"Euphoria" is one of those albums that's a hodge podge of good songs, average songs, and sh!t songs. The good would be the outstanding "Paper Sun", which was the first song I heard from this album. I happened to be travelling through the state of Kentucky back in 1999. I must have missed the first 20-30 seconds of the song, but I knew right away that it was Def Leppard. The D.J announced that this was one of the new songs off their recent release. I couldn't believe my ears, as I had thought Def Leppard must have returned to their old sound. Needless to say, I went out right away and bought "Euphoria". Well, unfortunately there were only two other songs that moved me the way "Paper Sun" did, those would be "Kings of Oblivion" and "Day After Day".

Great songs in order: Paper Sun; Day After Day; Kings of Oblivion

Good songs in order: Disintegrate; Promises

Average songs in order: Back In Your Face; Demolition Man; Guilty

Bad songs: Goodbye; All Night; It's Only Love; 21st Century Man Sha La La Girl; To Be Alive


1. High 'N Dry
2. Pyromania
3. Hysteria (Nostalgia thing)
4. On Through the Night
5. Euphoria
6. Slang
7. Adrenalize

The album released in 2002, simply titled 'X' is the only Def Leppard album to date that has not gone at least gold. The album debuted at #11 on Billboard charts and then dropped like a stone.

Giving the album a fresh spring this afternoon I can see why. While the album was not as terrible as I remember it commits a huge sin, the songs are completely forgettable. The songs for the most part co written with outside songwriters add nothing to them, if anything the biggest fault this album has is it lacks that essential Def Leppard identity.

It seems like all these wonderful professional song hacks were hired to write songs that are suppose to sound like Def Leppard songs, what I don't get is why the band felt the need to do this, it is not like their incapable of writing this type of material.


Not many songs stand out and after the CD stopped spinning I could only recall 'Now' which was released as a single.

This sounds like one of those albums that everything was calculated against possible failure, from hiring hot shot producers to produce individual songs and proven hit makers such as Frederickson, W. Hector, and others, in the process they lost their soul and almost lost their audience in the States, I agree with Eyesore, their worst album.

Manny there is simply nothing to say about this effort. This is one of two studio albums that I don't have of Def Leppards'. I listened to it twice, and pretty much decided that it had very little redeeming value. Outside of the tracks "Now" and the brilliant "Scar", this album is a total turd. This album is undoubtedly the bands worst effort to date.

Def Leppard's discography up til this point:

1. High 'N Dry
2. Pyromania
3. Hysteria (Nostalgia thing)
4. On Through the Night
5. Euphoria
6. Slang
7. Adrenalize
8. X

Forgettable album, but not as bad as Slang

"X" is not a bad album. I liked it a bit when it was first released. It's fairly mellow rock and roll, but it's not slick pop either. It's not a regular player by any stretch. As a matter of fact, I can't remember when the last time I played this one was. Might need to give it a fresh spin.

I heard "X" purely by accident. At the time of its release I was working in the advertising dept. at a small weekly local newspaper (as opposed to now, where I work in the advertising dept. of a slightly larger group of local newspapers) and one week a bunch of ad reservations came through from Island/Def Jam Records. That caught my eye because we rarely, if ever, got ads from big accounts like that, so I asked the guy who sold the ad what it was all about. It turned out that Def Leppard were going to be doing an in-store autograph signing at a local Wal-Mart (!) to pimp the release of their new album. On one hand I thought that was kinda cool, but on the other I thought to myself "Those poor bastards, is that what Def Leppard is reduced to?"

Anyway, due in part to our coverage of the event, the Wal-Mart signing ended up being a big success (if memory serves, somewhere around 1500 people showed up!) so as a "thank you" Island/Def Jam sent the sales rep a big package full of stuff, including stickers, posters, various CDs, and other odds and ends. The sales guy knew I collected CDs so he gave me a copy of "X" and a promo single of "Now" as well as a copy of Bon Jovi's then-new "Bounce" album (which I promptly gave to my wife when I got home).

So that's how "X" ended up being the first DL album I'd heard in over a decade, and after only one spin it sounded to me like they were still putting out the same soul-less, poofy crap that they'd been releasing the last time I checked in with them, so my response was "Yuck!" I quickly took the disc to the local used-CD store and traded it in, since it was still a brand-new release at the time I think they gave me five bucks for it. So hey, thanks for the store credit, Island/Def Jam!!

I do believe that "X" set a record for the album that spent the shortest amount of time between my stereo and my trade pile.

The response to X baffles me. You have all these people that got pissed when Def Leppard went "poppier" and talk all kinds of trash about Hysteria, Adrenalize, and even Pyromania (God knows why), but they often tend to like X, Def Leppard's poppiest album. Bizarre.

