Quote:
Originally Posted by Katangel
Uhm..you just told them to buy everything except for the masterpiece.
Actually...if you don't like albums that are soulful with alot of depth..don't buy Slang. If you want to take a journey that will warrant many listens and analysis....got go the store now.
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Slang is a great album. I really love the lyrics and Pearl of Euphoria is one of my fave songs ever:)[/quote]
Slang was natural progression for the band. They were just being themselves and allowing their personal and artistic maturity to be on the album. I was VERY proud of them.
If you look at the development from their first album up to Hysteria it was as much of a treat as with Bon Jovi from their first album up to These Days to experience. However, unlike Bon Jovi, Def Leppard got stupid and released Adrenalize....a worthless piece of slop that attempted to be a sequel to Hysteria..but by exagerrating all the aspects in a way that parodied themselves. Not a smart move at all and it sealed Def Leppard's image as a hair band in the minds of the public. At the same time Bon Jovi released Keep the Faith, which let the public know under no uncertain terms that they were adults and had something to say and it wasn't "your love is like BAAAD medicine." Bon Jovi is singing "All I know is what I been sold, you can read my life like a fortune told." Def Leppard (with big poofy hair that they never had at any point until 1992) sings "LETS GET LETS GET ROOOOOOOCKED!!!" Spare me. It wasn't believable or honest.
So Slang came as a shock when it came out. Much like These Days would have been a shock had Keep The Faith been "Keep On Rockin" instead with Jon having even longer/poofier hair and sparkly clothes. This works for KISS, not a band that regularly sings about day to day living among the common man. But back to Def Leppard...while Adrenalize was a sales hit, it does not reflect the quality of the album. It was selling more based on the Def Leppard name and was a last shout for the hair bands before they were killed off. This isn't what it should have been. They should have just been themselves and been honest.....show that they were adults...god knows they had demonstrated that on various songs over the years (see Gods of War, Die Hard the Hunter), they just needed to let it shine instead of suppressing it. By releasing Adrenalize, many people percieved it as "oh this is it, this is what Def Leppard is." So when Slang came out, it threw anyone who was still around for a loop. Although Retroactive, the B Sides collection that followed Adrenalize and preceded Slang did give a hint of what was to come with Desert Song and even Two Steps Behind, it still came as unexpected. Some fans like myself, if you had been paying attention all along, knew that an album like Slang was overdue. Others had already placed Def Leppard in their nostalgia department so any deviation from the music they remembered from their youth was unacceptable.
Slang was horribly misunderstood. Critics and less open minded fans were unable to comprehend it, quickly writing it off as "jumping on the Grunge bandwagon." There was just one problem...there was no grunge on the album. There was industrial, but not enough to accuse of them of jumping on that bandwagon either. If anything, the album belonged in the "alternative" category..simply because as with much "alternative" music, it is difficult to categorize. Despite this, the music was unmistakably Def Leppard, now grown up.
Unfortunately, they didn't continue the artistic development trend. Euphoria, the follow up, continued to show their maturity on some tracks, but overall it was attempting to draw upon their history as a whole and update it as opposed to moving forward. X, the most recent album moves forward, but not neccessarily in a way that many fans would like.
Back to the topic, Hysteria. This was and still is a masterpiece. It was honest and fresh at the time. The overall theme was sex and tongue in cheek lyrics. What separated the songs from the usual slop was the sophistication behind the lyrics and the arrangement. Look at "Women." The lyrics are quite silly when read, but the advanced sophistication of the music brings it home with conviction and a vengeance. As the opening track, it sets the tone for the entire album.
The album cover is precision. It reflects the album perfectly. When you look at it, you see technical sophistication merged with primal nature. It tells you exactly what you are in for just by looking at the album cover. Some of you might remember the commercial for the album. It basically featured the grid in the background forming itself as the intro to Women was heard. At the point where the wailing begins following the entry of the drums the screaming faces appeared over the grid.
Anyway, I'll stop for now. Maybe I can finally get around to my review of Bon Jovi's Tokyo Road live concert video from Japan now.
