The most recent edition of album rankings, focused on The Darkness, was written to coincide with the release of their second live album Streaming Of A White Christmas. That didn’t work out since the album was delayed without warning, so instead I posted the entry to coincide with the announcement of their most recent studio album, Motorheart.
I hadn’t yet lined up which band I would handle next. But then in quite a shocking twist, Def Leppard (my favorite band of all time) announced the release of a new studio album called Diamond Star Halos.
To celebrate the release of their 12th studio album, I figured it would be a good time to do a ranking of their studio albums.
Being my favorite band, this list constantly evolves and I’ll soon have to factor in Diamond Star Halos… But only once I’ve had proper time to absorb all 15 tracks the new album will have to offer.
Normally I listen to each album again to fine tune the song star rankings in my phone’s music library before I do this, but that isn’t necessary with Def Leppard. There’s no band I’ve listened to more often, more frequently, or for a longer period of time. Their music is ingrained in my DNA.
To borrow from Ranked: Album Of The Year Winners – 2019 Edition, this is how I personally view the star ratings:
5: Top notch, bona fide classic.
4: Great song!
3: Good to really good, not quite great.
2: Decent and enjoyable.
1: No sir, I don’t like it.
Now, for the record, the ranking of the albums won’t be strictly based on the star ratings for the songs or the averages for the albums. Much more will go into the overall ranking of each album including production and my personal connection (or lack thereof) with the album.
Besides, when it really comes down to it, it’s impossible to accurately rate a song using only five stars. I use the feature, but really I use it to rank a song within the album it’s on. I’m only comparing it to the other songs on the album, not everything ever done by the band or any other band. A song that is ranked at four or five stars on the album may not be given the same number of stars when compared to songs from other albums or other artists. Each set of stars applies within the vacuum of each album only.
Now, with that out of the way, I have to address another question… Am I qualified to be ranking Def Leppard’s studio albums? Without question! I’ve been listening to the band since I was a toddler in the late 1980’s. I’ve gotten every album upon release since I was old enough and have seen the band 63 times to date. I’m more qualified for this than any other band in history.
I only address being qualified since as this series continues, I may come across bands that I’m only a casual fan of, so I may not know their discography as in depth as my favorite bands. I’ll still rank the albums anyway, just with that little disclaimer.
With that out of the way, let’s get on with my rankings of Def Leppard’s studio albums as of the release week for Diamond Star Halos… As it can and will always change!
12
Yeah!
Release Date: May 23, 2006
Running Time: 53:43
| Tracklist | Original Arist | iPod Rating |
| 01. 20th Century Boy | T. Rex | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 02. Rock On | David Essex | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 03. Hanging On The Telephone | Blondie/The Nerves | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 04. Waterloo Sunset | The Kinks | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 05. Hell Raiser | Sweet | ⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 06. 10538 Overture | E.L.O. | ⭐️⭐️ |
| 07. Street Life | Roxy Music | ⭐️ |
| 08. Drive-In Saturday | David Bowie | ⭐️⭐️ |
| 09. Little Bit Of Love | Free | ⭐️ |
| 10. The Golden Age Of Rock ‘n’ Roll | Mott The Hoople | ⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 11. No Matter What | Badfinger | ⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 12. He’s Gonna Step On You Again | John Kongos | ⭐️⭐️ |
| 13. Don’t Believe A Word | Thin Lizzy | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 14. Stay With Me | The Faces | ⭐️⭐️ |
In my ranking of Aerosmith’s studio albums, I wrote about how the mid-2000’s was a period when classic rock bands began to ditch putting a lot of effort into writing and recording new music. Record contracts (on which albums were owed) still existed and they still needed somewhat of a reason to go out on tour, so covers albums became all the rage while original material all but disappeared. Def Leppard was sadly no exception.
Def Leppard had seemingly gone all in on the X album. They wrote their most commercial sounding album to date and even accepted a couple of songs from outside professional songwriters. Still, the label burned the band by ditching the album’s second single and dropping promo all together. Things got quite dark in Leppard world and they had little to no motivation to write more new music.
But since they still owed the label two albums, they opted to start tinkering with cover songs as a quick way to knock out half of their obligation to the label. The collection of covers, primarily pulled from the early 1970’s, was originally rumored for a September 2004 release only to be pushed back a full year when plans began to evolve. New management took over and all the focus shifted to the hits: new compilations dropped in 2004 and 2005 and headline tours were replaced by coheadlining/package tours.
The covers album was pushed back again, this time from September 2005 to May 2006. What should have been a quick stop-gap album had now eaten up multiple years, delaying actual new original music from the band.
Since I was desperate for something new, I listened to Yeah! quite a bit between when it leaked in late 2005 and when it was officially released (almost entirely unchanged) in May 2006. Time, however, has not been kind to this album. I don’t remember the era fondly and my view of the album isn’t much better.
It’s not without its highlights, as opener “20th Century Boy” is the best song on the album and one I wouldn’t mind hearing live from time to time. On the opposite side of that coin is “Rock On,” a song that was beautifully recorded but I never want to hear it live again. Other highlights include “Hanging On The Telephone,” “Waterloo Sunset,” “Hell Raiser,” “The Golden Age Of Rock N Roll,” and “Don’t Believe A Word.” I also still enjoy “No Matter What” and “10538 Overture,” but the rest I rarely ever listen to. Especially the dreadful “Street Life,” though at least Lep’s version is listenable (unlike the original). And it’s a shame the Cybernauts exhausted so much of David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust-era catalog as there are a number of songs that would have been better here than “Drive-In Saturday.”
The production is solid, the presentation is fantastic… But it’s a covers album. Those will always rank low no matter the band. And even though this came out 16 years ago, Lep’s obsession with paying tribute to their influences has been at the forefront ever since.
