From: "Julie D." Date sent: Sun, 27 Jun 1999 18:58:07 -0400 Subject: Euphoria review >From USA Today Def Leppard, Euphoria ( * * * out of four): After a brave but overwrought attempt to come off fashionably dour on 1996's Slang, the Leps have wisely returned to their roots. Which means irresistible pop-metal trash confections based on monstrous riffs, topped with squealing, flashy guitar breaks and sweetened by huge stacked-harmonies-and-hand-clap choruses. Producer/writer/Svengali Mutt Lange is back to co-write three tracks, which is only fair, considering he swiped all of their niftiest tricks for wife Shania's country hits, confounding the multitudes who considered Def Leppard and Nashville a twain that never would meet. Lange's touch is most apparent on first single Promises, which builds on a riff borrowed from a quarter-century-old Todd Rundgren classic, Couldn't I Just Tell You, to concoct a chunk of delectable radio candy. But the band is equally impressive on its own, notably on the crisp, processed opener, Demolition Man; the restrained, affecting power ballad To Be Alive; the bleak rocker Paper Sun; and, best of all, Back in Your Face, a blatant homage to - of all people - '70s glam rocker Gary Glitter that serves as a metaphor for the Leps' new/old approach: Having the Leps back in your face makes facing the music a euphoric experience. © Copyright 1999 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc. http://www.usatoday.com/life/music/poprock.htm