Versatility is the measurement of true talent and Def Leppard have proven they are talented and versatile. While I admit it sounds like they may have been in a very bad/dark place when they produced this album, if you listen to all of their albums with an open mind you'll find each album is great in its own right. They have proven that they can do any type of music and do it well - even crossing over into country!

I am most likely in the minority here but I think quite frankly that `Slang' is boring! The quality may be there, the musicianship and what many might consider good songs but jeez Louise; no less than four ballads on this record? Were they really changing their direction that much? Although I do appreciate the band trying to maintain their relevancy in the mid nineties but I can honest say that I probably would listen to `On Through the Night", "High and Dry" or "Pyromania" a hundred times before I would play `Slang' once. The title track, "Work It Out" and "Truth?" are decent if not memorable songs and I think "Gift of Flesh" is probably the most Def Leppard cut on this LP but otherwise not much more on here I would recommend. But hey don't take my word for it because I'm just a jaded 80's metal fan and that's what I want to remember Def Leppard as they once were - one of the driving forces of the NWOBHM - not as `Slang' would present them as - a grunge derivative.

Def Leppard really have great experience with music genres of every era

In the late 70's, they were hard rock...in the 80's, they were pop metal...and in the mid 90's, they were alternative rock!

My favorite tracks are, without a doubt:

the Shoegazing "Work It Out"

The Grunge-driven "Deliver Me" and "Gift of Flesh"

and the dreampop/indie "Pearl of Euphoria"


Call me a minority, but I am truly a fan of "Slang". Def Leppard should have made a mark in the 90s - Definitely worth listening to!

`Slang' is the Def Leppard album where they attempted to move away from their `big hair' eighties rock sound and move towards a more relevant and developed rock. I find it to be of their most mature and definitely underrated albums. Unfortunately they bowed to the mass of critical onslaught and returned to the sound that made them famous and at the same time confined themselves to yesterdays music scene and eighties rock cliché. If only they had the courage to follow this through! The guitar playing is more nuanced and Joe Elliots singing is perfectly pitched to the songs on offer. `All I want is Everything' is an excellent track with a superb sustained solo towards the end and `Breathe A Sigh' is a gentler track that breaks up the album excellently. The track `Slang' is a fast, fun ride and shows that the band is still able to rock. I have all of Def leppards albums and enjoy them all in their own ways, but if you're expecting another `Hysteria' or `Adrenalize' you'll be disappointed. But if you come to this with an open mind, you will find an album of great song writing and a more mature side of the Leps. Underrated and well worth a try.

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iwanted to get this album again, it was stolen from me when I had before.

I got these cd's in the mail before the expected delivery date, which was a plus. I only paid $0.99 a piece for two of them .The only disappointment I had was the cd cases were shattered. I can't expect much for a dollar, but one cd was loose in the case.

Let me start off by saying this is one of my favorite Def Leppard CDs, but if you are looking for "Pour Some Sugar On Me" "Rocket" or "Photograph" look elsewhere because you won't find it on this CD. With that said, the music on this CD is far more though provoking and well written than other Def Leppard albums. "Work It Out" is probably the most radio accessible song on the album and was a minor hit at radio, but is not by far the best song on the CD. In my opinion the best songs on the CD are "Breathe A Sigh" "All I Want Is Everything" and my personal favorite "Blood Runs Cold". Overall, I would recommend this CD to anyone that likes Def Leppard but hated the over-production of "Mutt" Lange.