To me, X is an okay listen. Nothing is really bad about it, I guess, but it's nearly totally lifeless. I dig "Now" and "Scar," but could definitely live without the rest of the album.

Euphoria, on the other hand, is their best post-Hysteria album, in my opinion. It's got a good amount of Hysteria-like tunes, with "Promises," "Goodbye," 21st Century Sha La La La Girl" (stupid name, good tune), and some others. There's "All Night," which has a little Slang experimentation.

But then there are songs which I think touch upon the pre-Hysteria time. "Paper Sun," Day After Day," "Kings of Oblivion," "Demolition Man," "Disintegrate," and to a lesser extent "I Am Your Child." Those songs have a more modern production, but if you could transplant them back to the mid-80s, give them the same kind of production, they could all fit on either High 'N' Dry or Pyromania.

Euphoria is a great album. X is crap in comparison.

Released in 2006 Def Leppard's Yeah! album was their way to pay tribute to some of their favorite artist and influences. Def Leppard were not trying to outdo the originals nor did they change the arrangements all that much, it is meant to be a fun album and was idea that took from one of the band's heroes David Bowie, and his "Pin Ups' album from the early 70's, where Bowie covered some of his primary influences.

The album kicks off with a version of T.Rex's 20th Century Boy, the band sticks close to the original arrangement and even manages to duplicate Flo and Eddie's backround vocals sound.

Rock On-Never cared for the original song and do not care about the remake, nothing wrong with their version just never cared for the song in the first place., which was done by David Essex.

Hanging on the Telephone- The Blondie classic ( which is also cover it turns out) is a great version, the band seem to be having a blast playing this track

Waterloo Sunset- This too me was the most surprising choice, I am huge Kinks fan and I was amazed that Def Leppard chose to taken on this vulnerable classic, the song recast almost as a modern rock track, not bad.

Hellraiser- The boys take on Sweet and do a hellva job on this version, again nothing radically different but still cool

10538 Overture-Originally done by ELO is the one of the few songs in the set I am unfamiliar with, that being said without anything to compare to, this is really good song and will have to explore the ELO discography in the future to see what I have been missing out on

Street Life- The Roxy Music cover was interesting because Joe Elliot even does his own version of Bryan Ferry's phrasing on the vocal, solid track

Drive Thru Saturday-Bowie classic done faithfully and again excellent version, the original piano version has been sublamented with the guitar

A Little Bit of Love-The original version of Free, as excepted was more in blues oriented vein, this version sounds more like if Def leppard had written it

Golden Age of Rock n Roll- You knew this album would have at least one Mott the Hopple cover on the album and here it is, featuring a cameo by Ian Hunter, a good song is a good song as this cover proves

No Matter What- their version of the Badfinger classic made me re explore their songbook, so I am thankful they covered this song faithfully and even included a live version as a bonus song

He's Gonna Step on You-Originally done by a guy named John Kongos, a guy I never heard of, but it sounds like your typical early 70's glam era song and enjoyed this track

Don't Believe a Word- Thin Lizzy classic done almost note for note like the original, but it would be hard to improve on perfection

Stay with Me-The Faces done Def Leppard style, with Phil Collen taking over the vocals, who has the appropriate raspy voice to make this song work, thou I admit it is little weird to hear the song done so professional and not as ramshackled as the original

Winter Song-When I first bought the album I was excepting this to be the original Angel version but it is not, it is by another artist I never heard of Lindisfarne, not a bad track but nothing special either.

Also bought at Walmart the Def Leppard bonus disc,:







A few more covers supplemented with interviews:

American Girl- A straight forward version of the Tom Petty classic

Search and Destroy- Very weird to hear Def Leppard cover this Iggy and the Stooges tune, sung by Phil Collens and have to admit it was very cool to hear this proto-type punk classic redone as a Def Leppard tune

Space Oddity- David Bowie classic, not bad but not great, but give them props for taking on such an iconic song

Dear Friends-One of the more obscure Queen songs, that originally was a short mellow song recast as rocker type song and nicely sung by Rick Savage

and finally Heartbeat-by the late Jobriath, who's back story as record company excess and first truly openly ga-hey rock star, who died in the mid 80's, his story is alot more interesting then his music, but this song suggest that maybe Jobriath was much more then just a cautionary tale and managed to write some good songs during his abbreviated lifetime

Overall a fun disc, none of this versions will ever replace the original but good solid collection.

This was the first DL cd I had purchased since RetroActive. I had long since lost interest in these guys and judging from some of the comments here, I haven't missed much.

I bought this album (and the additional Walmart ep) strictly because of my interest in cover/tribute albums. I was pleasantly surprised at their choice of covers. Along with the more well known tunes, they also dug a little deeper for some which is always cool in my book. Still enjoy this album today. Just spun it last week as a matter of fact.

