![]() Written in 1984, tortuously assembled over the next two and half years, it’s a tribute to the band and Lange’s never-say-die perfectionism. If a single tune encompassed both the difficulty and the glory of making Hysteria, it was its breakout song. Hysteria is the moment that Def Leppard made their bones as classic writers. Here is a simply magnificent piece of work, smoky, sultry, full of grown-up yearning. HysteriaĪs the decades have passed, it has become apparent that Hysteria’s lowest-key and least bombastic song has given the record its timeless edge. Dressed to perfection by Lange, it was impossible to live through the late 1980s without having this chorus in your head for days on end. That riff has earned its corn ever since: Pour Some Sugar… is reputed to be the hit that finally enabled Leppard to recoup the cost of four years in the studio. The legend goes that Joe Elliott teased the riff for ‘Pour Some Sugar…’ out of an old acoustic guitar during a production break very near the completion of Hysteria. It was a definite twist, with an acid-tongued lyric playing against the immaculate soundscape, and built for night-time radio. Lange was a maestro of the power ballad (what else would you expect from a man who’d steered the immaculate sounds of The Cars and Foreigner) and here he took the essential formula and constructed Def Leppard’s edgier version. That gloriously memorable ascent from verse (‘Hey, but are you getting it…’) to bridge (‘gimme all of your lovin’) to punning chorus line (‘Armageddon it’) is pure gold, a synthesis of all that Leppard were about, from shimmering guitar arpeggios to flat-out bludgeon riffola. The chorus is supreme, easily an equal melodically to Armageddon It or Pour Some Sugar…, yet Lange, perhaps conscious of the overall dynamic of the record, chooses to accent it differently, a tonal change that adds a classic, cooler touch. Strange that a song of such quality sits only in the middle of the pack, but such are the delights remaining that Gods Of War often gets lost in the shuffle. Led Zeppelin IV: every song ranked from worst to best.The Thursday Death Match: Pyromania versus Hysteria. ![]() Every song on Queen's Greatest Hits, ranked from worst to best.Hysteria began to head into stone-cold classic territory with ‘Rocket’, a song designed for radio with its giant gang-vocal chorus, made superior by the beauty of the sound – everything from Rick Allen’s drums on the intro to the multi-tracked vocal that renders the line ‘I’ll be your satellite of love’ as a single mellifluous word, is chillingly perfect. That objection aside, as a sonic statement of intent Lange throws everything at the album’s first minute or so, the digital crunch of the guitars harmonised perfectly with deep, subtle synths and layer upon layer of back-notes. ![]() Some of the record’s punning and wordplay works terrifically well, but ‘women, women, lots of pretty women/men, men we can’t live without them’ is more Dana Strum than Def Leppard. She can mold the original track into something we have never heard before and show her audience she is, in fact, multi-faceted.What’s wrong with being sexy? The aforementioned Nigel Tufnel’s immortal question haunts Women, Hysteria’s opener. ![]() She transforms a heavy, classic rock song with booming guitars and hot vocals into a piano ballad with the same lyrics, possibly sending a new message. Changing tempos and styles is not easy, but Karine achieves these characteristics effortlessly in her cover. The track itself reminds us that ballads are a complex yet beautiful art. She understands her craft and leaves us breathless with her powerful yet delicate voice. Karine shows us precisely what she can do in her covers, impressing listeners with ethereal belting and swelling vocal cries. This cover leaves us loving the justice brought to the original song, letting us enjoy the lyrics and theme even more than the original does. Out with the old and in with the new, Karine Hannah has revamped 80s songs with some great covers, including her single, ‘Hysteria,’ originally by the rock band Def Leppard. ![]()
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