11
On Through The Night
Release Date: March 14, 1980
Running Time: 43:47
| Tracklist | Writer(s) | iPod Rating |
| 01. Rock Brigade | Clark/Elliott/Savage | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 02. Hello America | Clark/Elliott/Savage | ⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 03. Sorrow Is A Woman | Clark/Elliott/Savage/Willis | ⭐️⭐️ |
| 04. It Could Be You | Elliott/Willis | ⭐️⭐️ |
| 05. Satellite | Clark/Elliott/Savage/Willis | ⭐️⭐️ |
| 06. When The Walls Came Tumbling Down | Clark/Elliott/Smith | ⭐️⭐️ |
| 07. Wasted | Clark/Elliott | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 08. Rocks Off | Clark/Elliott/Savage/Willis | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 09. It Don’t Matter | Clark/Elliott/Willis | ⭐️⭐️ |
| 10. Answer To The Master | Clark/Elliott/Savage/Willis | ⭐️⭐️ |
| 11. Overture | Clark/Elliott/Savage/Willis | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
I didn’t actually get my hands on a copy of Def Leppard’s debut album On Through The Night until September 16, 1996… Which was my 10th birthday, on which I got my very first CD player and all of Lep’s albums to that point on CD. Before that, I was cassette-only and didn’t have OTTN. The only song I knew from the album was “Hello America” thanks to its inclusion on the VHS compilation Historia, and that track alone told be I was in for a very different listening experience than what came after it.
In hindsight, it’s crazy to listen to this album thinking it was released ‘only’ seven years prior to Hysteria. It sounds like a completely different band, aside from some hints at what was to come with catchy guitar riffs and a sense of melody that they would really begin to embellish over time.
As I got older and began to give this album more attention, I grew to appreciate it for what it was and really came to love several of the songs. My top tracks are “Wasted,” “Rocks Off,” “Rock Brigade,” “Overture,” and “Hello America.” This album went completely ignored in live setting from 1988-1998, but thankfully “Wasted” resurfaced in the fall of 1999. As soon as it did, the song shot to the top of my wish list of songs to see live. Thankfully that chance finally presented itself in 2013 as part of the band’s Viva! Hysteria residency. I saw four shows during that run and three of them featured “Wasted” while “Rock Brigade” and the b-side “Good Morning Freedom” also made appearances. It was mind blowing, to say the least.
On Through The Night suffers from poor production and really fails to capture what the band sounded like live at the time, which I think its the album’s ultimate failure. Thankfully that was rectified with the release of a full live show from Oxford, England recorded in 1980 but not released until The Early Years box set came out in 2020.
Many fans live or die by Def Leppard’s first two albums and cannot accept that they evolved beyond their humble beginnings. I ‘get’ that to a point, but the sound captured on this album was never what Lep set out to be. Having said that, it was a great start and the album is highly enjoyable.
10
Retro Active
Release Date: October 5, 1993
Running Time: 56:04
| Tracklist | Writer(s) | iPod Rating |
| 01. Desert Song | Clark/Elliott/Savage | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 02. Fractured Love | Clark/Elliott/Savage | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 03. Action | Scott/Connolly/Priest/Tucker | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 04. Two Steps Behind | Elliott | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 05. She’s Too Tough | Elliott | ⭐️⭐️ |
| 06. Miss You In A Heartbeat | Collen | ⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 07. Only After Dark | Ronson/Richardson | ⭐️⭐️ |
| 08. Ride Into The Sun | Clark/Collen/Elliott/Savage | ⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 09. From The Inside | Elliott | ⭐️⭐️ |
| 10. Ring Of Fire | Clark/Collen/Elliott/Lange/Savage | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 11. I Wanna Be Your Hero | Clark/Collen/Elliott/Lange/Savage | ⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 12. Miss You In A Heartbeat [Electric Version] | Collen | ⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 13. Two Steps Behind [Electric Version] | Elliott | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
When Def Leppard released Retro Active in October of 1993, I was just barely seven years old and had no idea it wasn’t a new studio album. I didn’t yet understand the concept of B-Sides or reworked songs or anything like that. All I knew is that Lep dropped a new album full of songs I’d never heard shockingly only a year and a half or so after their prior album and I was obsessed with it at the time. I flat out LOVED “Two Steps Behind” and remember the time between the album release and when I finally got it on cassette, as I was basically making up my own words to it when I would play it over in my head.
As I got older, I began to learn more about exactly what Retro Active was, and it actually made me appreciate the album even more. Two previously unreleased songs from the Hysteria sessions, three touched up Hysteria b-sides, six touched up Adrenalize b-sides, and two (or three) alternate versions to cap off the album. Every song on the album benefitted from being touched up and modernized, which resulted in an album that is highly enjoyable from start to finish.
Despite being nearly 10 year old songs, “Desert Song” and “Fractured Love” rank right up there with Lep’s best. “Action” remains my favorite cover Lep has done to this day. The dual-acoustic hits “Two Steps Behind” and “Miss You In A Heartbeat” are great ballads and the updated-updated version of “Ride Into The Sun” is a fantastic rocker. “Ring Of Fire” sees some of the best updates between the beef up guitars, improved drum sound, and that they really let that amazing intro riff shine.
This album really speaks to the quality of the band’s songwriting from the mid-eighties to the early nineties, since songs used as b-sides for Lep were better than what most other bands were putting out on albums at the time. The fact that “Desert Song” and “Fractured Love” went unused for so long is pretty crazy, especially since they sounded quite modern and served as a very natural stepping stone from the ‘classic’ Lep sound to what would follow on Slang two and a half years later.
