Def Leppard

Spotlight, magnetic, raise the rhythm! Or how Def Leppard reached their absolute high point in August 1987, after painstaking work spanning more than three years and littered with countless setbacks. Riding high on the success of the fortunate "Pyromania", released on January 20, 1983, the British quintet — at the time made up of singer Joe Elliott, guitarists Steve Clark and Phil Collen, Rick Savage on bass and Rick Allen on drums — was determined to capitalize on that momentum once the tour wrapped up, not by delivering "a twin album" steeped in hard'n'heavy, but by broadening their influences and steering toward pop. Originally titled "Animal Instinct", "Hysteria" stands as the crowning achievement of the English band's career, and it almost certainly wouldn't have turned out the same without the providential involvement of the perfect producer at the perfect time: Robert John "Mutt" Lange.

Already a crucial collaborator on the strong album just released, and worn out by the punishing pace of the obsessive, all-consuming production sessions, Lange initially decides to step back and leave the role vacant. The choice to carry on fine-tuning the record initially falls on Jim Steinman (Meat Loaf, Bonnie Tyler, Air Supply), but the arrangement falls apart (at a very steep cost in time and money) due to the American composer/producer's lack of the perfectionism that Elliott and co. consider essential. On December 31, 1984, tragedy strikes and changes the situation once again: Allen loses his left arm in a car accident. Despite the tragedy, the band stands united, with the drummer more determined than ever to carry on once he recovers, aided by a custom electronic/acoustic drum kit built specifically for him. Mutt Lange's subsequent, sudden return to the fold allows the band to pick up full speed again on their way toward the finish line, overcoming yet another car accident in 1986 — this time involving the producer himself — as well as a nasty case of mumps suffered by the frontman.

The first single chosen to launch the album in the US and the record's opening track, the punchy "Women" bounces between lust and biblical metaphor through the interlocking glam guitars of the Clarke-Collen partnership and Savage's granite-solid bassline. Peaking at a modest No. 80 on the Billboard Hot 100, it initially raised fears of a flop in the States; the singles that followed would disprove that forecast, allowing the album to dominate charts worldwide for nearly three years and rack up a staggering twelve platinum certifications in the US. Showing off the era's technology is the meticulous work behind the frenzied samples of "Rocket": panned by critics for its seemingly tasteless excess, the track opens with a line lifted from "Gods Of War", inserted via backmasking, and pays tribute — both lyrically and melodically — to numerous iconic artists of the Sixties and Seventies, including Lou Reed, Cream, T. Rex, David Bowie and the Beatles. Conceived as an almost entirely instrumental track, it was developed in a wildly convoluted and elaborate way, sparked by Elliott's chance listen to "Burundi Black" by Burundi Steiphenson Black, which struck him with its tribal rhythms. Amid rhythmic loops and space-age overdubs, and with Lange's genius throwing in stacked drum machines and even monastic choirs, the last thing anyone could accuse the band of was lacking inspiration or taste.

It took almost three years to get the definitive (and, above all, desired) version of "Animal" out of Collen's original demo — an exquisitely pop track that led the quintet to success even in the UK, where they'd struggled to break through since their early days — but it was worth the wait. It's followed by the emotive "Love Bites", the band's most successful power ballad, which became a glam metal classic despite being originally conceived in a country–western vein and written entirely by Lange; and then not just any hit, but the explosive song that came to symbolise the British band, "Pour Some Sugar On Me". The latter was written and prepared within two weeks and added in extremis at the producer's insistence to the record label, when the album had practically been finished: Elliott was partly influenced in this case by the version of "Walk This Way" featuring Aerosmith alongside Run DMC, and, legend has it, a conversation over a cup of tea.

According to Elliott, the vocal style chosen for the cheeky "Armageddon It" blends T. Rex and Eddie Cochran, all wrapped up with gang-vocal choruses and a lovely, bewitching stadium-rock build; while the peace prayer bolstered by imposing guitar riffs found in "Gods Of War" steps outside the band's usual lyrical territory, edging closer to political subject matter. The initial attempt at collaboration between Jim Steinman and the band produced several funny anecdotes, and the most emblematic ones concern the fierce, catchy "Don't Shoot Shot Gun" and the heavier "Run Riot", in AC/DC territory: as for the former, Steinman said he was remarkably impressed by a Stones-esque sketch, only to later realise the musicians were simply warming up and tuning their instruments; for the latter, he suggested using synthesizers à la Yes. Nothing could have been further from what the band had in mind, whose goal was a hard-rock version of Michael Jackson's "Thriller".

The ballad "Hysteria", whose video became one of the most played on MTV, makes room for crystalline guitars and soaring choruses in the refrain, juggling a few luminous nods to Supertramp and the various guitar parts (four or eight, depending on the section) layered during production to sound simultaneously, some of them even recorded note by note rather than strummed.

If one absolutely had to find a flaw, the only below-par song that adds nothing particular is the repetitive "Excitable", which gives way to the closing "Love And Affection", whose lyrics bring things full circle by setting instinct against feeling.

Among the symbols of Eighties hard-rock as well as of mainstream pop-metal, with its overall running time of an hour — which at the time made it one of the longest albums ever released on a single vinyl record — "Hysteria" flies by like a train, gliding from one unforgettable track to the next; twelve songs that allowed Def Leppard to carve out their place among the most successful bands of all time, with more than twenty million copies sold and countless accolades.

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31/03/2024