I like this disc a lot and I have listened to more than any releases since Adernalize

Yeah is solid, as is the EP. Not a go-to disc, but I don't change any song when it comes on. And like you, a couple of tunes turned me onto other bands, particularly ELO and Lindisfarne.

And does anyone hear a little "10538 Overture" in the beginning and ending of Leppard's "Overture?" Wonder if that was a little tribute.

I like tribute albums like this to begin with, but I found myself enjoying this album and the EP more than most any other DL album since Pyromania. I do think they should have rocked a bit harder on a few tracks though.

X - "Now" is a great song, the rest of the album I can't recall to save my life. I was pretty excited for it since I Loved Euphoria so much but this album was such a let down. Their worst album, IMO.

Yeah! - Absolutely love this album, not a bad track on it. I'll always have good memories of this album because even my girlfriend at the time fell in love with it and it was basically the album of the summer for us. I remember driving to Panama City Beach to spend the weekend at a condo and we played this one both ways over and over.

The EP is decent, picked it up about 2 years after the album.

Released in 2008, 'Songs from the Sparkle Lounge' sounds like it was influenced but the great cover tunes they had recorded.

Not much I can say on this album, except it is solid album, not a great album but certainly not a horrible album.

The album has big chorus which to be excepted but I think my main problem with the album, that as much as I enjoy the album, the songs do not tend to stick to me.

That is not to say there are not good songs on the album, I actually really enjoy the album while its spinning.

What does stand out is Phil Collen, who I am assuming is doing most if, not all the soloing, he sounds damn near inspired on the opening track, 'Go' which features an excellent Jimmy Page inspired guitar solo.

The acoustic introduction to the song 'Love' is an excellent acoustic work out for Collen and the vocals invoke a Beatles like harmonies.

'Cruise Control' which is completely driven by Rick Savage and Rick Allen

IMO not a bum track on the album, solid songs and etc, the songs do not stand up to their past work IMO, but an enjoyable album

Another album I need to go back and listen to again. I didn't like it at first but it started to grow on me. I liked "C'mon C'mon", "Go" and "Nine Lives" instantly though. In the end, I liked the album but didn't think it was noteworthy.

I just listened to X again last night for the first time since about it came out and it's actually pretty good to my ears now so I'm really interested in what I would think of this album now.

I really dig Songs from the Sparkle Lounge. It's easily the second best, post-Hysteria album. The best being Euphoria. But you're right, it's not the kind of album you reach for when you want to listen to Def Leppard, though it's also not the kind of album you turn off when it comes on.

And that could probably be said about most albums out there.

I thought this album was bland pop. They dropped the slick studio sound for a more pared down modern rock approach, but I still can't seem to get into Def Leppard. I don't know why. I love Aerosmith, from their heavy 70's stuff to their pop 90's stuff to their blues cover album. Def Leppard for some reason I have a bad attitude about.

In 2011 finally Def Leppard release a live album, which in the States was released as a Walmart exclusive release and includes a DVD, with a few concert clips and interview clips.

The live disc cherry picks great performances from various gigs on their 'Sparkle Lounge Tour'. Listening to this disc is a bit of revelation, it has been over a decade since I have seen Def Leppard live, and forgotten what a strong live band these guys are. I should not be surprised by this, after all metal/hard rock bands are made or broken by how strong they are live and Def Leppard is no exception.

Even songs that are not my favorite such as their version of 'Rock On' and 'Bad Actress' sound energized and about 1000x better live.

The band sounds energetic and clearly feeding off the crowds energy. Phil Collins has to be one of the most underrated axe slingers in the world, the man plays his ass off and the songs are filled with killer fills and leads.

Joe Elliot may not be able to hit the high notes like he once did but he sounds great through out the disc, the set list is a virtual greatest hits set list, not surprisingly. If there is a weakness to the set, it might be how predictable the set list is, but they are an arena rock act and as much as I would like to see them do 'Wasted', most of their audience would head out the door to buy their beer, overall excellent disc.

As for the three new tracks, all good songs if not great songs, and it is what you except from Def Leppard at this point in their career, I personally love the songs and hope their next studio albums material is as strong.

I especially love 'Kings of the World' which has such a heavily Queen vibe, I had take a look at the credits to see if this some very obscure song written by Mercury, but it is an original.

Overall excellent disc and with this entry ends the Def Leppard discography thread.

"Kings of the World" is brilliant. It kind of bums me out that Sav hasn't written more songs in the past.

He also solely wrote "C'mon C'mon" and "Love" from Sparkle Lounge, both of which had that 70s flare, you know. Especially the end of "Love," which as well showed a lot of Queen influence.