Hysteria -
1987Tracklisting -
1.
Women.
2.
Rocket.
3.
Animal.
4.
Love Bites.
5.
Pour Some Sugar on Me.
6.
Armageddon It.
7.
Gods of War.
8.
Don’t Shoot Shotgun.
9.
Run Riot.
10.
Hysteria.
11.
Excitable.
12.
Love and Affection.
https://open.spotify.com/album/1ja2qzCrh6bZykcojbZs82?si=CosLB7N0QSa0ngWXOsH_MwAnything after
Pyromania very easily could have been a different story. While writing for the follow up had started in the months following their last show, Rick Allen suffered a life altering accident on the A57 just outside of Sheffield on New Year’s Eve of 1984. Ten months after being a huge touring act, one of the hottest young drummers of the time found himself in the unenviable position of being a drummer with one arm.
When the writing sessions for the album recommenced, Mutt Lange was unavailable and Def Leppard were instead under the direction of Jim Steinman. Their experience with Jim was less than favourable and the band soon found themselves in serious debt to the studios. This easily could’ve been the end.
But in 1986, Def Leppard made an incredible comeback. While originally touring with two drummers to give Rick a bit of a safety net, it didn’t take long before they realised that he could still do this. The spark was back. Mutt came back to the producer’s chair and the result was
Hysteria, Def Leppard’s longest and best selling album to date.
But is it worth the hype? Let’s find out.
Women, is the opening track, and after a great guitar hook, we’re brought into the verse which is absolutely soaked in synth bass. As the song grows towards the chorus, the guitars start to become more prominent again and the vocal gets higher and higher in intensity and pitch. The thing that really grabs me early on is the guitar tone, especially the cleans. This thing sounds super jangly, and it’s a really nice tone. The distorted tone doesn’t feel too far removed from that of
Pyromania, but polished further from there. The drums set a really solid groove and throw in a few snare-centric fills. The chorus of this one especially gives that great group vibe that
Pyromania capitalised on. This is a really solid opening track, and shows off the whole “we’re back!” vibe that this album really needed.
Rocket follows shortly after, starting with a reversed version of the chorus vocals from
Gods of War. This song has a unique vibe, being centred around a drum groove in many places, or around a very simple bass riff. The great thing to this song is the lyrics, which serve as a snapshot of the songs that Leppard grew up listening to (name-checking
Jumpin’ Jack Flash,
Benny and the Jets and
Killer Queen among others, with the most prominent being
Satellite of Love in the chorus). The middle section to a certain extent serves as a little bit of a twisted overture for the
Hysteria album as a whole, with all sorts of clips being used out of context or in reverse. If anything sets this one back at all, I feel this song goes on a little too long once we get into that middle section, and I kinda prefer the version used in the music video for the track for this reason.
Animal sets a bit of a different pace after the first two. This is both a rocker and a bit of a ballad all at once. This one, much like
Women and
Rocket before it, is quite bass led. It’s actually awesome how much room Sav is getting to do his thing here. This song provides more big choruses, but also one of my favourite riffs on the record in the bridge. It’s just got a certain bite to it that I really love. The fake out ending is pretty cool too.
Love Bites, Def Leppard’s only number one hit in the US believe it or not, really changes the mood from what’s preceded it. This goes through a good emotional spectrum throughout the three main sections. To me, the verses are quite fragile and questioning, the pre chorus is almost a resignation to the way things are instead of the way he wants them to be, and then the main chorus is almost desperate. This usually isn’t a song I get into too much, but I really enjoyed it this time around. The first solo on this track is really different, nice and open. The outro is a somewhat ominous open feel as well. Hammers to me the fact that the protagonist of the track may end up alone at the end of the track.
Alright, we all know the song that’s next. If you’ve barely heard of Def Leppard, it’s a good chance this is the one you know em for. Step inside, walk this way, you and me babe, hey hey!
The first thing to say about
Pour Some Sugar on Me is that the main riff is great, if a little under-utilised for my liking. The snare sound on this track gives the song a really explosive feel and I really like the stab feel of the guitars and bass. Rick’s groove in this is super recognisable too. The solo section here is replaced by a really tight unison between Phil and Steve, which admittedly isn’t a super complex riff but is super effective. Then you get the lyrics, and they feel a little slapdash. This song was the last written and recorded for the main
Hysteria album and it kinda shows, but there’s no secret as to why this was as big of a hit as it was, this song just rocks.
