The 1987 Golden Turd award
Okay, the Golden Turd is not a worst album of the year award. Now being a bad album is required and that's the turd part, but the golden part refers to the album also being disappointing in some way due to the band having been good at some point. So the nominees are..
Def Leppard-Hysteria
Lizzy Borden-Visual Lies
Motley Crue-Girls, girls, girls
And the winner of the 1987 Golden Turd award is....
Def Leppard-Hysteria
This followed two of the best hard rock albums of the decade in "High -n- dry" and "Pyromania". Hysteria was filled with drippy pop oriented, radio friendly songs, but it was all rather skimpy on the rock element. In fact it was also rather boring for the most part. I eagerly awaited this release in 1987 and then sat in disbelief as this once great band had gone downhill very quickly. I have given it chances over the years, but it certainly has not gotten any better with age. A very deserving winner indeed.
Still more awards to come as the top five worst album covers of 1987 will be up on Wednesday.
Def Leppard-Hysteria
Lizzy Borden-Visual Lies
Motley Crue-Girls, girls, girls
And the winner of the 1987 Golden Turd award is....
Def Leppard-Hysteria
This followed two of the best hard rock albums of the decade in "High -n- dry" and "Pyromania". Hysteria was filled with drippy pop oriented, radio friendly songs, but it was all rather skimpy on the rock element. In fact it was also rather boring for the most part. I eagerly awaited this release in 1987 and then sat in disbelief as this once great band had gone downhill very quickly. I have given it chances over the years, but it certainly has not gotten any better with age. A very deserving winner indeed.
Still more awards to come as the top five worst album covers of 1987 will be up on Wednesday.
posted by Metal Mark at
1:40 AM
13 Comments:
You've got to be kidding me.
You think one of the best albums of the DECADE is horrible?
Ok, it's probably one of the best rock albums OF ALL TIME.
I think my life would be greatly different if this album had never been released. I was very young when it first came out...I may have done a dance routine (or three!) to "Pour Some Sugar on Me."
Just tonight I listened to nearly all of Hysteria while at the gym. Good times.
If I made a top ten list of my favorite albums of all time, this makes the list.
Allyson B. Crawford
www.bringbackglam.com
While I think Girls, Girls, Girls is worse, Motley Crue had already taken a clear step in the wrong direction on Theatre of Pain. In retrospect, I think Def Leppard may have already let Mutt Lange have too much control on Pyromania and in that sense they too had already started down the wrong road. But it still worked out well on that album versus Hysteria. Hysteria is a perfectly good commercial rock album, but that doesn't really hold a lot of water.
Allyson, you are completely delusional if you think Hysteria was one of the best albums of all time. It's completely soulless, over produced, lacking in real energy. It has more to do with suits than rock n roll. Granted, it doesn't stick out like a sore thumb in its era, but that's only because that genre, particularly at that time, was probably rock's lowest point.
You could make a better case for it not being a real rock album than you could for it being a great rock album. And don't give us that crap about how many copies it sold, because it's been outsold by plenty of albums that we'd both agree are awful.
It is good for what it is, but what it is is the victory of business over rock n roll.
allyson-It's a limp noodle of an album that's way too slick and lacks the elements that made the band so good prior to this release.
The guitars are down too far and there is not enough of them. The drums are up too far in the mix. The vocals are largely boring and the lyrics and downright terrible. I thought so twenty years ago and I still do.
I think Pyromania was the best album of 1983 over albums like Maiden's Piece of mind and Dio's Holy Diver. High -n- Dry was in my top 5 for 1981. So Hysteria was a huge disappointment and it still is.
Bob- You may be right about the Crue's album being worse, but it didn't follow a great album. So the disappointment factor was much lower than with Def Leppard.
To this day, Hysteria is the biggest disappointment I've ever experienced with a record. I still remember how deflated I was on the first listen. We waited so long and what we got was as light as Bon Jovi.