Despite selling three million copies in the US alone, Adrenalize was a huge disappointment. I know, any recording artist today would gladly give up his right arm in exchange of those numbers, but let's not forget that Pyromania sold more than ten million copies and Hysteria more than twelve million. As I mentioned in a previous review, Adrenalize followed Hysteria's overproduced pop metal formula to a tee, a move that proved fatal in the midst of the grunge explosion. So, after Adrenalize's underwhelming performance, our beleaguered pop metallers from Sheffield decided to follow the steps of countless hair farmers before them and adapted their sound in an effort to court the 90s alterna-rock audience. Unlike Mötley Crüe, Poison or Warrant, who completely revamped their sound, the Leps decided to stay within a reasonable pop metal idiom despite ditching their signature multilayered production and adding some trendy industrial rock touches here and there. The main change came in the songwriting: this time around, the songs lack the melodic, in-your-face hooks and choruses that defined the band in previous albums, and the overall vibe, with the sole exception of the somewhat infectious title track, is dark, moody and reflective with much more personal and mature lyrics. Being this a Def Leppard album, really good songwriting is almost mandatory, and the band does deliver it with tracks All I Want is Everything, Work it Out and Slang. That said, I really can't find a real point in this album because a big part of the Lep's appeal was the good times summertime tone present in their music, and since it's almost completely absent here, the songs sound extremely forced and uncomfortable, as if the band members were struggling to work with a musical and lyrical identity that's not really their own. This album was ultimately a big gamble that didn't pay off, since after earning a gold certification it just died commercially and cemented the band's future status as a nostalgia act.

This album certainly is a break from the normal Lep albums, but who wants every album to sound the same? I've already bought HYSTERIA, why do I want HYSTERIA 2? I think that change is good, unlike some people who stopped listening after PYROMANIA. "They don't rock anymore." What? Look at "Truth?" and "Turn to Dust," "Work It Out" is a great song to blast with the sun roof open screaming down the highway. Real Lep fans see this album as a great undertaking for a band forever labeled as an 80's band. "Slang" is a band not recording the same thing over and over.actually like "Slang" much more than their trying to recapture their old sound "Sparkle Lounge" album

I always considered Deff Leppard the Conway Twitty of hard rock. Conway's songs were always "for the ladies." And what's wrong with that? Well Deff Leppard seemed to have that same effect with Hysteria and Adrenlize. But before that they were throwing down crazy hard rock like No, No, No, Me and My Wine, On Through the Night and the almost metal-like Answer to the Master. Then Pour Some Sugar On Me shows up and it seems all their songs are"for the ladies." Again, if there is a better reason, don't bother, I don't want to hear it. The title track Hysteria, Animal, Love Bites, and Armegeddonet only added to it. But here comes the problem, Deff Leppard is notorious,even back then, actually especially back then for long breaks between albums. So after Hysteria we all wait patiently knowing the penchant for loooooong concert tours and the perfectionistic attitude of making sure everything is right. Well they fire back with Adrenalize with songs like Do Ya Wanna get Rocked, Have You Ever Needed Someone so Bad, and i think Kick Love Into Motion got some play, and the ladies swooned again. Now I ain't hatin but we waited all that time to get what literally sounded like the songs that didn't make Hysteria. I really like Deff Leppard, seriously, but that was BS.

So Slang comes out and as far as I am concerned, makes up for everything. As important as Hysteria was to the band's success and as great as it still is to this day, Slang is what we were headed for before Hysteria and Adrenalize. A lot of people claim this was DefLep trying for grunge, but I hear no grunge thank the rock gods. They self admittingly were trying to do some new things and see if their fans would allow them the same creative flexability as the fans of bands like U2 and Chilli Peppers. No one gets mad when they do something different. But hard rock fans tend to want their bands to just stick with what got them there and never change. I have seen only 1 hard rock band actually pull that off over an entire career and still be as strong today as they were when they started. ACDC stuck to the same recipe album after album after album. Problem is very few bands can pull of the things ACDC can.

Slang brings the rock in a lot of different ways but it is unmistakable rock. It is dark, not metal, but ballsy all the same. All bands will eventually grow artistically as there success does but most will eventually come back to a sound much like they did when they initially won over all their fans. But Slang was not as much reaching out as it was coming back around. It didn't sell well so the band since then has strived for more Hysteria type material. Unfortunate, can't be too mad though, the chicks dig it.


I recently saw them in concert, it was good to see they still got it, the concert was great. Their showmanship and live ability is still top notch. Its good to see bands from this era showing new bands how it is done as well as the grunge bands that made them so unpopular for a while and are still trying to figure out how its done.

Get Slang and turn your open mindedeness knob as well as the volume knob to 12.