Issued on 8 June 1999, Euphoria quickly made it plain that Def Leppard were right back in the game, something Joe Elliott himself acknowledged, singing “It’s like I’ve never been away” on the assured ‘Back In Your Face’. A collective confidence prevailed and their ensuing performances proved that their initial session with Lange had energised the whole band. Leppard’s brief, but fruitful, reunion with Lange resulted in three of Euphoria’s stand-out tracks: the classy, semi-acoustic ‘It’s Only Love’, the quixotic ‘All Night’ (a throwback to the Prince-esque funk of Slang’s title track) and the album’s signature song, ‘Promises’: a turbulent rocker with bags of panache which bore the hallmarks of a future classic.įor the rest of the album, Leppard reconvened with Slang producer Peter Woodroffe and decamped to Joe’s Garage studio in Dublin to lay down the bulk of their new record. He really is the perfect person to work with.” He’s very creative, a great musician and a great singer. “It was like a refresher course to remind us how we used to do it. “It was a huge, huge education,” remembered drummer Rick Allen. Though it only amounted to one long and intensive weekend of collaboration, Lange’s return to the fold gave Leppard a welcome boost as they began to shape the material for Euphoria. To help realise their aim, Leppard reconnected with Robert John “Mutt” Lange, their long-time producer, whose meticulous approach to studio techniques and songwriting had played a significant part in the success of the band’s landmark 80s albums Pyromania and Hysteria. “I suppose people can say we’ve gone back to what we used to do, but I think it’s more a case of: nobody makes records like us, and if anybody’s got the God-given right to do it, it’s us.” “ Slang was something we’d been craving to do… but then we were happy to go back to making classic Def Leppard again,” vocalist Joe Elliott explained to Classic Rock in 2014. Released in May 1996, Def Leppard’s sixth album, Slang, was a diverse alt.rock record which sat well with the times, but it largely eschewed the band’s anthemic trademark sound – something the Yorkshire stalwarts were keen to revisit on their next studio set, Euphoria.
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