You know, I've cut it some slack in recent years, judging in terms of what it is, not what it should have been, but that doesn't change the disappointment factor. It still really stands for all that was wrong with rock n roll in those years.
If we are talking WORST album, it's the Crue's GIRLS x 3. I can see HYSTERIA being the Golden Turd because the hype was so big on this record and then there was all the drama and then all the time that had passed.
To many Metalheads I knew back in the day, it was a huge disappointment because it was too processed and light. Then it exploded into the mainstream and it was safe for everyone to be a Def Leppard fan. They went from NWOBHM to Pop Rock.
That said, I like Hysteria. I was 15 in '87 and that record was a soundtrack to my sophomore year in high school. Good memories attached to that record and there are some good Pop Metal tunes there: Animal, Hysteria, Women, Love and Affection. It also has one of the most overplayed, and overrated, songs of all time that I can't stand.....Pour Some Sugar On Me. That song is terrible.
Steve
Heavy Metal Addiction
Unfortunately Hysteria is the only Def Leppard album I'm familiar with, which may explain WHY Hysteria is the only Def Leppard album I'm familiar with ...
Heh, yes.
Every time I hear a song from this album I think 'oh okay, Foreigner, must be.' Then I realise it's Def Lepp. Then I wonder where the guitars went.
And then I remember Mutt took the guitars out back, castrated them and then returned them to the band smothered in bubble wrap so that no one would feel inclined to maybe chug a bit anymore.
It's certainly not a landmark album for riffheads.
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In the true spirit of heavy metal, Def Leppard was NEVER heavy metal. Do you morons think Pyromania is heavy metal? Pyromania AND Hysteria are BOTH hard rock. For any idiot who thinks Mutt 'smothered' the guitars should turn the record up loud and the guitar DYNAMIC will dazzle the fuck out of you. You see, Hysteria was recorded for Hi Definition stereos, not little tinny systems, and in that sense, it was meant to last past current fads (while making sure it still worked in the era it was released in).
Anyone who thinks Pyromania rocks and Hysteria does'nt, there's one word I have for you - POSERS. When the record came out, it was'nt just about sales and the ultimate hip tag, but it was regarded by the best critics in the business (including David Fricke, chief editor of The Rolling Stones magazines) as a masterpiece. If you think the album sucks - there's two things for you, either
a) you're dellusional (not Alyson) and
b) if you're interested, there's literally a WORLD of treat
waiting for you (turn up your stereo and soak EVERYTHING Mutt
Lange has put into this legend).
And Pyromania is better because the guitars sound rawer? That
makes it better? How old are you - 15? Hysteria was NEVER meant for that sensibility and if that's who you are, Hysteria is not for you, too bad. And another thing, have
SOME decency, 20 million fans around the world CANNOT be wrong - to say such a thing is pretty much saying, 'I am better than everyone else'. Sales figures for the past 10 years are based on hype and not quality (for the most part) but that was not the case once, when the rest of us lived.
And technology does'nt make a record crap, but quality in the songs do, I am sick of fools like you who think that a record can be too polished. The production on Hysteria was the driving point of the album BUT the songs still stood out. And lyrics? Def Leppard write pop confections, they are'nt Kurt Cobain and for that matter I would'nt put too much stock in Bon Scott's, Rob Halford or Bruce Dickinson's lyrics either. Remember, you are a conformist now, and a few years hence, your points of view will be ridiculed, not too long with the quickly changing world,
Sameer
I completely agree with Sav, Hysteria is an absolutely awesome album, and anyone who thinks it suck is quite clearly either moronic or plain deaf.
Sav-"Anyone who thinks Pyromania rocks and Hysteria does'nt, there's one word I have for you - POSERS."
Oh that makes sense. People who like the rockin' album are posers and people who like the limp noodle album are cool. You're on a wild rant because you can't deal with the opinions of others. Either grow up or avoid opinions that are different from yours because you obviously cannoot deal with it.
Mat-You are welcome to your opinion, but Hysteria still blows hard.
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