Pearl of Euphoria for the 21st Century

Def Leppard quickly moved from the accoustic and organic frame which the previous Retro Active album created; allowing the seeds to be planted for the Slang album.

After the multi-million selling number 1 world charted Adrenalize album from 1992 was released, Def Leppard quickly moved in the direction of organic sounds such as "Two Steps Behind", "Miss You In Heartbeat" and the amazing "From the Inside" in 1993 on Retro Active.

Slang released in 1996 sealed the deal for lovers of an analog sound. The highlights are "Work It Out" which is Def Leppard but confuses one in a happy way into thinking that it might in fact be U2. "All I Want Is Everything" brings a new edgy accoustic blues feel to the band. Joe Elliott's lyrics on "Where Does Love Go When It Dies" are simply some of the best he has ever penned. The masterpiece of this album though, "Pearl of Euphoria" is an almost 7 minute journey of Jim Morrison meets an agressive and angry Def Leppard vibe which reminds one of what happens when the band writes on pure emotion and vibe. A little gem from this era on B-Sides is "Can't Keep Away From The Flame" sort of a hippy Led Zeppelin 3 feel. Great era of Def Leppard!

Classic album on my list of the best albums of 1996 also it is the bands final album on vinyl.

Underrated

If yopu are looking for the revenge of Pyromania/Hysteria/Adrenalize, look elsewhere; but this was a severely underrated disc. At the very least it is interesting indeed to see what these minds came up with when reaching beyond the formula. You will only be disappointed if you are expecting more of the same.

Def Leppard's Most Underrated CD

I really can't believe this CD never got any more publicity or airplay than it did. True it was a completely different sound from anything Def Lep had done before but the tunes on here sounded so much like what was getting played on the rock stations of the mid-late nineties that you would think it would have been a hit. I wonder sometimes had they released this under a different band's name what would have happened. Seems almost like rock radio was prejudiced against Def Leppard because hair-metal, arena rock was pretty much dead by the mid-nineties. They were trying to go in a more modern direction but their fans from the 80's didn't like this new direction and the alt-rock fans pictured them as a hair metal band so they were left with no audience. There are some really strong songs on here like "Work It Out", "Slang", "All I want is Everything". "Blood Runs Cold" is a great slower song. "Truth is a great alt-rock song. Yes, alt-rock. Nothing hair metal about this song. People should give this CD a chance. It's really good.