Social Distortion - White Light, White Heat, White Trash [1996]
…I recall hearing “White Light White Heat White Trash” slagged off somehow as Social D’s “sellout” record. And I know that a charge like that seems laughable these days — when you can turn on “TRL” and see high-production-value videos from Sum 41 and Alien Ant Farm, or open up “Cosmo Kids” and see glossy photos of Sugar Ray and Blink 182, while this band still soldiers on with the brief mainstream glimmer becoming ever more of a memory. But I don’t feel like getting into another rant about what’s punk and what’s not. I mean, if you’re reading these words at all, then your mind’s probably close to being made up anyway, isn’t it?
Just about the only excuses that I can see for possibly calling this record a “sellout” (besides the fact that it’s on a Sony label — which the band vacated a couple of years later anyway) is the relatively slicker production and, if you REALLY feel like stretching logic, the fact that it sounds a bit more “punk” (and less rockabilly) than what the band had been offering of late. It’s very loud and very raucous, and I think it may have even blown a speaker in my headphones the first time I heard it. But, even still, if “White Light. . . ” were merely another loud punk record, then there’d probably be little more reason to play it except as a soundtrack for getting drunk with friends and maybe getting into another stupid little fight. And at least I myself can say, after playing this record for five years, in three apartments and on two continents, there’s definitely something in this music much deeper than all that.
Full Album Tracks Listing
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1. Dear Lover.mp3 [MP3Today.Info]
2. Don’t Drag Me Down.mp3 [MP3Today.Info]
3. Untitled.mp3 [MP3Today.Info]
4. I Was Wrong.mp3 [MP3Today.Info]
5. Through These Eyes.mp3 [MP3Today.Info]
6. Down On The World Again.mp3 [MP3Today.Info]
7. When The Angels Sing.mp3 [MP3Today.Info]
8. Gotta Know The Rules.mp3 [MP3Today.Info]
9. Crown Of Thorns.mp3 [MP3Today.Info]
10. Pleasure Seeker.mp3 [MP3Today.Info]
11. Down Here (w/ The Rest Of Us).mp3 [MP3Today.Info]
12. Under My Thumb.mp3 [MP3Today.Info]
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