9
Songs From The Sparkle Lounge
Release Date: April 29, 2008
Running Time: 39:12
| Tracklist | Writer(s) | iPod Rating |
| 01. Go | Collen/Elliott | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 02. Nine Lives | Collen/Elliott/McGraw/Savage | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 03. C’mon C’mon | Savage | ⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 04. Love | Savage | ⭐️⭐️ |
| 05. Tomorrow | Collen | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 06. Cruise Control | Campbell | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 07. Hallucinate | Collen | ⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 08. Only The Good Die Young | Campbell | ⭐️⭐️ |
| 09. Bad Actress | Elliott | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 10. Come Undone | Elliott | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 11. Gotta Let It Go | Campbell | ⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
The fallout from the X era resulted in the longest gap in original studio album’s in the band’s history… At that time, at least. By 2008, it had been six years since Lep had released any original music, so the fandom was desperate for a new album. That album was Songs From The Sparkle Lounge, which was released in the US on April 29, 2008.
I wrote extensively about Sparkle Lounge on its 10th anniversary. The album benefitted from two things upon its release: the desperation for new music after the long gap between albums and the hunger for some harder rock songs after the more poppy affair that was X. As a result, fans (myself included) absolutely loved Sparkle Lounge upon its release. Over time, however, the rose colored glasses (for the ears) faded, and the flaws became more apparent. The release of the Def Leppard album in 2015 only made the flaws present on Sparkle Lounge more apparent.
Making matters worse, the album’s lead single “Nine Lives” was tainted by the inclusion of Tim McGraw on lead vocals. He added absolutely nothing to the song and only served to hurt it, as the song had nowhere to go for airplay. Thankfully the Japanese edition of the album featured a McGraw-less version of the song, which became my go-to version since it’s a great song without him.
Other great songs featured on the album are opener “Go,” “Cruise Control,” “Tomorrow,” “Bad Actress,” and “Come Undone.” Everything is else is quite enjoyable, though you may have to be in the right mood to enjoy the overly obvious Queen ripoff that is “Love.” And “C’mon C’mon” is a much better live song than how it sounds in studio form here.
The album suffers from poor production, as it’s the worst sounding album in Lep’s entire catalog, and songs that feel unfinished at times. Songs like “Go,” “Cruise Control,” “Love,” and “Gotta Let It Go” would have benefitted from being fleshed out more. The short running time of each song results in an album that has a running time under 40 minutes.
Nothing screams “contractually obligated” like an album that is only 39 minutes long, has little variety in song structure, has poor production, and yet took six years to come out. This album satisfied the band’s original contract with their label and things would only get worse after that from a new music standpoint.
I don’t enjoy Sparkle Lounge quite as much as I did in 2008, but I still enjoy it every time I turn it on. It’s a fast listen and playing the version without Tim McGraw is a must. There is plenty to love, including some standout songs and plenty of guitars. The album is a product of its time and circumstance, but for personal reasons I’ll always remember this album fondly despite its flaws.
8
X
Release Date: July 30, 2002
Running Time: 47:09
| Tracklist | Writer(s) | iPod Rating |
| 01. Now | Allen/Campbell/Collen/Elliott/Frederiksen/Savage | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 02. Unbelievable | Aldeheim/Carlsson/Martin | ⭐️ |
| 03. You’re So Beautiful | Allen/Campbell/Collen/Elliott/Frederiksen/Savage | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 04. Everyday | Allen/Campbell/Collen/Elliott/Frederiksen/Savage | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 05. Long, Long Way To Go | Hector/Robson | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 06. Four Letter Word | Allen/Campbell/Collen/Elliott/Savage | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 07. Torn To Shreds | Allen/Campbell/Collen/Elliott/Savage | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 08. Love Don’t Lie | Allen/Campbell/Collen/Elliott/Savage | ⭐️⭐️ |
| 09. Gravity | Allen/Campbell/Collen/Elliott/Savage/Woodroffe | ⭐️⭐️ |
| 10. Cry | Allen/Campbell/Collen/Elliott/Savage | ⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 11. Girl Like You | Allen/Campbell/Collen/Elliott/Savage | ⭐️⭐️ |
| 12. Let Me Be The One | Allen/Campbell/Collen/Elliott/Savage | ⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 13. Scar | Allen/Campbell/Collen/Elliott/Savage/Woodroffe | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
I didn’t get the internet until December 1999, so I was completely in the dark about the making of their albums before that point, not really knowing what the hell was going on until each new album was actually announced. Which means X was the first time I got to follow along with the making of an album online. I checked in online every single day from the end of the Euphoria tour in 2000 through the summer of 2002. One story mentioned that the new album would be a cross between Slang and Euphoria, which had me quite excited.
When X dropped on July 30, 2002, I did my usual thing (at that point) and went to Best Buy to pick up the album on CD. When I got home, I put it in my stereo (which was much more sophisticated than it had been for previous album releases) and pressed play. I remember laying on my bed, not doing anything but listening as each new track played. I absolutely loved “Now” and thought it was one of the most modern things the band had ever recorded. So it was quite nice to finally hear it in CD quality blasting through my speakers.
My joy quickly faded when “Unbelievable” started though. The band had released 30 second samples of all of the songs prior to the album’s release, but I only listened to the first batch that had been released on June 2, 2002 (“You’re So Beautiful,” “Torn To Shreds,” “Cry,” and “Scar”). After that, I decided to save the rest so I could enjoy each new song in full rather than have an idea of it going into that first listen. So I was not prepared for how poppy and sappy “Unbelievable” was. I was not crazy about the band doing songs solely written by outside writers and that song only confirmed my fears.
Thankfully the album righted itself after that, as “You’re So Beautiful” was an instant favorite. “Everyday” was solid, “Long, Long Way To Go” was an amazing ballad, and we finally got a proper rocker with “Four Letter Word.” “Torn To Shreds” was a fantastic mix of a ballad and a rocker, and then side two… Was a bit of a mixed bag. “Love Don’t Lie” is catchy and has some great lyrical content, but I didn’t love it musically. “Gravity” was a strange one while “Cry” was a much needed heavy rocker. By that point, though, we were 10 songs into the album and the legit rock tracks were few and far between. Fortunately we also had the very classic-Lep sounding “Scar” to bring the (US version of the) album to a close.
