\/i>, once you get used to the new sound (and it really
\ndoesn’t take that long), turns out to be an incredibly good album
\nthat didn’t deserve to be critically and commercially ignored. At
\nlong last, Joe Elliott and crew could put behind them the ghosts of
\ntheir past.<\/p>\n
\nSlang<\/i> is the first full-length Def Leppard release to
\nfeature Clark’s replacement, former Dio axeman Vivian Campbell. It
\nalso has the freshest drum sounds since Allen’s accident – in fact,
\nif you didn’t know that Allen was missing an arm, you would swear
\nthat these were all acoustic drums. Truly, the technology of these
\ninstruments has come a long way since 1986. Elliott’s vocals sound
\nno different than they did on
\nHysteria<\/i> nine years previous (if not a little more
\nworld-wise), and guitarist Phil Collen and bassist Rick Savage
\nshine as they always do.<\/p>\n
Granted, “Work It Out” was a terrible choice for a first single
\n– though once you listen to the track two or three times in the
\ncontext of the whole album, it doesn’t seem that bad. But it is
\nhardly the strongest song on
\nSlang<\/i>. The opening assault of “Truth?” is enough to convince
\nyou that, despite what the doomsayers had said, Def Leppard had
\nlost none of their edge.<\/p>\n
Possibly bowing a bit to the inability to market hard rock at
\nthat time, Def Leppard to resort to the ballad often, though these
\nballads blow earlier efforts like “Love Bites” out of the water.
\n“All I Want Is Everything” and “Breathe A Sigh” are two examples of
\nhow a good ballad should sound: gentle, but with enough of an
\nedge.<\/p>\n
If I had to decide which track should have been the leadoff
\nsingle to radio, I would have pushed for either “Turn To Dust,”
\nwhich seemed to merge Def Leppard’s past and present, or “Slang,”
\nwhich injected just a touch of rap into the lyrics to keep the
\nsound fresh. (Actually, “All I Want Is Everything” would have been
\nthe ideal single, but it might have been too much Leppard ballads
\nfor the long-time fan to take, after “Miss You In A Heartbeat” and
\n“Two Steps Behind”.)<\/p>\n
The overall power of
\nSlang<\/i> doesn’t dip often, maintaining its fresh sound even to
\nthe ending tracks like “Where Does Love Go When It Dies,” a track
\none has to wonder about the inspiration for. Only two tracks don’t
\nhold up among the best: “Work It Out” and “Pearl Of Euphoria”.
\nStill, these aren’t many slips when held up to so many strong
\ntracks.<\/p>\n
The unfortunate thing about
\nSlang<\/i>‘s commercial failure is that one has to wonder what
\nthe future of Def Leppard is. Sure, hard rock and heavy metal is
\nbeginning to make a comeback in the industry, but Def Leppard is a
\nband that continuously struggled through the hard times of their
\nlives and the genre. One has to wonder if the band might have
\ngotten tired of the struggles. For their sake, I hope they forge
\non.<\/p>\n
\nSlang<\/i> is not a bad album at all, and is one that is eagerly
\nawaiting rediscovery by both long-time Leppard fans and by those
\nwho enjoy a solid mixture of rockers and ballads. Here’s hoping
\nthis album won’t be a “farewell” to the fans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27738,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5660],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-39117","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-def-leppard","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39117"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39117\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39117"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}