DEF LEPPARD “Hysteria” /CD/

The fourth full-length studio album by legendary British Hard Rock/Heavy Metal band.
Def Leppard's best-selling album to date, selling over 20 000 000 copies worldwide, including 12 million in the US, and spawning seven hit Singles. The album is the follow-up to the band's 1983 breakthrough "Pyromania". "Hysteria"'s creation took over three years and was plagued by delays, including the aftermath of drummer Rick Allen's accident that cost him his left arm on 31 December 1984. In the liner notes to the album, the band apologized for the long wait between albums, and promised to never force fans to wait that long between albums again. However, later events, particularly the death of lead guitarist Steve Clark, delayed the next album, "Adrenalize", by almost five years.
"Hysteria" was produced by Robert John "Mutt" Lange. The title of the album was thought up by drummer Rick Allen, referring to his 1984 car accident, the amputation of his arm, and the ensuing worldwide media coverage surrounding it. It is the last album to feature guitarist Steve Clark before his death in 1991, although songs co-written by him would appear on the band's next album, "Adrenalize". Lasting 62 minutes and 32 seconds, the album is the band's longest to date. David Simone, managing director of Phonogram Records at the time, said the album might have been the most expensive record made in the U.K. According to guitarist Phil Collen, the album had to sell a minimum of 5 million copies to break even.
Where "Pyromania" had set the standard for polished, catchy Pop-Metal, "Hysteria" only upped the ante. "Pyromania"'s slick, layered Mutt Lange production turned into a painstaking obsession with dense sonic detail on "Hysteria", with the result that some critics dismissed the record as a stiff, mechanized Pop sell-out (perhaps due in part to Rick Allen's new, partially electronic drum kit). But Def Leppard's music had always employed big, anthemic hooks, and few of the Pop-Metal bands who had hit the charts in the wake of "Pyromania" could compete with Leppard's sense of craft; certainly none had the Pop songwriting savvy to produce seven chart Singles from the same album, as the stunningly consistent "Hysteria" did.
Joe Elliott's lyrics owe an obvious debt to his obsession with T. Rex, particularly on the playfully silly anthem "Pour Some Sugar on Me", and the British Glam Rock tribute "Rocket", while power ballads like "Love Bites" and the title track lack the histrionics or gooey sentimentality of many similar offerings.
The strong Pop hooks and "perfect"-sounding production of "Hysteria" may not appeal to die-hard Heavy Metal fans, but it isn't Heavy Metal - it's Pop-Metal, and arguably the best Pop-Metal ever recorded. Its blockbuster success helped pave the way for a whole new second wave of Hair Metal bands, while proving that the late-'80s musical climate could also be very friendly to veteran Hard Rock acts, a lead many would follow in the next few years.
The album charted at number one on both the Billboard 200 and the UK Albums Chart. It went on to dominate album charts around the world for three years. It was certified 12× Platinum by the RIAA in 1998. The album currently sits as the 51st Best-selling Album of All Time in the US. It spent 96 weeks in the US top 40, a record for the 1980s it ties with "Born in the U.S.A.". "Hysteria" has sold more than 20 million copies worldwide.
After the album's release, Def Leppard published a book titled Animal Instinct: The Def Leppard Story, written by Rolling Stone Magazine senior editor David Fricke, on the three-year recording process of Hysteria and the tough times the band endured through the mid-1980s. During their 22 March to 10 April 2013 residency at The Joint, Def Leppard performed the album in its entirety, from start to finish. This was followed up with a live album, "Viva! Hysteria", recorded during the residency and released on 22 October 2013, which includes all of band's fourth studio album being played live. This would be followed up seven years later, as "Hysteria: Live at the O2" was released on 29 May 2020, as part of the "London to Vegas" box set. The live concert was filmed at The O2 Arena in London, England on 6 December 2018, as the band once again played the album in its entirety. Various releases have included a stand-alone edition of this concert have featured combinations of audio, DVD and Blu-Ray discs.
In 2005, "Hysteria" was ranked number 464 in Rock Hard Magazine's book "The 500 Greatest Rock & Metal Albums of All Time". "Hysteria" got the same placement on Rolling Stone's list of the "500 Best Albums of All Time", the magazine also ranked the album atop its list of the "50 Greatest Hair Metal Albums", and they placed the album on their list of "50 Rock Albums Every Country Fan Should Own". Loudwire placed the album at No. 2 on their list of the "Top 30 Hair Metal albums". "Hysteria" was also included in the book "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die". L.A. Weekly and Consequence of Sound both ranked the album #8 on their "Hair Metal album lists". Metal Rules put the album on their list of the "Top 50 Glam Metal Albums", at #30. The Ringer called Hysteria "the greatest Hair Metal album ever made".
Bludgeon Riffola/Polygram Records/Mercury Records, 1987/ (830 675-2). Made in the EU. Re-press.


Tracklist:
1. Women 5:41
2. Rocket 6:34
3. Animal 4:02
4. Love Bites 5:46
5. Pour Some Sugar On Me 4:25
6. Armageddon It 5:21
7. Gods Of War 6:33
8. Don't Shoot Shotgun 4:26
9. Run Riot 4:39
10. Hysteria 5:49
11. Excitable 4:19
12. Love And Affection 4:35
Total playing time: 62:10 min.