I wouldn’t admit it at the time, but I was a little bit let down at how poppy the album was. As I got more listens in, I began to really like the album and still played the hell out of it that summer. I saw the band six times on the X tour from 2002-2003 and it’s an era I look back on quite fondly.
Now, 20 years later, I have a much greater appreciation for the X album. In fact, I consider it to be the last ‘true’ Def Leppard album. There was collaboration top to bottom, the production was top notch, there was an actual producer (or two) for the album, the band had a primary focus for the sound & feel of the album which they executed to perfection, and the songs sound like Def Leppard first.
The albums that have followed, no matter how great they are, have not had all of those things. 2008’s Sparkle Lounge had little collaboration, terrible production, and little focus in terms of sound. 2015’s Def Leppard returned to their proper standard production-wise, but the songs on the album were still far more varied and less cohesive. Plus both albums suffer from the band’s influences being too prevalent. And that’s the primary reason X feels like the last true Def Leppard album… The unfortunate covers era is what followed and everything the band has done ever since has beaten us over the head with their influences. The ‘Def Leppard’ sound has taken a bit of a backseat to paying tribute to the early 1970’s.
So while X is still a bit too ‘pop’ for my tastes and features the only Lep song I would say that I actually hate (“Unbelievable,” which they didn’t even write), it has some of the band’s best ever song writing and production, it had a fantastic headline tour, and it really represented the end of an era in terms of regular album releases and proper headline tours. And I’m glad the album finally got a little more respect from the band since two songs from it were featured during the 2019 Las Vegas residency after being neglected for the 16 years after the X tour ended. The album is an underappreciated gem.
7
Adrenalize
Release Date: March 31, 1992
Running Time: 45:22
| Tracklist | Writer(s) | iPod Rating |
| 01. Let’s Get Rocked | Collen/Elliott/Lange/Savage | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 02. Heaven Is | Clark/Collen/Elliott/Lange/Savage | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 03. Make Love Like A Man | Clark/Collen/Elliott/Lange | ⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 04. Tonight | Clark/Collen/Elliott/Lange/Savage | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 05. White Lightning | Collen/Elliott/Lange/Savage | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 06. Stand Up (Kick Love Into Motion) | Clark/Collen/Elliott/Lange | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 07. Personal Property | Collen/Elliott/Lange/Savage | ⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 08. Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad | Collen/Elliott/Lange | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 09. I Wanna Touch U | Allen/Clark/Collen/Elliott/Lange | ⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 10. Tear It Down | Clark/Collen/Elliott/Savage | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
I was merely a toddler when Hysteria came out, but that resulted in me absorbing that album into my DNA at an extremely young age… At first because my mom was constantly listening to it (plus it was regularly featured on the radio and MTV), but then because I was constantly listening to it on my own to the point of wearing out my cassettes. More specifically, I played the hell out of side one and would rewind it to listen to “Pour Some Sugar On Me” and “Armageddon It” on repeat so much that multiple cassette copies snapped on me.
It wasn’t until 1992 that I was able to experience a new Def Leppard album. I don’t remember much about when Adrenalize came out or my first time hearing it, considering I was only five & a half years old when it dropped in March of 1992. Which means I’m also spared the memory of learning that Steve Clark had passed away, though I do remember reading the Adrenalize liner notes and being sad about Steve. The tribute to him on 1993’s Visualize also made me feel sad every time I heard “Switch 625” for a long time as well.
As for Adrenalize, it was arguably my favorite album in 1992-1993. Much like Hysteria, I played the cassette so much that it snapped, resulting in me purchasing multiple copies with my allowance or birthday money. It was also the first album I consistently played top to bottom since I tended to focus on side one of Hysteria or would only hear the album’s singles via Historia if I didn’t have a working cassette to listen to. But with Adrenalize, I played it front to back each and every time and I loved it.
Since then however, my opinion of Adrenalize has fluctuated more wildly than perhaps any other album in Def Leppard’s entire discography. Sav himself has admitted to the album being the band ‘treading water,’ and the album hasn’t aged well due to some of the lyrical content. “Let’s Get Rocked,” once my favorite song as a five year old, fell out of fashion with me for awhile and in hindsight I couldn’t believe the song was as big of a hit as it was in the grunge era of 1992. But in 2014, the song was reborn in the middle of my 36th Lep concert. To borrow from my review of the band’s August 28, 2014 concert:
Joe kicked off “Let’s Get Rocked,” the crowd went crazy, and something happened in my mind. Some music that you don’t hear on a daily basis tends to take you back to a certain time in your life when the song was new or prevalent in your life. That doesn’t happen to me much with Def Leppard because I’ve heard them on a near-daily basis for my entire 27 years of life.
But tonight, it DID happen. There was something about “Let’s Get Rocked” that took me back to being a five year old kid when the song was brand new. A song like that has major appeal to a five year old, and suddenly I had this care free mindset where I was enjoying the song just as much as I did back then.
I never thought I would say this, but “Let’s Get Rocked” was the highlight of the night for me.
Since then, I’ve enjoyed the song at every concert I’ve attended and the studio version has been bumped back up as well.
As for the rest of the album, I don’t view it as favorably as my song ratings seem to show. But perhaps that’s because, much like X, this album represents the end of an era too… In that it was the last album made a certain way, with a certain sound, during the band’s commercial peak. A second era followed and ran from 1993-2003, and we’ve been in the ‘influence’ era ever since.
