I was interested to hear what Def Leppard would do next after “Slang”.
And the answer was “Euphoria”. Released in 1999, the title alone was an indication to me that they were back to the “Pyromania” and “Hysteria” vibe.
The album is produced by Pete Woodroofe.
Demolition Man
Written by Phil Collen, Vivian Campbell and Joe Elliot, it’s an energetic rocker to kick off the album, reminding me of their supercharged cover of “Action” from Sweet in the early 90’s.
Promises
Written by Phil Collen and Mutt Lange, this is a great track in the vein of songs like “Photograph” and “Animal”.
And press play to hear the guitar solo.
Back In Your Face
Written by Joe Elliot and Phil Collen, it has a 70’s style vibe, processed drums, a bass guitar riff that has the vibe of “Under Pressure” from Queen and a rap like vocal line reminiscent to “Pour Some Sugar On Me”.
With the title, it definitely announces the bands intention.
The band was back in my face like jumping jack flash and the Union Jack.
Goodbye
Written by Rick Savage, the song is interchangeable with “Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad?” and “When Love And Hate Collide”.
All Night
A funky Prince like tune done the Def Leppard way and written by Phil Collen and Mutt Lange.
It wouldn’t take up a place in a set list, but it’s cool to hear the band experiment and have fun with tunes like this.
Paper Sun
Written by Phil Collen, Rick Savage, Joe Elliot, Vivian Campbell and Pete Woodroffe.
My favourite song on the album and one of the best songs to appear on a Def Lep album in the 90’s.
The intro riff, with it’s Middle Eastern feel already hooks me in, bringing back memories of songs like “Desert Song” and “Fractured Love”. The song could have easily appeared on the first two albums as well.
This is the Def Leppard I like.
It’s Only Love
Yeah, it’s a slow rocker written by Joe Elliot, Mutt Lange, Rick Savage and Vivian Campbell, which didn’t captivate me.
So it’s a skip.
21st Century Sha La La La Girl
Written by Phil Collen, Joe Elliot and Rick Savage.
This is Def Leppard with a vocal line which borders on rap-rock.
What can go wrong?
Nothing when it comes to Def Leppard.
They do these things cool but sometimes they overuse this method.
To Be Alive
This is a great ballad written by Vivian Campbell and a P.J Smith.
The song was first recorded by Vivian Campbell’s side band “Clock”, which was active between 1996 and 1998 and released one album in 1998.
Disintegrate
An instrumental written by Phil Collen, which feels like it’s part 2 of “Switch 462”. And I like it.
Guilty
Written by Phil Collen, Rick Savage, Joe Elliot, Vivian Campbell and Pete Woodroffe.
It starts off like “Hysteria” and that familiarity immediately gets me interested.
Day After Day
Written by Phil Collen, Joe Elliot and Vivian Campbell. It’s “Deliver Me” from “Slang”, updated to rock hard.
A favourite just behind “Paper Sun”.
Kings Of Oblivion
Written by Phil Collen, Joe Elliot and Rick Savage. They bring their love of 70’s Rock and Metal into this. It could easily appear on the first three albums.
We laugh at the wardrobe choices of the 80s but goddamn the 90s didn’t really endear itself to people either.
The CD that I have is known as the “Australia Bonus Tracks Edition”. So I have two bonus tracks in “Worlds Collide” and another fun energetic cover in “Under My Wheels” from Alice Cooper.
Worlds Collide
It made an appearance on the “Slang” reissue from 2014 so it was written for that album.
It’s heavy and I like it. Press play to hear the main riff. It’s head banging Metal the way I like it.
Sales of the album didn’t match the earlier stuff, but that doesn’t mean it’s a dud. Check it out.
P.S
While it was refreshing to hear “Slang” and it grew on me to be a good album, I was more than happy to have Def Leppard return to their sound.
destroyerofharmony 
I liked Promsies but to be honest Pete I cannot remember the rest of it and I bought it. Slang I liked way better at the time though but I still need to listen to this again at some point…
I really don’t think this was Def Leppard returning to their classic sound! Though there were great tracks on here, there were also some oddballs on here like “21st Century Sha La La La Girl,” “Goodbye,” “All Night,” and “It’s Only Love.” I do enjoy “Goodbye” and “It’s Only Love” though. I’m just saying that the band tried a lot of different styles, instead of going back to their 80s/early 90s sound.
Paper Sun is one of their best songs ever!! I didn’t care for this album at first, but truly love it now. At first I was disappointed they went back to their earlier sound, but now I don’t mind so much. The songs were at least better than anything on Adrenalize IMO.
My thoughts exactly.
It didn’t set my world on fire initially but I kept coming back to it throughout the years because I had overplayed their earlier stuff so much, and it just grew on me.
I totally missed this one, just wasn’t paying any attention when it came out. Something I’ll have to visit if/when I ever do dig through their entire catalog.