My love for/minor obsession with Def Leppard began with a fuzzy clip from In The Round In Your Face, 1988, on a dusty VCR tape from the Cupboard of Forgotten Music Programmes. And so began my second love affair with classic rock. Where do I start with Hysteria? I can’t find one bad song on the record (not even Run Riot).
Let’s start with the most obvious one; Pour Some Sugar on Me could not have more testosterone in it if it tried. The distorted riff explodes in a fit of “I am man, I have loud guitar, listen to THIS.” This is helped along by the Man Grunt which furnishes the first verse. This track was made for stadiums. It’s punchy and confident. The backing vocals are deep and rough, creating the gritty sex appeal which enticed Floridian strippers in the late 80s and cemented it as probably one of the catchiest songs ever. As well as this, it sounds hilarious sped up.
Love Bites manages to prove the strength behind softness and emotion. I hadn’t heard lyrics like those before in any other song I’d ever listened to. It’s so blatantly sexual but interweaves the emotion which often goes hand in hand with intimacy. The power of wanting to touch somebody you know you can’t brilliantly highlights the power of sexuality in love and captures the emotion behind the lust. It’s an incredibly mature approach to a love song. It sounds real, raw and emotional. This also comes through in the music – the long chords, slow tempo and minor key stretch out the deep sensuality of the track. The constant vibrato in the chorus played by Phil Collen is actually both him and Steve Clark playing, as it was too difficult for one person. The technique worked well to produce a unique, powerful resonance and a hauntingly beautiful song.
Armageddon It has possibly the happiest chorus ever. It’s another of those songs that evokes a sense of euphoria, stemming from the harmonies and chord progression. The verses are studded with punchy guitar parts, giving way to a pre-chorus which builds and explodes in enough harmonized happiness to envelop even the most miserable of souls.
Think y
ou might lose interest halfway through the B Side? Nope, you get smacked across with face with Run Riot and Don’t Shoot Shotgun, the most energetic fillers I think I’ve ever heard on a record. The electricity of Run Riot is utterly contagious, whilst Don’t Shoot Shotgun is less energetic but more melodic, but both make you feel equally exhausted after only listening. That doesn’t matter because you then have the calming serenity of the title track itself.
I’m beginning to sound like a broken record (geddit) but Hysteria is an exquisite song, and one of my favourites on the album. The moment the first bar of the riff starts, it’s impossible not to melt into a delirious puddle of relaxation. It’s something in the riff, the chord progression, the resonance – it’s so difficult not to fall in love with this song when it’s a song about falling in love. Not just falling in love, going mad with love. “Dream me off my feet” is the line which, for me, perfectly captures the feeling of dancing through the feeling of loving somebody.
I’ve mentioned nearly every track on the album, but Gods of War has always felt slightly separate from the rest of the songs. This album really has it all – strip club vs heartbreak, the restless impatience of youth and nuclear war! Gods of War is certainly topical for the period during which it was written, containing audios of ‘Maggie Thatcher, milk snatcher’ and the sounds of machine gun fire and falling bombs. Nearly a whole minute of anticipation before that bass kicks in, followed by one of the best riffs I reckon Steve Clark ever wrote. The riff is one of the standout elements of the song for me; I mentioned before about that feeling of euphoria, and this guitar riff has it in spades. The song carries this feeling right through to the last chorus and the delicious Photograph-esque descending scale sung by Mr Elliott. It’s genuinely hard to quantify the sheer wall of power that is this song. It’s the perfect balance of meaning and melody.
Hysteria is an incredible, incredible album. It’s well produced, well written and worth the four-year hellfest that was its’ creation. Try to find somebody who doesn’t like even one song on the record – bet you a tenner you won’t find anyone.