When I was a kid, I very much preferred the polished sound of Hysteria and Adrenalize. When I got older and my tastes evolved, my view of both albums changed a bit, with Hysteria remaining near the top while Adrenalize sunk to the bottom.
Still, the trio of “Tonight,” “White Lightning,” and “Stand Up (Kick Love Into Motion)” are top notch songs. “Let’s Get Rocked,” “Heaven Is,” “Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad,” and the updated “Tear It Down” also rank highly for me while I still enjoy the remaining tracks as well. For the most part, it was a more straight to the point version of Def Leppard while still retaining their trademark sound and production that perhaps went a little too far into perfection.
Adrenalize once ranked at the top of my list of favorites, then tumbled down near the bottom, and now it resides in the middle of the pack. It’s a complicated album from a complicated time, but I also get the most enjoyment from it when I don’t think of any of that and just listen to it as I did through my five year old ears. In that sense, it’s a great Def Leppard album.
6
Def Leppard
Release Date: October 30, 2015
Running Time: 52:39
| Tracklist | Writer(s) | iPod Rating |
| 01. Let’s Go | Savage/Elliott | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 02. Dangerous | Collen/Elliott | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 03. Man Enough | Collen/Elliott | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 04. We Belong | Elliott | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 05. Invincible | Allen/Elliott | ⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 06. Sea Of Love | Collen | ⭐️⭐️ |
| 07. Energized | Collen | ⭐️⭐️ |
| 08. All Time High | Elliott | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 09. Battle Of My Own | Savage/Elliott | ⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 10. Broke ‘N’ Brokenhearted | Collen/Elliott | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 11. Forever Young | Collen/Elliott | ⭐️⭐️ |
| 12. Last Dance | Savage | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 13. Wings Of An Angel | Collen/Campbell/Savage/Elliott | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 14. Blind Faith | Collen/Campbell/Savage/Elliott | ⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
Things were looking quite bleak in the years after Songs From The Sparkle Lounge finished off Lep’s original recording contract with their label. On the good side, it was only three years before we got some new music in the form of three new songs attached to the end of their 2011 live album Mirror Ball, but things took a turn for the worse from there. Don’t let current interviews with the band fool you as they talk about their peers losing the motivation to make new music… That was very much the case for Lep back in the late 2000’s and early 2010’s. They didn’t really hint at stopping making new music all together, but they certainly did talk about abandoning the album format.
Thankfully things didn’t pan out that way. The band convened at Joe’s place in Dublin in February of 2014 with the intention of recording a few new songs but the month-long session ended with 12 new tracks on the go. Another session in May 2014 added another four to the pile and work on the album continued in spurts throughout the year.
Finally on October 30, 2015, the seven and a half year wait for a proper new studio album ended with the release of Def Leppard. While the writing credits still leaned more toward solo efforts than collaboration, the album was pieced together as a band in a studio (and on the road) with the proper production that the band was known for. My initial review of the album was quite glowing and I’m happy to say that nearly seven years later, I’m still very fond of this album.
The self-titled album was able to add two songs to my Top 30 Def Leppard Songs playlist with the classic sounding single “Dangerous” and the Slang-meets-Pyromania rocker that is “Wings Of An Angel.” Other highlights include “All Time High,” “Broke ‘N’ Brokenhearted,” “Man Enough,” “Let’s Go,” “Last Dance,” and of course, “We Belong.” The latter is one of the best ballad-like songs the band has ever done and features each member of the band taking turns on lead vocals throughout the verses, making it extra unique in Lep’s catalog.
Occasionally when I play this album, I leave off three songs: “Sea Of Love,” “Energized,” and “Forever Young.” “Sea Of Love” has never really clicked with me and likely would have been better left to Delta Deep to record. “Energized” is quite out there so it holds little replay value, though I do enjoy it from time to time due to the amazing production and vocals on the song. And “Forever Young” is a decent rocker, but just feels too short and unfinished… So it’s no surprise that it was a leftover from the Sparkle Lounge era.
It had been so long since Lep had released an album that I enjoyed every single minute of the journey that was the making and release of the 2015 Def Leppard album. Considering the record-long gap between albums at the latter end of Lep’s career, I took it all in as if it was their last ever studio album. I hoped that wouldn’t be the case, but it was a reality I had to face. Thankfully… It wasn’t the case. Instead, it’s just another great album in the band’s discography that is as enjoyable today as it was in 2015.
5
Euphoria
Release Date: June 8, 1999
Running Time: 51:07
| Tracklist | Writer(s) | iPod Rating |
| 01. Demolition Man | Collen/Campbell/Elliott | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 02. Promises | Collen/Lange | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 03. Back In Your Face | Elliott/Collen | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 04. Goodbye | Savage | ⭐️ |
| 05. All Night | Collen/Lange | ⭐️⭐️ |
| 06. Paper Sun | Collen/Campbell/Elliott/Savage/Woodroffe | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 07. It’s Only Love | Elliott/Lange/Savage/Campbell | ⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 08. 21st Century Sha La La La Girl | Collen/Elliott/Savage | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 09. To Be Alive | Campbell/Smith | ⭐️⭐️ |
| 10. Disintegrate | Collen | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 11. Guilty | Collen/Savage/Elliott/Campbell/Woodroffe | ⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 12. Day After Day | Collen/Elliott/Campbell | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 13. Kings Of Oblivion | Elliott/Collen/Savage | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
The first time I saw Def Leppard live was on July 30, 1996 on the Slang tour. That kicked my love for the band up a big notch and of course I played the hell out of them in the time that followed. But as we got into 1998, things had gone really quiet for me. Once again, I was still awhile out from having internet access so I just went about my life having no idea what the hell Def Leppard was doing. I was getting older and starting to focus on other things like sports. So my interest in the band had dropped to an all time low (at that time, at least).
