Slang

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Slang

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Somewhere along their musical path, Def Leppard shed their raw, youthful rock aggression and became a pop band. Their new direction, beginning with Pyromania and continuing with Hysteria and Adrenalize, was a complete departure from their earlier, stripped-down, AC/DCish approach, and it vaulted them to mega-stardom. Slang is their first record without producer "Mutt" Lange since their debut, On Through the Night. The good news is that it's a much more organic, less overproduced record than they would have made with Lange, but it's still more pop than hard rock. Dance beats and funky riffs, with no shortage of slower power ballads, sum up this record pretty thoroughly. The single "Work It Out" has a nice strong chorus (with almost Sebadoh-like harmonies) and is certainly less bombastic than past hits like "Pour Some Sugar on Me." Def Leppard have long since abandoned their heavy metal roots, but with Slang they've at least moved away from the studio dominance of Lange, and that's a step in the right direction. --Adem Tepedelen

Customer Reviews:

Rating:
Date: 2008-06-07
Their best
I love Hysteria - but this album was their natural progression and they admitted this is the music they wanted to write and play, and damn it, they still should be. The went backwards with Eurphoria. They should have stuck to their guns and played what they wanted, thats when you get peoples best, not when they are trying to write what they think people want. This was the road away from "80's pop band", and unfortunatly they turned around after this.

Rating:
Date: 2008-05-02
Great Departure From the Formula
Def Leppard had gotten stale and they knew no one would buy another Adrenalize. They could have just done what every other band out there did and go Grunge but instead they brought in several influences. They do have some 90's downer rock in "Deliver Me" but they also have R&B in "Breathe a Sigh". They have the funky rock of "Slang" and the more subtle "Where Does Love Go When It Dies". The pinnacle of the album however is "Work It Out" which oddly enough was Vivian Campbell's first songwriting credit. Overall this was a great breath of fresh air for the band and fans alike and it still stands up today.

Rating:
Date: 2008-01-29
Another gem from Def Leppard
Although different from all of their other albums, "Slang" is a gem. This album shows the deeper side of the boys from Sheffield and I'm glad that they were not "afraid" to go a different direction. There comes a time when an artist has to get out the deep thoughts that are within and that's exactly what the members of DL did with this album. We are all made up of multi-dimensional personalities and it is good to see another side of the artists that make up this awesome group of talented perfomers. Thanks guys.

Rating:
Date: 2007-07-25
We must all grow up!
I know that this album does not sound like pyromania or hysteria, but we must all know when to grow up and move on. Def Leppard did with this album and they showed that singing about adult stuff is much more interesting than "having you dad tell you to mow the lawn"! This album is emotional and deep when it comes to writing of the lyrics. Yes, this album does not have the crunch crunch of pyromania or High n dry, but the lyrics do pack a serious punch. It was time for them to change because Adrenalize was a big mistake and even if that album did sell 6 million copies and had five hits, it was still a bad album. Slang is a must for any DL collection or if your into emo music, this would be right up that alley.

Rating:
Date: 2007-04-23
Lets get, lets get, lets get, lets get grunge....
By this stage of their illustrious career Def Leppard were bandwagon jumpers of the worst kind, that being that instead of merely genre jumping they were genre jumping and doing the new genre badly. Not only does this album betray a band desperately trying to stave off irrelevance to the hard rock world but also a band with precious few ideas at this point.

It's not all bad news however and in fairness there are some high points. So in point form;

- Flagship cut/title track/lead single Slang is an excellent piece of hard rock fluff. Top stuff from a band of hard rock veterans who showed their fun side in teh video for the same song, which was unfairly ignored by MTV due to grunge and alterna-rock swamping the airwaves.
- Gutless ballads like All I Want is Everything generally do the band no favours. It's not a band song in itself, but is the best example of what was otherwise wrong with this band circa '96.
- Semi alternative, muddied arrangements, conversely produced cleanly (no I can't explain that). But the issue is that this album is seeped in pointless affectations doubly stupid given that by '96 grunge was already merely a genre with the hard rock world (though the majors were still in denial over this) and trying to put out an album so heavily influenced by such a sub genre was a painfully bad thing to do.
- This album cam with some limited edition attachments in some territories. Mine has some acoustic versions of various Lep tunes. Except for mega hardcored completists these acoustic tracks don't add up to much.

All up a disappointing addition to the often sparkling Lep catalogue, leaving their legacy looking fairly shaky and embarrassing.