Def Leppard - High n' Dry
July 11 1981
Def Leppard
High n’ Dry
Genre: 80s onslaught
Allen’s 2015 rating: 4 out of 5
Allen’s Rating: 3.75 out of 5
Highlights:
Let It Go
High N Dry
Bringing On the Heartbreak
No No No
My friend, Peter, was a massive metal fan. He and I were enemies until we were friends. We were both prep cooks at the greasy spoon diner, The Acadia Restaurant. I had slight seniority so I had to show him how to make the Fish Chowder. He didn’t like that. And then we started talking about music. Our tastes couldn’t be more different. He wanted to shred. Loved Van Halen. He bought a pair of red pants and had the local painter paint Eddie’s white striped on to them.
I was more about Adam Ant and Queen. But I was willing to learn. He turned me on to Ozzy. And then we both went to see Ozzy at the Bangor State Fair. We waited outside that tiny arena all day so we could be as close as we could get.
The opening act was an unknown (to me at the time) band called Deaf Leopard (my spelling).
They were incredible. They made Ozzy seem like a drunk old dad bod wannabe in fringed spandex. Which he was.
But it would take me decades before I ever listened to a Def Leppard album in it’s entirety (spieling theirs).
In fact, it wasn’t until the first pass through this project when I was doing it for myself that I heard any DL record and that was On Through the Night. A solid 4 jam.
This record takes what they started and amps it up. People say that Motley Crue were the epitome of the Glam Metal sound. Maybe stateside. But Leppard is equally responsible, maybe more so. While they were all about having a good time, too, they weren’t flirting with doom at every turn. I think Leppard holds up better than a lot of Crue.
Is the record a relic of the 80s? Yes. Is it a perfect representation of a nascent sound in a dawning time?
Hell yes.
This album is made for a top down drive in the California sun. Is it better than Night? No. But it shows that they are on the right path.
https://music.apple.com/us/album/high-n-dry-remastered/1501776925