Fast forward to March 21, 1999 and my local newspaper revealed that Def Leppard would be playing a show in my city in August. I was simultaneously excited as hell and confused… Touring?! Without an album?!? Impossible!
It was a short while later that a trip to Walmart revealed that a yet-to-be-titled Def Leppard album would be out in May. Ah, now the concert makes sense! What made even more sense was having Lep’s new album delayed from May until June. But the album, now titled Euphoria, was released on June 8, 1999. Once again I was taken to Best Buy by my mom and picked up the album… On CD this time! It was the first time I was able to purchase and listen to a new Lep album on CD rather than cassette.
Following the departure in sound that was Slang, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from Euphoria… Though “Promises” and the classic logo being splashed across the cover were big indicators. I’d heard “Promises” on the radio before the album release and it was such a classic sounding Lep song that it felt like I had known the song for years upon that very first listen.
Once I did finally listen to Euphoria, it was love at first spin. The big guitars. The hooks. The huge vocals. The epic. It was all there. It was 100% classic Def Leppard in a way I hadn’t heard in seven long years. And with Def Leppard playing a show in my city, the Euphoria era turned into my own version of the Hysteria era. As a Lep fan through the mid-90’s, it seemed like none of my friends knew who the band was without me educating them. Now, everyone knew “Promises” because it was constantly on rock and pop radio. In fact, pop radio also gave regular plays to “Goodbye” and the back catalog while local rock radio also played the hell out of “Paper Sun,” “Day After Day,” and even “Demolition Man.” I heard more back catalog songs on the rock stations than ever before too. Leppard was everywhere in my city in 1999 and I loved every minute of it.
To this day, all of that still influences my love of Euphoria. It has its weaknesses, sure. But “Promises,” “Paper Sun,” “Day After Day,” rank among the best songs the band has ever done while “21st Century Sha La La La Girl,” “Demolition Man,” “Back In Your Face,” “Disintegrate,” and “Kings Of Oblivion” are also really awesome rockers. I wasn’t as taken with the ballads on this album, though I do enjoy “It’s Only Love” and “Guilty” the most. “Goodbye,” however, is among my least favorite songs in the band’s catalog and it kind of grinded the album’s success on the radio to a halt (despite being regularly played around here).
I was fortunate enough to catch the band five times on the 1999-2000 Euphoria tour. At the time, I had never been prouder to be a Def Leppard fan in my area as it seemed like they were truly BACK with the success they’d had on the radio and on tour.
4
Hysteria
Release Date: August 3, 1987
Running Time: 62:32
| Tracklist | Writer(s) | iPod Rating |
| 01. Women | Elliott/Savage/Collen/Clark/Lange | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 02. Rocket | Elliott/Savage/Collen/Clark/Lange | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 03. Animal | Elliott/Savage/Collen/Clark/Lange | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 04. Love Bites | Elliott/Savage/Collen/Clark/Lange | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 05. Pour Some Sugar On Me | Elliott/Savage/Collen/Clark/Lange | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 06. Armageddon It | Elliott/Savage/Collen/Clark/Lange | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 07. Gods Of War | Elliott/Savage/Collen/Clark/Lange | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 08. Don’t Shoot Shotgun | Elliott/Savage/Collen/Clark/Lange | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 09. Run Riot | Elliott/Savage/Collen/Clark/Lange | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 10. Hysteria | Elliott/Savage/Collen/Clark/Lange | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 11. Excitable | Elliott/Savage/Collen/Clark/Lange | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 12. Love And Affection | Elliott/Savage/Collen/Clark/Lange | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
I can’t say enough about this album, nor is there anything left to say that hasn’t already been said (by me or others). Simply put, it’s one of the best albums of all time. Seven singles in the US, six of them huge hits, and top notch album tracks to round out a little over one hour of perfectly produced music. Intricately layered guitars, massive vocal harmonies, and some of the catchiest songs you’ll ever hear, all made over the course of three-ish years while enduring some absolutely insane obstacles and circumstances.
Not that I knew any of that as a toddler in the late 1980’s. To me, this album just ‘was.’ My mom played it all the time, I got my hands on a cassette and played it even more, and when I didn’t have a working cassette to listen to (since I played them so much they snapped), I watched Historia on repeat. These songs are so deeply embedded in my DNA from such an early age that they are literally the reason I love music. And boy did they set a high standard early on. How the hell was any other band supposed to be anywhere near this good? It’s no wonder I barely listened to any music outside of Lep until the new millennium.
The entire first half (side) of the album is a batch of greatest hits. I love everything, but my favorites would be the opening trio of “Women,” “Rocket,” and “Animal.” Meanwhile side two features just one hit, but suffers less over-exposure thanks to strong album cuts like “Don’t Shoot Shotgun,” “Excitable,” and one of the best songs the band has ever recorded, “Gods Of War.”
Getting to see Hysteria played in full during the 2013 Las Vegas residency was a real treat and only made me appreciate this album even more. The 30th anniversary celebrations also made me re-realize just how special this album really is. It’s easy to take it for granted as part of Lep’s discography, which I regard quite highly from start to finish, but this album is absolute perfection.
3
High ‘n’ Dry
Release Date: July 6, 1981
Running Time: 42:15
| Tracklist | Writer(s) | iPod Rating |
| 01. Let It Go | Willis/Clark/Elliott | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 02. Another Hit And Run | Savage/Elliott | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 03. High ‘N’ Dry (Saturday Night) | Clark/Savage/Elliott | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 04. Bringin’ On The Heartbreak | Clark/Willis/Elliott | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 05. Switch 625 | Clark | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 06. You Got Me Runnin’ | Willis/Clark/Elliott | ⭐️⭐️ |
| 07. Lady Strange | Willis/Clark/Allen/Elliott | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 08. On Through The Night | Clark/Savage/Elliott | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 09. Mirror, Mirror (Look Into My Eyes) | Clark/Elliott | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 10. No No No | Savage/Willis/Elliott | ⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
In my youth, I was all about the bombastic, polished sound of Hysteria and Adrenalize. As I got older, I started to gravitate toward the heavier stuff and no Lep album encapsulates that sound better than their second album, 1981’s High ‘n’ Dry. Mutt Lange stepping in as producer made a world of a difference in the band’s sound. That would have been plenty, but their songwriting took a huge leap as well. It’s easy to see the influence he had in making small but impactful changes when you listen to the 1980 live versions of “Lady Strange” and compare them to the studio version that came out the following year. It’s mainly the same song, but vastly improved.
