Launched in Might 1996, Def Leppard’s sixth album, Slang, was a various alt.rock document which sat effectively with the occasions, but it surely largely eschewed the band’s anthemic trademark sound – one thing the Yorkshire stalwarts had been eager to revisit on their subsequent studio set, Euphoria.
“Slang was something we’d been craving to do… but then we were happy to go back to making classic Def Leppard again,” vocalist Joe Elliott defined to Basic Rock in 2014. “I suppose people can say we’ve gone back to what we used to do, but I think it’s more a case of: nobody makes records like us, and if anybody’s got the God-given right to do it, it’s us.”
To assist notice their purpose, Leppard reconnected with Robert John “Mutt” Lange, their long-time producer, whose meticulous strategy to studio strategies and songwriting had performed a major half within the success of the band’s landmark 80s albums Pyromania and Hysteria.
Although it solely amounted to 1 lengthy and intensive weekend of collaboration, Lange’s return to the fold gave Leppard a great addition as they started to form the fabric for Euphoria. “It was a huge, huge education,” remembered drummer Rick Allen. “It was like a refresher course to remind us how we used to do it. He’s very creative, a great musician, and a great singer. He really is the perfect person to work with.”
Leppard’s transient, however fruitful, reunion with Lange resulted in three of Euphoria’s stand-out tracks: the stylish, semi-acoustic “It’s Only Love,” the quixotic “All Night” (a throwback to the Prince-esque funk of Slang’s title observe), and the album’s signature track, “Promises”: a turbulent rocker with luggage of panache which bore the hallmarks of a future basic.
For the remainder of the album, Leppard reconvened with Slang producer Peter Woodroffe and decamped to Joe’s Storage studio in Dublin to put down the majority of their new document. A collective confidence prevailed and their ensuing performances proved that their preliminary session with Lange had energized the entire band.
Issued on June 8, 1999, Euphoria rapidly made it plain that Def Leppard had been proper again within the sport, one thing Joe Elliott himself acknowledged, singing “It’s like I’ve never been away” on the assured “Back In Your Face.” The troops additionally made some really consummate noise on the roaring “Demolition Man,” the seemingly easy “Promises” and the irrepressible “Kings Of Oblivion,” with the latter offering lead guitarists Phil Collen and Vivian Campbell the perfect launch pad for some classic, Skinny Lizzy-esque interaction.
But Euphoria had way more to supply than simply rampaging rockers. Bassist Rick Savage’s dreamy “Goodbye” and Campbell’s “To Be Alive” ranked extremely among the many band’s greatest widescreen ballads, whereas Collen’s exhilarating instrumental, “Disintegrate,” and the brooding, psych-imbued “Paper Sun” urged Leppard had been nonetheless eager to prowl in pastures new as they headed into their third decade collectively.
Joe Elliott and firm knew they had been onto one thing good all together with Euphoria, they usually had been proved proper when the album’s lead single, “Promises,” thrust Leppard again to their rightful place on the prime of Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Chart.
Main the way in which within the press, Entertainment Weekly lower to the chase once they declared, “Def Leppard are back in a big, bad Hysteria-sleek way.” When Euphoria once more yielded Prime 20 Billboard chart success and an extra brace of gold discs, it served discover that these seemingly invincible laborious rockers remained in nice form as they strode fearlessly into the brand new millennium.
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