Armageddon It is the last track before we get to leave off from the big singles for a little bit. This one is great. The intro riff is fun, but the verse riff is a highlight for me on this album. More group vocal goodness for the pre chorus and a cool call and response for the main chorus (I remember when those were used only on some of the deepest cuts for
High ‘n’ Dry and
Pyromania). This song also has a really groovy solo from Steve Clark, which at this point in the album is really welcome. Phil starts soloing over the fade-out and unfortunately the song dies out before it gets a chance to really kick off. That’s something about
Hysteria that really isn’t a hit for me, there aren’t as many great solos as there have been on previous albums and on this listen-through, I kinda missed them. This song always leaves me in a good mood, though, and marks the halfway point for this album.
The next song starts off with a really nice ambient guitar intro, a Steve Clark composition, which really gets me in the mood for what’s to come.
Gods of War. This is the first of the deeper cuts on
Hysteria, but it’s one of my absolute favourite Def Leppard songs ever. This song has a bit of a similar structure of verses and choruses to
Die Hard the Hunter the album before, and while that track did have a few instrumental highlights that I did prefer, I think
Gods just wins out overall. The production for this song really elevates it, and the vocals are just so infectious. If you have a chance, get the Classic Albums documentary on the
Hysteria album. There’s a section where they show off a really awesome layered vocal track from the chorus of this song that is a little underpowered in the final mix. The audio samples at the end of this track give the outro a huge vibe that I don’t know Def Leppard have ever really lived up to again. This song is just epic, and if this is one you skip, I urge you to give it another go.
Don’t Shoot Shotgun is up next. Compared to every other song on this album, this one feels very bare bones. As a musician myself, I feel like the verses of this one may have been an influence on AC/DC’s
Thunderstruck. The group vocals on this track are super prominent and it’s actually a really fun song to listen to. The solo section in this one is one of my favourites for the album for sure, there’s just a really nice vibe to them which actually kinda reminds me of
Hold Your Fire era Rush for some reason (conveniently released in the same year). Not too much to say about this one, but it’s a nice fun song that makes a good contrast after how serious
Gods of War is.
If you wanted more straight rockers though,
Run Riot should surely be on the top of your list! This is my second favourite song on the album for this listen through. The vocals have a
Stagefright vibe to them, but leading into the
Hysteria style choruses. I feel like this track in particular is a great summation of 80s Def Leppard, the bridge into the solo has the bite of something from
High ‘n’ Dry, the soloing is classic
Pyromania era and it does all of this within the
Hysteria sound. It’s shocking how good this song is, considering Def Leppard almost never bring this song out live unless performing the full album.
And now, onto the title track.
Hysteria is probably more of a ballad than a banger within the context of the album, but it’s beautiful. This song is probably the most overly produced, at least according to the band. There are at least 8 different guitar parts in the chorus alone, and every note of every chord was recorded individually. Did it work though? Hell yeah. This song is amazingly beautiful and well worth being the title track of the album. This showcases so many things about this album all in one go while remaining it’s own individual song. The solo here is awesome, the choruses are great, and that main riff is in mind whenever the album title is mentioned. Can you feel it? Do you believe it?
It’s a shame that the last two tracks on the album fall a little short for me.
Excitable isn’t a bad song, but on the record this just never takes for me. This is one that is, again, massively produced in the studio. And yet, if I want to listen to this song, I tend to seek out a live version. There’s some really cool parts to this song. The singalong vocal runs are actually really fun, amd I love the build of the bridge, but this song just doesn’t have the energy on the album that it takes on live.
Love and Affection is kinda alright at best. I don’t have a lot to say about it and often I completely forget about it, which isn’t something I like to say about album closers. The riff doesn’t really escalate, the solo is decent but not really anything super great. The chorus vocal is kinda nice, I guess. This song as a whole just doesn’t do anything for me and feels like more worthy of being a B-Side than the actual B-Sides to
Hysteria.
So,
Hysteria as a whole. Man, what a great album! It’s a victory and a comeback from a point where they very easily could’ve called it quits. For many, this is their leaving point, much as the
Black Album would be for Metallica fans a few years later, but I think we’re only just getting started here. This main album ranks a 4.8 for me, because I still kinda like one of the two weakest tracks on the album, but the closer just never took for me.
But hey, while we’re talking about
Hysteria, there are actually a few other songs we can talk about, so get ready for the B-Sides post a little later!