High ‘n’ Dry was an album that I didn’t listen to much (if at all) as a kid, both from lack of interest as well as my mom’s concerns over some of the lyrics. Not that I would have understood or cared about any of it. Instead my primary knowledge of the album came from Historia and the three songs that had music videos: “Let It Go,” “High ‘N’ Dry (Saturday Night),” and the album’s biggest single, “Bringin’ On The Heartbreak.”
The inclusion of “Another Hit And Run” in the setlist at my first Lep concert in 1996 was quite a surprise and I barely knew the song. Just a couple of months later, I got High ‘n’ Dry on CD and was able to finally get to know it a little better… Though I didn’t really start to explore it until the Euphoria era when my love for the band had been reignited and I had every album on constant repeat. It was during that period that I started to really love everything it had to offer, with the side two album cut “Mirror, Mirror (Look Into My Eyes)” becoming a standout song for me.
My love for this album only grew when the X tour kicked off and my first show surprisingly featured the first five songs from HND in sequence to start the show. It was mind blowing and that alone pushed the album up my rankings. 10 years later, it got even better as my final show during the 2013 Viva! Hysteria residency featured a record SEVEN songs from High ‘n’ Dry, including an ultra-rare performance of the epic “On Through The Night” to open the show.
Hysteria is, of course, the best and most accomplished album by the band. But High ‘n’ Dry is them at their heaviest while taking huge leaps forward in production and songwriting. It’s an all time guitar classic that was a very natural bridge between the rawness of On Through The Night and the pop/metal hybrid Pyromania.
2
Pyromania
Release Date: January 20, 1983
Running Time: 44:57
| Tracklist | Writer(s) | iPod Rating |
| 01. Rock! Rock! (Till You Drop) | Clark/Elliott/Lange/Savage | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 02. Photograph | Clark/Elliott/Lange/Savage/Willis | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 03. Stagefright | Elliott/Lange/Savage | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 04. Too Late For Love | Clark/Elliott/Lange/Savage/Willis | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 05. Die Hard The Hunter | Clark/Elliott/Lange/Savage | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 06. Foolin’ | Clark/Elliott/Lange | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 07. Rock Of Ages | Clark/Elliott/Lange | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 08. Comin’ Under Fire | Clark/Elliott/Lange/Willis | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 09. Action! Not Words | Clark/Elliott/Lange | ⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 10. Billy’s Got A Gun | Clark/Elliott/Lange/Savage/Willis | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
Speaking of which… I clearly love Hysteria… And I clearly love High ‘n’ Dry… So of course I would love the album that fell between them, Pyromania. Def Leppard made yet another huge leap in production and especially songwriting for yet another one of the best (and most successful) albums of all time. Pyromania may have had only half of the successful singles that Hysteria had, but it also retained much of the heaviness found on High ‘n’ Dry.
Obviously the three hit singles “Photograph,” “Rock Of Ages,” and “Foolin'” are highlights, but my true favorites fall among the album tracks… “Stagefright,” “Too Late For Love,” and “Die Hard The Hunter” all rank in my top 10 Def Leppard songs ever while “Billy’s Got A Gun” and “Rock! Rock! (Till You Drop)” are regularly found within my top 30. “Comin’ Under Fire” is one of the best-kept secrets in all of Lep’s catalog. The only song on this album that doesn’t quite reach the stratosphere is “Action! Not Words,” but it’s still more than solid.
Among long time Lep fans, a majority seem to fall into three groups for their ‘favorite’ Lep album: High ‘n’ Dry, Pyromania, or Hysteria. Clearly I don’t fall into any of those, but the closest for me would be Pyromania since it’s the perfect blend of the band’s early heavier sound with the polish they would later perfect on Hysteria.
1
Slang
Release Date: May 14, 1996
Running Time: 45:58
| Tracklist | Writer(s) | iPod Rating |
| 01. Truth? | Campbell/Collen/Elliott/Savage | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 02. Turn To Dust | Collen | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 03. Slang | Collen/Elliott | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 04. All I Want Is Everything | Elliott | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 05. Work It Out | Campbell | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 06. Breathe A Sigh | Collen | ⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 07. Deliver Me | Collen/Elliott | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 08. Gift Of Flesh | Collen | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 09. Blood Runs Cold | Collen/Elliott | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 10. Where Does Love Go When It Dies | Collen/Elliott | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
| 11. Pearl Of Euphoria | Collen/Elliott/Savage | ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ |
Def Leppard’s Slang wasn’t always my favorite. In fact, I was just as shocked by it at nine years old in 1996 as many other, older fans. The Slang album and era is one of many firsts for me, which surely plays at least a part of why it ended up being my favorite album. For one, it’s the first Lep album I actually remember going out to purchase when it was released… On cassette, from JC Penney! I remember sitting in the back of my mom’s car, going over the tracklist, without knowing a single thing about the album. Despite the huge shift in art style and the absence of the classic Def Leppard logo, I still had no idea what I was in for when I got home and put the tape into my little, single speaker cassette player.
I will never forget pushing play and hearing “Truth?” fade in before going full industrial/alternative. It was such a shocking subversion of what I expected that I literally stopped the tape and ejected the cassette to make sure it was actually a Def Leppard album since it sounded nothing like them. Sure enough, it was, so I put it back in and let it play.
