Euphoria is the seventh studio album by English rock band Def Leppard, released on 8 June 1999 in the United States and on 14 June 1999 in the United Kingdom by Mercury Records. The album aimed to return to their signature sound made famous by the band in the 1980s. It was produced by the band with Pete Woodroffe. The album charted at No. 11 on the Billboard 200 and No. 11 on the UK Albums Chart. It includes the song "Promises", which hit the number one spot on Billboards Mainstream Rock chart.
Overview
Following Slang, the band was initially unsure of which direction to take upon reconvening in April 1998. "We just let ourselves go in any way we wanted," recalled Joe Elliott. With Slang we did: we said we're not gonna do the typical Def Leppard things. But with Euphoria we didn't rule them out… because it had been eight [sic] years since Adrenalize. That's a long time to have abandoned your main style of music. So we embraced it."
Former producer Robert John "Mutt" Lange returned for four days. "It was a bit weird, because he wasn't working the same way," recalled Elliott. "He wasn't hands-on. He was more observant. He'd say, 'Stop,' and make a suggestion… We also wrote another song where we did kind of start from scratch. We said, 'Let's do something really off the wall.' That ended up being the song 'All Night' – all groovy noises and orgasmic songs." It was then issued on its own in 2022.
Reception
Euphoria received fairly positive reviews. Rating the album 4 out of 5, Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic notes in his retrospective assessment that despite the band returning to their signature sound "no longer guarantees a hit at the close of the '90s", Euphoria is "a tight, attractive album with more than its share of big hooks, strong riffs, and memorable melodies." He concludes by saying that "what's best about Euphoria is that it's utterly not self-conscious. Def Leppard feels free to try straight pop, appropriate Gary Glitter riffs, or play straight metal, without caring whether it's hip or commercial. That doesn't mean Euphoria is a classic, but it does mean that it's their most appealing effort in over a decade."
Greg Kot of Rolling Stone, however, was more critical. He notes that "the defining characteristic of Euphoria is its bloodlessness, from the robotic drum tracks to the disconcertingly inhuman tone of those trademark massed vocal choruses", concluding that "the flesh-and-blood Def Leppard apparently never made it out of the Eighties alive."
Track listing
Personnel
Def Leppard
- Joe Elliott – lead vocals
- Phil Collen – guitar, backing vocals
- Vivian Campbell – guitar, backing vocals
- Rick Savage – bass guitar, backing vocals
- Rick Allen – drums
Additional musicians
- Robert John "Mutt" Lange – additional vocals (on "Promises" and "All Night"), additional guitars (on "All Night")
- Damon "Demon" Hill – end guitar solo (on "Demolition Man")
- Ciaran McGoldrick – hey's & claps (on "Back in Your Face")
- Gary Sullivan – hey's & claps (on "Back in Your Face")
- Ricky Warwick – hey's & claps (on "Back in Your Face")
Technical personnel
- Pete Woodroffe – producer, engineer, mixing engineer (at The Townhouse, London)
- Ronan McHugh – engineer
- Ger McDonnell – engineer
- Bob Ludwig – mastering engineer (at Gateway Mastering, Portland, Maine)
- Andie Airfix – artwork
- Andy Earl – photography
Charts
Weekly charts
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"
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!Chart (1999)
!Peak<br />position
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! scope="row"| Australian Albums (ARIA)
| align="center"| 59
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!scope="row"|Japanese Albums (Oricon)
| align="center"| 11
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Year-end charts
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders"
|-
! Chart (1999)
! Position
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!scope="row"|US Billboard 200
|align="center"|193
|}