Mommy's Little Monster only has 9 songs, but obviously they are all good as I am giving it a 10, which means not only is every song good, but they are somehow good enough to justify an extra mark. At this stage of the game, Social Distortion is your typical beginning punk band - lo-fi and singing about all your typical topics - beating up jocks, hating fashion, sneaking out to go to a show, rebellion, and other stuff you could probably guess. By today's standards, that's what you would probably assume is redundant pop-punk. But in '83, it was gold, and you just better trust me on this, because I was right there in the front row, with a day-glo mohawk, a studded leather jacket, and freaking out on PCP.
Once I settled down with some kids in the suburbs and relistened to this album, I thought to myself "Sure the lyrics sound redundant by today's standards, but it's one of those things you don't notice when you're listening to it. Mike Ness' trademark raspy growl, the band bashing away, and excellent highlights like the building climax of 'Moral Threat' and the classic opening riff of 'Mommy's Little Monster' are more than enough to justify it as one of punk's classics. Even the opening track, 'The Creeps,' with Ness howling away 'I just wanna give you the creeps!' is inexplicably amazing. Man, I wish they made albums like this today. I also wish my wife wasn't cheating on me with that yacht builder."
That was the best review I've ever written. It all goes downhill from here.
So Social Distortion (or as some would have it, SxDx, but that's too many x's for me) toured around for a while before recording another album. This time, the album is chockful of country and rockabilly influences. Even the title track is a decent country ballad. Of course, the punk influence and lyrics are still prominent - from opener "It's the Law," with your typical stab at the cops, to closer (?) "Lost Child," about a drug-addled street kid.
Since the band is just easing into their country roots, some of these songs come off as cheesy. "Backstreet Girl," I'm looking at you. However, the band often gets the rockabilly outlaw theme completely right ("Like an Outlaw (For You)"), foreshadowing the excellent crossover sound they'd be playing years from now. This album's main importance is as a bridge between their two greatest albums, Mommy's Little Monster and the self-titled, since while it is great on its own, it pales in comparison to our next one...
This is Social Distortion finally figuring out what they want to sound like, cramming all their influences together, and throwing it out there in a somehow original and good way. This is probably their easiest album to get into, no matter what kind of music you prefer, and the best place to start if you want to check them out. The band finally has top-notch production behind them, and it definitely makes a difference - it's especially noticeable in the harmonies of songs like "So Far Away" and the sudden power the guitars have behind them.
This album has all of their infamous songs - the punk-styled Johnny Cash cover of "Ring of Fire," ballad "Ball and Chain," and the eternal show closer "Story of My Life." It also marks the band's major label debut, but for those who become antsy with such a mention, it's clear from the infamy this album now has that Social Distortion doesn't compromise their sound for a second. They instead use the major label backing for their own good, the way a decent band should. A consistently great album.
By this time, Social Distortion was in their "dressing like 50's rockabilly hooligans" phase, or at least that's what I deduced from a grainy, low-budget video of "Bad Luck" I saw on MuchMusic late one night. This garnered them a position as a relatively mainstream rock band, and the album itself vaguely reflects this. It has polished production, a country undertone to every song, and lyrics centring around (as you'd expect from this band) love and breaking the law.
Social Distortion will always be a punk band, but in terms of sound only, this isn't a punk album. That doesn't translate to "not very good," though, as while I'll admit this does pale a bit to Social D's glory moments, it's still better than most other albums. The opening track, "Cold Feelings," for example, is one of Social Distortion's better songs, even if after that, the album goes a little downhill. While not memorable individually, the album's tracks always sound like Social Distortion - but I have to admit, while I like this album, the band sounds a little too complacent.
If you, like me, enjoy the older style of punk right down to its shoddy production, you'll probably like this one. Mainliner is not a new album, but a packaging of all the singles the band had prior to the release of Mommy's Little Monster. This includes the awesome "1945," Social Distortion's first single about the Hiroshima bombing, a Rolling Stones' cover ("Under My Thumb"), and early versions of "Moral Threat," "All the Answers," and "It's the Law" (here titled as "Justice For All").
Is it essential? No, not really. It's only 10 tracks, most of which have already been recorded. But if you're interested in the band's early roots, it's worth a listen. I say it's worth it just for the two different versions of "1945" and the alternate version of the already great "Moral Threat."
You know what they say about musicians: once they get off the drugs, all their music goes downhill. Indeed, Mike Ness is all cleaned up of his heroin addiction by this point, and the music has gone downhill - but that's probably more due to the band's steady slip towards mainstream rock than anything. In light of his recovery, Ness takes on a far more optimistic outlook, with odes to his religion and songs warning not to live a hedonistic lifestyle.
Mike Ness has his trademark growl back; demonstrating some great vocal work on "Dear Lover." The production is a bit more stripped down, and the band sounds decent, but something is still missing throughout the whole album. The songs don't stand out individually. When you finish listening, there's nothing you really want to come back to listen to again. The song structures are just too repetitive to garner much replay value.
Now, if anyone has lived the life of "mommy's little monster," it's Mike Ness. This guy was kicked out of home at 15, and since then, has dealt with nearly everything that could go wrong, including the death of his best friend, Dennis Danell, who was also the longtime guitarist for the band. Yet somehow, Social D is able to completely overcome this setback to make their best album since the self-titled. Dedicated to the memory of Danell, the album features a heartfelt side of Social Distortion on tracks like "Angel's Wings" and "Don't Take Me For Granted," while further exploring the alt-country side of their sound Ness has been championing for so long.
Opener "Reach for the Sky," with a soaring chorus and a fast beat, was the first thing to assure me that Social D had completely recovered from their missteps of White Light. Even with the fact that this album is essentially an obituary for Danell, Sex, Love, and Rock 'n' Roll is far faster and more biting than anything Social Distortion has been doing recently. It perfectly mixes their older, punk sound with their newer country sound. Social Distortion is clearly willing to keep making great music, rather than falling into a formula and burning out the way so many other early punk bands did.