Keep in mind, at this stage of my life, I was hugely into the classic trio of Hysteria, Adrenalize, and Retro Active. Not only that, but I’d gotten the hits collection Vault on cassette as well, giving me the chance to enjoy the mix of all the hits from their prior albums all at once for the first time. Such a huge change in sound for a young fan that loved the band’s most well-known sound could have put my fandom at serious risk…
But it didn’t. In fact, I quickly grew to love Slang for being so different. I was always a bit more mature than my age, so nine years old was really the earliest Lep could have thrown me a curveball like this and had me fully buy into it. It helped that my first ever concert was seeing Lep on the Slang tour on July 30, 1996. I remember the ads for that show running on the radio all the time, usually with a play of “Work It Out” right before or after it. It was an amazing time.
It wasn’t until 2003 that my love and appreciation for Slang really took hold. By that point, the modern version of Lep had a few albums under their belt and I was in my mid teens. I had expanded my musical library and had a better understanding of my still evolving tastes. As much as I loved all of the classics by Def Leppard, there was one album that always connected with me a little more each and every time I played it… Slang. It was so bold and modern despite being nearly a decade old at that point. It sounded as fresh during that period as it did both in 1996 and today (2022!).
I’m not exaggerating with the song ratings above… I really believe every single song on the album is THAT strong. It’s only the ballad “Breathe A Sigh” that went a step too far for me, though I still think it’s better than any ballad found on the follow up album Euphoria. But four ballads on an 11 track album was perhaps one too many… Maybe had they replaced it with “Worlds Collide,” Lep could have achieved the perfectly rated album?
“Turn To Dust” eventually became my all time favorite song for its amazing blend of Lep’s signature guitars & vocals with both modern and middle Eastern flavors. “Truth?,” “Work It Out,” “Gift Of Flesh,” and “Pearl Of Euphoria” all rank within my top 30 while “Where Does Love Go When It Dies” breached the top 10, making it my favorite ballad the band has ever done. I even love the title track and have fallen in love with it all over again thanks to getting to see it live again during the 2019 Vegas residency.
Now that I’ve had this album in my head and heart for a little over 26 years, it seems impossible that anything could ever top it. Lep is welcome to try! But Slang came from such a unique time, both for the band and in my own life, and presented so many firsts for me. The album itself is unlike anything else in their discography while still retaining everything I love about Def Leppard… Loud guitars, catchy hooks, huge vocal harmonies, and pristine production. It’s as close to perfect as it gets for me.
My rankings of Def Leppard’s studio albums regularly change, aside from a few spots at the top and bottom of the list. But I was curious… How would the albums rank if I went strictly by their score on in my phone’s music library?
So I ran the numbers, simply adding up the stars for each album and dividing it by the number of songs to get the ‘average’ score for each album. And while I was quite close to what I did above purely based on ‘feel,’ there were some surprises.
| By Feel | By Score |
|---|---|
| 1. Slang | 4.82 – Slang |
| 2. Pyromania | 4.70 – Pyromania |
| 3. High ‘n’ Dry | 4.67 – Hysteria |
| 4. Hysteria | 4.30 – High ‘n’ Dry |
| 5. Euphoria | 4.10 – Adrenalize |
| 6. Def Leppard | 3.64 – Def Leppard |
| 7. Adrenalize | 3.62 – Euphoria |
| 8. X | 3.62 – X |
| 9. Songs From The Sparkle Lounge | 3.55 – Songs From The Sparkle Lounge |
| 10. Retro Active | 3.46 – Retro Active |
| 11. On Through The Night | 3.00 – On Through The Night |
| 12. Yeah! | 2.86 – Yeah! |
I’m not at all surprised that the top two and bottom two spots remained the same. I am also quite impressed at just how close most of the other albums fell.
I’m not that surprised that High ‘n’ Dry and Hysteria switched places with numerical scores, as the songwriting on Hysteria is just so damn good. HND gets rated more highly for me by feel due to it being a heavier album, but I fully acknowledge that Hysteria is indeed better.
Adrenalize takes quite the leap here, going from seven to five when scoring numerically. But again, the ‘treading water’ aspect of it makes me think about it less favorably than the numbers bear. Meanwhile Euphoria has a huge amount of meaning to me that pushes it higher, transcending the numerical scores that are weighed down by a few tracks that either weren’t up to standard then or haven’t aged quite as well.
As for Retro Active and Songs From The Sparkle Lounge, I went back and forth on which was eight and which was nine. I tend to hold Retro in a higher regard due to the production and being pulled from the classic era. Hell, “Desert Song” alone could be held responsible for me ranking the album higher. Had I done this 10 years ago however, the list would have shown Sparkle Lounge was much higher… Likely around #6, right behind Euphoria. Again, I enjoyed the hell out of the album for being a more rock-centered return to form after the poppy X. Only since then have the flaws in songwriting and production hurt how I feel about it, as the Def Leppard album showed they were still capable of releasing an album with huge, clear production and strong rock songs. Ultimately, I listen to SFTSL more often so I gave it the bump.
Other than the placement of Euphoria, I’d call both of these lists extremely accurate for how I feel about the albums at this point in time.
We now sit just two days away from the release of Diamond Star Halos, the band’s 12th studio album (or 13th, if you count Retro Active). I’ve only heard three of the album’s 15 songs at this point and will certainly take my time in absorbing everything the album has to offer before I even attempt to rank it among the rest of the discography.
But hey, with the band now being pros at remote recording while already having a few other new songs on the go, perhaps we won’t have to wait another seven years for a new studio album. Then we can do this all over again.
TurnToDust86 
Great write-up!!!
A super solid overview of a critically undervalued band!
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