Def Leppard - Hysteria (1987) [1st CD pressing '87 vs. 2nd Japanese Limited pressing '88] RESTORED

After over four years of recording, Def Leppard's fourth album, Hysteria, was released in 1987. It is the band's best-selling album to date, selling over 20 million copies worldwide, and spawning seven hit singles.
The album was the follow-up to the band's 1983 breakthrough Pyromania. Its creation process was one of the longest ever for a rock album, taking over three years, and was plagued by many trials, such as the December 31, 1984 car accident that cost Rick Allen his left arm.
Subsequent to the release of the album, Def Leppard published a book on the tough times the band went through to record the album, including issues with production and Rick Allen's car crash. Ordering information was printed on the last page of the cover booklet inside the CD case.

Where Pyromania had set the standard for polished, catchy pop-metal, Hysteria only upped the ante. Pyromania's slick, layered Mutt Lange production turned into a painstaking obsession with dense sonic detail on Hysteria, with the result that some critics dismissed the record as a stiff, mechanized pop sell-out (perhaps due in part to Rick Allen's new, partially electronic drum kit). But Def Leppard's music had always employed big, anthemic hooks, and few of the pop-metal bands who had hit the charts in the wake of Pyromania could compete with Leppard's sense of craft; certainly none had the pop songwriting savvy to produce seven chart singles from the same album, as the stunningly consistent Hysteria did. Joe Elliott's lyrics owe an obvious debt to his obsession with T. Rex, particularly on the playfully silly anthem "Pour Some Sugar on Me", and the British glam rock tribute "Rocket", while power ballads like "Love Bites" and the title track lack the histrionics or gooey sentimentality of many similar offerings. The strong pop hooks and "perfect"-sounding production of Hysteria may not appeal to die-hard heavy metal fans, but it isn't heavy metal – it's pop-metal, and arguably the best pop-metal ever recorded. Its blockbuster success helped pave the way for a whole new second wave of hair metal bands, while proving that the late-'80s musical climate could also be very friendly to veteran hard rock acts, a lead many would follow in the next few years.

~ Steve Huey, all media guide

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Def Leppard - Hysteria (1987) [1st CD pressing '87 vs. 2nd Japanese Limited pressing '88] RESTORED

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Tracklist:

01. Women
02. Rocket
03. Animal
04. Love Bites
05. Pour Some Sugar On Me
06. Armageddon It
07. Gods Of War
08. Don't Shoot Shotgun
09. Run Riot
10. Hysteria
11. Excitable
12. Love And Affection
13. Love And Affection (live) [Bonus Track on Japanese Edition '88]*

* - Although no details included, bonus track 13 is the live version recorded in Tilberg July '87 and released as a b-side to "Hysteria" UK single.

all songs written by Def Leppard & Mutt Lange



Produced by Robert John "Mutt" Lange. Assisted & Engineered by Nigel Green
Recorded from February 1984 to January 1987 at Wisseloord Studios, Hilversum, Netherlands;
Windmill Lane Studio 2, Dublin, Ireland; and Studio Des Dames, Paris, France.
Mixed by Mike Shipley & Nigel Green, February-May 1987 at Battery Studios, London, England
Mastered by Bob Ludwig and Howie Weiberg at Masterdisk. Fairlight programming by Philip Nicholas.

• Joe Elliott – lead & backing vocals
• Steve Clark – guitars, backing vocals
• Phil Collen – guitars, backing vocals
• Rick Savage – bass, backing vocals
• Rick Allen – drums, backing vocals

Original Release Date: August 3, 1987
CD Released: August 25, 1987 | October 16, 1988
Format: Original Recording | Original Recording Reissued
"Non-Target" CD -> WG for Japan | Limited Vintage Picture Labeled 5" CD
Running Time: 62:38 min | 67:28 min
Label: Phonogram (Mercury) | Nippon Phonogram Co. Ltd.
Catalog No.: 32PD-259 (830 675-2) | 28PD-515

Huge thanks to ikebana!