White Light White Heat White Trash

Q - 3 Stars (out of 5) - "...more akin with Husker Du and the post-punk, pre-grunge US guitar school than they do latterday spiky-topped revivalists. Social Distortion write incredibly catchy riffs..." Entertainment Weekly - "...Social Distortion have made their first truly transcendent album. That it's constructed of such rock & roll staples as a driving backbeat, gritty vocals, steamroller guitar riffs, and an underdog's worldview makes it all the more impressive..." - Rating: A- Rolling Stone - 3.5 Stars (out of 5) - "...With Social Distortion's music now distilled beyond any point of derivation, the band clears its own path like an unstoppable earthmover, pushing dense walls of electric rhythm guitar through the night..." Musician - "...Without being overly earnest, they infuse their songs with drama and demand to be taken seriously....Under all that growl and gravel, it's easy to miss the considerable melody that Mike Ness squeezes out of his five-note range."

With White Light, White Heat, White Trash, Social Distortion made a conscious attempt to cash in on the alternative "revolution" of the early '90s." Underneath the layers of glossy hard rock production, the band still hold fast to some of their punk roots, but too often they sound like a heavy hard rock band. Of course, that commercial sheen is intentional -- it's the only way they could appeal to the legions of post-grunge alternative fans who appeared since Social Distortion released Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell in 1991. The problem is, the band doesn't deliver enough songs to justify the production. Mike Ness still wails away and growls out confessional lyrics, but too often they are ham-fisted and cliched, much like the music that supports them. The band sounds tight and muscular, but the songs have few hooks to make them memorable. In trying to appeal to a wider audience, Social Distortion have lost much of their identity on White Light, White Heat, White Trash. ~ Stephen Thomas ErlewineR 7263|