Do you ever have one of those “just gotta listen to Def Leppard” days?

Neither do I. At least not usually. However last night I had the overwhelming urge to listen to Hysteria. I listened to this album almost constantly in 1988, but have picked it up only rarely since.

Normally if I have a craving for a D band it ends up being Depeche Mode. But with them I can only do one, maybe one and a half songs and then I’m done.

Depeche Mode is like eating fudge. Consuming a lot of it only seems like a good idea before you start.

My interaction with Def Leppard was different though. It was more like having dinner with an old friend you hadn’t seen in years. A dinner just long enough for you to question all the decisions that friend has made.

“Laser noises, really?” You might say. “And that voiceover by Margaret Thatcher seems really … relevant.”

And then there are those awkward moments when you realize that your friend’s views on certain issue lack a level of nuance. “The song Women is particularly interesting. Yes, they are pretty. Yes there are a lot of pretty women.”

There’s some cringing and the only comfortable conversation is about the good old days, but you leave the meeting feeling like you reconnected with something that was, at least at one point, important to you.

Anyway, I’ve moved on to Nine Inch Nail’s Ghosts, a companion I can at least introduce to my friends without embarrassment.