10 Perfect 1980s Rock Albums With No Bad Songs
3. Hysteria - Def Leppard
No perfect album gets to be where it is without a few setbacks in their way. As much as it would be nice just to find yourself in the right place at the right time, the professionals need to put in the work to reach the legend status. As for Def Leppard though, this might be one of the only bands where success might not have worked in their favor.
After dominating the charts on the back of Pyromania, Def Leppard needed to come through with a mammoth followup just to break even. Along with not having a set producer for the first few weeks, the production divulged into hell and led to a holiday where drummer Rick Allen returned without an arm. Once everything was situated though, these fresh faced kids who wrote Photograph had returned to the studio as veterans.
Compared to the usual monsters in the rock world, this could run as a greatest hits album by itself for Leppard, running the gamut between the singalongs like on Pour Some Sugar On Me or the soft ballad territory of songs like Love Bites. Given just the right sonic touch from Mutt Lange, this wasn't just one of the greatest rock records of the '80s. This became the benchmark for how pop rock was going to sound for the next few years.