Hysteria

Artist: Def Leppard

Released in August of 1987, Hysteria would become Def Leppard’s bestselling record with over 20 million copies sold world-wide. The album features seven hit-singles; and at the time, was the longest rock album ever released as a single LP or cassette. Additionally, the album also set a record for one of the longest creation periods, taking over three years.

After the success of Pyromania, Def Leppard decided that the follow-up album should have an even more commercial sound. Unfortunately, the project, again produced by “Mutt” Lange, would be plagued with accidents and mishaps. Drummer Rick Allen’s auto accident, in which he lost his left arm, would be the most serious of the band’s setbacks; and the surrounding media frenzy inspired Allen with the album’s title.

After recording sessions finished, Lang took an additional three months to mix the record. This time he would add even more ‘hype’ to the backing vocals, resulting in this record’s pristine and glossy sound. Additionally, the band decided to largely dump clichéd guitar riffs and solos, and use the instrument in a way that emphasized the rhythm and ‘feel’ of the songs as a whole. Furthermore, the drums were recorded into a sampler and then triggered later once all of the other tracks had been cut. This allowed multiple drum hits to be stacked on top of each other, which is responsible for the huge rhythm sounds on the record. By the time the album was completed, the band would have to sell over seven million copies just to break even.

Despite the band’s aim at making a commercially successful record, with every song being a potential hit-single, they still managed to make an album that appeals to many hard-rock fans and guitar players. However, there are many that consider Pyromania to be the band’s final album before ‘selling-out.’ I think that it is more accurate to recognize that with Hysteria Def Leppard just took all of the things that made Pyromania so good and turned them up to 11.

With the release of Hysteria, the band finally realized their dreams of success in England; the album went to number one in its first week on the charts. However, the band had somewhat greater difficulty in America, where the long wait between albums had caused the band to lose momentum. Finally, nearly a year after its release, radio play of the song “Pour Some Sugar on Me” would propel the band back to the top of the charts, with both the number-one album, and the number-one single “Love Bites.” Hysteria would go on to dominate charts around the world for three years.

This album definitely sets the standard for production and song-writing among rock records. The fact that the album’s seven hits are still played daily on classic-rock radio is a testament to the amount of work the band put into the album’s creation. In 2004, the album was ranked at number 472 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

Rating: 5/5