Cries from the Quiet World: Def Leppard "Slang (2CDS Limited Edition, UK, Bludgeon Riffola, 532493-2)"

viernes, 15 de febrero de 2019

Def Leppard "Slang (2CDS Limited Edition, UK, Bludgeon Riffola, 532493-2)"

Slang is the sixth studio album by English rock band Def Leppard, released on 13 May 1996.[4] The album marked a musical departure from their signature sound; it was produced by the band with Pete Woodroffe and was their first album since 1980 without involvement by Robert John "Mutt" Lange. Slang is the first album with new material to feature new guitarist Vivian Campbell (Campbell had previously played on the B-side collection Retro Active in 1993 and on the new song on Vault a year earlier). It charted at number 14 on the Billboard 200 and number 5 on the UK Albums Chart. It is also the only Def Leppard album that does not feature their recognisable font logo on the album cover, though all its singles still bore the classic logo.

Between the releases of Retro Active and Slang, Def Leppard endured hardships including guitarist Phil Collen's divorce from actress Jacqueline Collen, bassist Rick Savage's battle with Bell's palsy and the death of his father, and the arrests of both drummer Rick Allen and lead singer Joe Elliott for spousal abuse and assault, respectively. Though the band says Adrenalize was recorded during a bleaker time, the absence of Mutt Lange (for the first time on a Def Leppard album since 1980) made it possible for the band to show what they were really feeling. Said Elliott, "There was a period with Mutt where if you came out with anything slightly negative, it was 'Fuck it!' and it was gone!" Collen continued: "We've all got personal things that have happened during the recording of Slang, and we've just ploughed on and some of it has come out on the record."

Doing without Lange's services, the band changed another habit by recording together, in a townhouse in Marbella, Spain. Slang would feature less production in favour of a more organic sound, catalysed by Allen's reversion to a semi-acoustic drum kit. "We'd got so sick of recording the old way. We didn't want to do it any more. We wanted the music to be more personalised and let the character of the individuals come out," explained Savage.

"We knew we couldn't make a typical Def Leppard album in the mid-1990s," said Vivian Campbell. "Grunge was very much happening and our stuff was anathema at the time… Personally, I think we could have bolstered the songs with a little more of that Def Lep fairy dust… but instead we went, 'No, let's keep it raw: no backing vocals; let's not do that part because it's too melodic; let's be more monotone… At least it gave us the chance to grow up a little. We live in a state of arrested development in this band, singing songs like 'Let's Get Rocked'. So we did get to write some grown-up lyrics. And we were going through a lot of shit at that time: Sav's dad died on the eve of the first recording day; both Joe and Phil were going through divorces… So it gave us an opportunity to write lyrics that reflected the reality of our lives." Campbell also cited Soundgarden's album Superunknown (1994) as a major influence on the album's style, saying that it "was the record that we referenced in terms of the sonics and the mood of it when making Slang."

Songs such as "Turn to Dust" introduced sarangi and other instrumentation atypical for the band. The lyrical content featured a darker and more introspective turn for the most part, with lighter fare restricted to the Prince-influenced "Slang".

Slang was the first Def Leppard album to fail to achieve platinum sales in the US. Elsewhere, it performed better: it placed four singles on the UK charts, and went platinum in Canada. On the supporting tour the band performed for the first time in Southeast Asia, South Africa and South America. Only the album's title track has been played live after the Slang World Tour of 1996 to 1997 with it being performed regularly in the early 2000's and occasionally after, mostly recently during their 2023 performance at The Leadmill in Sheffield.

A limited edition release included a six-track bonus disc, "Acoustic in Singapore", recorded live in October 1995.

Tracklist:

Disc 1