this is not pitchfork

If there was any such thing as a best Def Leppard album, this wouldn’t be it. But it’s the CD I pulled blindly out of the Box Of Unlistened to Music today to review. It is, however the album in which Rick Allen did his one arm drumming thing, so it’s got that going for it.

I suppose it’s a great album if you’re a Def Leppard fan. It’s got hits, it’s got a rock ballad in Love Bites and it has the most annoyingly named song ever, Armageddon It.

The one redeeming factor of Hysteria happens to be the one thing that is also the most unlikeable thing about it: Pour Some Sugar On Me. Which, I admit, I love, in an embarrassing sort of way.

Sometimes you go years and years singing a favorite song, not even bothering to really listen to the lyrics or think about what you are singing. And one day, you will have a moment of clarity, maybe in your car in the 7-11 parking lot, singing out loud with the window open, when you’ll realize just how incredibly stupid a lyric “do you take sugar, one lump or two” is.

Really. No self respecting rock song should contain the word “saccharine” in yet.

Yet, I love this song for the sheer cheesiness of it, and because belting it out in a crowded 7-11 parking lot gets you looks usually reserved for middle aged men in Firebirds singing Journey ballads.

Favorite song: Pour Some Sugar on Me