Favorite Def Leppard album?

Hysteria, and it is not even close for me.

I guess it was the first and last time a band tried to make an entire album of singles, and man does it work.

 

I always thought that when Steve Clark died they should have gotten Pete Willis back. I think he would have been a great guitar partner to Phil.

 

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Love this import. Amazing Leppard 1978--1979.

 

I disagree. To much time had passed and Willis even stated that "them kicking me out of the band probably saved my life".

I would have preferred them getting someone who was younger and had fresh ideas but Campbell has filled the niche nicely.

 

That's why I think enough time had passed for Pete to reflect on his mistakes and getting clean. I was just stating a what if anyway. Who knows if it would have worked. It has worked out with Vivian anyway.

 

Pyromania was my favorite when I was a kid but as I mentioned previously, High & Dry and On Through The Night are by far my favorites as an adult. Something about the production on Pyromania sounds a bit dated to me.

 

Euphoria kind of comes across as a 12 year later extension of Hysteria and it's obvious they were trying to re-create that period. I'd say that album probably would have been another huge seller if it were released around 1990.

 

I'm the (so far) one vote for "some other" - 1995's Slang. Seriously. Earlier records had better songs, but I really loved this when it came out. I liked that it was, for these guys anyway, decidedly not slick and that it was recorded as a band.

 

Everything up to and including Pyromania.

 

Like to Love em all.

Pyromania is perfection, pure perfection.

 

Pyromania, mostly for sentimental reasons.

 

'..some other...'. ? The wealth of material they've released through the decades and the best you can come up with is 'some other'? That sounds dismissive and insulting.

My answer would be 'Slang'.

 

Def Leppard is IMO one of those bands whose biggest selling LPs also happen to clearly be their best LPs, so to me, it boils down to Pyromania or Hysteria. I prefer Pyromania, it has a slightly rawer sound, and I don't think anything on Hysteria quite reaches the peaks of "Rock of Ages" or "Foolin'". Close call, though.

 

I suddenly feel less alone in the universe...

 

Voted Pyro, stated I liked all, & love many in post #60.

Their latest release, "self titled" is not to be overlooked, imo. I think it ranks with their greatest albums of all time.

 

Hysteria for me. Was hitting big just as I was going into high school and buying music for myself. One of my favorite guitar albums.

 

Pyro! Although the song Hysteria is my favorite song by them.

 

A good point that gets missed. Guitars.

 

I'm a relatively new Def Leppard fanboy, but I've been listening to their albums non-stop. Particularly their older ones. Considering Hysteria is in my Top 10 favourite albums of all time, I have to choose that. I love Pyromania, On Through the Night and High n' Dry, but Hysteria has the greater volume of songs I can listen too. The album has amazing production and sounds incredibly fresh and contemporary even today.

Highlights: "Pour Some Sugar on Me", "Love Bites", "Armageddon It" (my favourite track on the record), "Gods of War" (really underrated), "Excitable", "Hysteria", "Run Riot", "Don't Shoot Shotgun"

Alright: "Animal", "Woman"

Lowlights: "Love and Affection", "Rocket" (I know people love this song, but I really don't like it. the album version anyway).

Sadly, this was the last great Def Leppard album. Adrenalize was generic and felt like they were copying Hysteria (it has some good tracks on it though), Slang was good but derivative of the whole grunge/alternative rock sound, and Euphoria was alright.

 

Have you heard the MoFi CD from '89? That sucker is mighty crankable, and I'd say presents the album much better than the old Mercury disc, or the cassette I used to have (never owned the vinyl), so perhaps an upgrade is in order for a greater sonic appreciation of Pyromania.

I agree with you about High 'n' Dry being a bit too AC/DC-esque at times, and although I am inclined to select Pyromania as my favorite mainly because it is the album that grabbed me first, I'd probably choose High 'n' Dry as Def Leppard's rocking-est set overall. If On Through the Night receives deluxe treatment complete with unreleased demos and other early outtakes like the First Strikes import, my estimation of that album may rise such that it even surpasses those other two.

I haven't been interested in anything the band has done since Pyromania, but perhaps that could change too. We'll see....

 

Have you heard this one?
It and the MFSL, UD not the UDII, are almost identical so much so that I sold my MFSL.

I really love Pyromania, but I look at it as it was a sampling precursor to their biggest album Hysteria my by a hair #1 choice. Too many good memories attached to it as well. I also really like their ballad track Two Steps Behind from Retroactive so they always have something really good to offer on every album.

 

High 'N Dry
Pyromania
Hysteria
Retroactive
Adrenalize
On Through The Night
(Huge gap)
Euphoria
Slang
Haven't heard the others.

 

Yes, I know the MoFi, but it doesn't change the album's noisy sound. The Deluxe Edition would have shown us both what I'm talking about had they put some demos on it, but they chose to release that live concert...

 

Perhaps not, but I think this is still a fine sounding disc:

Ah no, I haven't heard the W. German Vertigo CD for Pyromania, and that's interesting if it sounds similar enough to the MFSL for you to sell the latter disc. FTR, I own the Made in Japan UD MoFi shown above, and not the presumably inferior Made in USA UDII.

Thanks for sharing!

 

No one was more surprised than me because the MFSL does sound good.