Def Leppard took the old phrase and lived by it with this CD. In response to the dark grunge music that was flooding the airwaves and MTV at the time, Def Leppard showed they could easily run with the dark masses from Seattle. Slang is complete departure from Leppard's previous work and shows just how versatile and talented these guys really are. You want grunge, they can give it to you, and it's really good too. Hey guys, can you do some country? (just kidding) Slang is dark, moody, and some what disturbing. The fact this album is better overall musically then many of the grunge bands shows that grunge is a fad, and will eventually die out, leaving the really talented bands in place progressively developing their own music. This CD may have been a marketing mistake for the band, but it still has plenty of merit, and anyone who truly likes them will see past the change of pace and see what is really great about Slang.

This is a great addition to a Def Leppard collection. A new sound for the British band. Experimentation in the indeustrial sounds suit this band well.. but their die hard fans won't care for it. The bonus CD with the unplugged show is phenominal! A must have for all hard core Def Lep fans!

If you like alt./grunge, you will like this album. This is Def Leppard's first album to break from the pop metal scene. They were pressured by the public and most likely their record label as well to do something "new" or "different". So here it is. Here's your "different". Not too bad, not if you like alt./grunge bullcrap, but this is NOT my cup of tea. Nor is it to most Def fans, especially to those who are fans of earlier releases like "Pyromania", "Hysteria", or even "Adrenalize".
To us, this does NOT cut it. Def Lep's first two albums were real generic, hard rock-type music. With "Pyromania" and up to this point, DL was with the pop metal scene, and that's the Def Leppard we have all come to know and love.

Few of the tracks are actually worth listening to more than once, if even THAT. The few exceptions to that (but do not expect old style Def), would be "All I Want Is Everything", "Blood Runs Cold" and "Work It Out". This album also features the debut of Vivian Campbell (Whitesnake and Dio) on the band, Def Leppard (not the best album to start with, but Vivian is a great guitarist, no doubt).

"Slang" is desperately trying to be hip while completely ignoring its original fan base. Def lost enough of its fans with "Adrenalize" which could never hope to live up to the expectations people had after "Hysteria", especially with the loss of longtime guitarist Steamin' Steve Clark. But with "Slang"...please skip this record. Check out Def's latest, "Euphoria", an EXCELLENT return to form. There are a couple of tracks you might want to skip, yes, but it doesn't sound washed up, or like it's re-hashed. If you want GOOD new Def Leppard, buy "Euphoria", by all means, BUY EUPHORIA.
Skip "Slang"--again, ONLY if you like alt./grunge bullcrap. If that's the case, well then, it's not that bad. Damn good, actually.

Peace, bros.

(...)

Sure, Slang is a bit of a departure for Def Leppard, and no, it doesn't sound like a "fun" record at all, but who ever said a band should stick to one sound, and only one sound?
By the time Slang was released, Def Leppard was one of the biggest bands in the world. They had weathered personnel changes,
a death in the band, and the horrible accident that took the arm of Rick Allen, thier drummer. But still they were big, and very strong. They still are, but when Slang was released they took a chance and put out an album that was dark, and moody. It may not have sold a zillion copies, but it was, and still is, very, very good! The title song, Work it Out, and All I want is everything are three of my favorite Leppard songs. There is nothing at all wrong with an artist making some changes, and putting out something different. An artist must figure (and rightly so) that even if they don't pick up any new fans, the old ones (the true fans) will give the new work a listen and most likely find something they like in the new stuff. I did. I've enjoyed Slang since its release and think it's one of the band's best. If you're new to Def Leppard (where have you been hiding?) then please listen to something else before Slang. You might be just a bit put off by it. But, if you are a casual fan, and looking to expand your collection, then by all means, give Slang a listen. The difference will grab you. And to all you people who think Def Leppard died with Steve Clarke, wake the hell up!

Slang, in my humble but accurate opinion, is Def Leppard's masterpiece. It's the album that made me a true fan. Music needs substance for me to appreciate it, and it's testament to Leppard's strong songwriting skills that I was a fan before Slang, because up until then, substance seemed to be something they were deliberately avoiding. Joe called the music "Deep and meaningless".
This album has been called an attempt at "modern music", and it may have been, but that's only half of it. Modern elements, like industrial, R&B, rap, and Indian styles were blended, but the upshot of incorporating so many styles gave the album a quality the band hadn't captured before: variety. Not one of these songs sounds alike, and if it wasn't that this was Leppard's only CD daring enough to try variety, you'd guess they were all from different albums.
Before Slang, you could count the number of Leppard songs actually about something on two fingers (as far as I know, "From the Inside" and "White Lightning", with "Gods of War" coming close). Whether these songs on Slang were genuinely autobiographical, whether they were aimed at encompassing a theme or inadvertently tapped into insights the band had been storing subconsciously, they resonate on so many levels. When the lyrics are really good we get songs like "Truth?", probably the most daring song Leppard has done, musically and lyrically; "All I Want Is Everything", the band's most underrated and exceptional ballad yet (my favorite interpretation of the song is that it's about an AIDS victim); and even the most vacuously worded song on the album, "Breathe a Sigh", is still witty, poigant, and popsmart enough that if it had been released by any band but Leppard, it would have shot straight to number one.
Which brings me to another point. Slang didn't sell phenomenally well because of a stigma built up against glam and arena rock. It's sad that Leppard tucked their tails and returned to chewing their 80s bubblegum wad because with another solid release like this they could have struck down the stigma and established themselves as a band of meaning. The ultimate irony is that the next two albums, Euphoria and X, haven't sold Slang's 3million worldwide *combined*.
If I sound bitter, I am. There aren't many bands out there capable of this level of songwriting. Joe has said they're trying to compete with the Mariah Carey's of the world, and let's be honest, Mariah Carey only wishes she could write a song as popsmart as "Breathe a Sigh". Hell, let's get back to the Metal genre and suggest Metallica could write a song as rock steady and hummable as "Work It Out"; I know, I'm shaking my head too. But the irony is, until Slang, I wouldn't have expected Leppard were capable of it either.