10 Rock Bands That Bounced Back From Bad Albums
6. Euphoria - Def Leppard
Out of all the hair bands coming out around the '80s, there was no one who could really touch Def Leppard. After setting the standard with Pyromania, the fact that they made one of the most celebrated albums of the '80s again with Hysteria proved that we would be hearing from these Sheffield lads for a long time. Like all hair bands though, it started to come to a halt once Nirvana got big.
Going in a more alternative direction with Slang, a lot of the classic Leppard fans felt a bit jilted when they were given the equivalent of a hair metal/grunge record. Once they dropped the more pretentious side of their sound though, it was time for Leppard to reinvent themselves with Euphoria. Going back to the old -ia album title trope, this is about as great as a return to form as you can imagine from a Leppard album, with the layered vocals of songs like Promises reminding us of the old days all over again.
Being a fan favorite as well, Euphoria even did fairly well in its time, crossing over into the pop stations after the grunge malaise faded from memory. For as inconsistent as the rest of the '00s would be in terms of quality, Def Leppard were at least back to sounding like Def Leppard again.