Social Distortion Sex, Love And Rock 'N' Roll CD

Social Distortion: Mike Ness, John Maurer, Jonny Wickersahm, Charlie Quintana.
Audio Mixers: Cameron Webb; Mike Ness.
Photographers: Christine Marie; Chapman Baehler.
Eight years separated the release of Social Distortion's misguided White Light, White Heat, White Trash and their next studio album, 2004's Sex, Love and Rock 'n' Roll, and a fair amount happened to the band in that time. Most notably, Dennis Danell, who had been the only constant in the band's lineup besides leader Mike Ness, died in 2001 at the age of 39, and on a pair of solo albums Ness began digging deeper into the roots music that had long informed his style. After confronting the grief of losing one of his best friends and exploring the less muscular side of his musical personality, Sex, Love and Rock 'n' Roll makes it clear Ness and his bandmates were ready to turn up the amps and make some noise, but while musically this is firmly in the So-Cal punk mode of their best work, lyrically this music reflects the mind of a more mature and thoughtful Mike Ness. Much as Ness dealt with the toll his years of drug abuse and casual violence had taken on him on the albums Social Distortion and Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell, Sex, Love and Rock 'n' Roll finds him pondering the stuff of genuine adulthood -- love, relationships, and looking to the future while trying to reconcile the past. "Live Before You Die" celebrates life in the moment without giving in to hedonism, Ness declares "I'm gonna trade in my old ways for a new shot at life" in "Faithless," and "Footprints on My Ceiling" tells the story of a man who has come to the realization that he has to accept his feelings if he's ever going to be loved. Some might think this means Ness is going emo on us after all these years, but in context these songs become the work of a man who's strong enough to know his own weaknesses and is struggling to become a better man by working through them, and the music -- with Ness ably assisted by John Maurer on bass, Jonny Wickersham on guitar, and Charlie Quintana on drums -- is potent, hard-hitting rock & roll with real heart and soul behind it. Sex, Love and Rock 'n' Roll shows that Social Distortion have held onto what made them great while growing and changing in the best ways, and the result is one of the best albums this band has made to date. ~ Mark Deming
A major force in West Coast punk since the early 1980s, Social Distortion became the longest-lasting of their peers, with perhaps only Bad Religion for company. Through a daunting history of ups and downs, drug problems, personnel shifts, and worse, the band soldiered on fearlessly, never sacrificing the righteous fury of their sound. Following a layoff of eight years (during which time singer Mike Ness pursued a solo career), SEX, LOVE AND ROCK 'N' ROLL was the group's first foray into the studio since the death of founding guitarist Dennis Danell in 2000.
With longtime bassist John Maurer and the revitalizing power of a new guitarist and drummer, Social Distortion maintains the lean, propulsive punk attack that made them famous. While the group's trademark sound is a Ramones-meet-Johnny Cash punk/country amalgam, the twangier leanings are largely left behind here in favor of a more straightforward--still characteristically unrelenting--rock & roll approach. Beyond that, the biggest new development is the pop quotient. While SD was never a stranger to hooks or melody, a couple of tracks here could easily be placed into the repertoire of any number of pop performers and given a convincing high-gloss arrangement. Regardless, the band plays even the poppiest material hard, fast, and loud, as per their pure punk roots, and Ness still concentrates on his perennial lyrical subjects--hard times and the power of rock & roll to see people through their trials and tribulations. It sure seems to have worked for him.Spin (p.118) - "[T]en songs of solid, melodic, punk-inflected rock..." - Grade: B