Ten No-Skip Albums: "Pyromania" by Def Leppard

I can still remember the first time I heard the monster hit single "Rock of Ages" from Def Leppard's breakthrough 1983 album Pyromania. I was visiting family friends in Oklahoma City, who had MTV on their local cable service. I had heard several peers buzzing about this song, but this was the first listen. I was, of course, immediately hooked, and since that day, Def Leppard has consistently been one of my favorite bands.

This is the archetype for Eighties pop-metal music, with its nonsensical but catchy lyrics, soaring vocal harmonies, virtuoso guitar solos, and the electric charisma of lead singer Joe Elliott. They had the added bonus of being a British band, which always made music an extra level of cool for me.

Pyromania opens with the arena-rock anthem "Rock! Rock! (Till You Drop)," your standard demand from young people everywhere to play rock music incessantly; it's at the heart of teenage rebellion everywhere, all the time. Next comes probably the best song on the album, "Photograph," which still sounds as good today as it did throughout 1983.

The next three tracks are lesser known to casual fans, but "Stagefright," the third track, is a hard-driving rock song that emphasizes their metal-tinged roots. Next is "Too Late for Love," a dark single where both instrumental and vocal musicianship is featured. Side one (vinyl, children) wraps up with "Die Hard the Hunter," a rare track where the lyrics are important, this time urging mental health care for combat veterans as well as criticizing the sickening lack of such services available.

Side two begins with two of the band's all-time greatest songs, "Foolin'," which is, for me, the highest charter on my person Top 100 Favorite Songs (as I blogged earlier this year), followed by the previously mentioned "Rock of Ages," which remains one of their signature songs and is featured in just about every live performance they've ever done.

Side two wraps up with three lesser-known but still rock-solid (pun intended) tracks: "Comin' Under Fire," another dark love song; "Action Not Words," which turns B-movie filmmaking into a sexual double-entendre; and finally, "Billy's Got a Gun," a six-minute hard rock tune that sounds sadly prophetic about our current cultural condundrum with angry young men and the violence they commit.

Pyromania is not simply Def Leppard's best album, it's one of the greatest albums of the Eighties. And for those of you wondering if their follow-up album, Hysteria, will show up later on the list, I have to disappoint you. That album features the single "Love Bites," the one Def Leppard song I absolutely skip every time it comes around. Not every album can be perfect, but Pyromania comes damn close.