White Light White Heat White Trash

After releasing a string of highly acclaimed rockabilly-inflected albums in the late '80s and early '90s, Social Distortion returned to its hardcore roots with 1996’s White Light, White Heat, White Trash (a play on the Velvet Underground’s seminal 1968 album White Light/White Heat). The brand of California punk rock that Social Distortion had helped invent had found massive success in the form of The Offspring and Green Day, while leader Mike Ness had rediscovered his own punk roots with the archival release Mainliner. All these factors conspired to create songs like “Don’t Drag Me Down,” “Through These Eyes," and “Down on the World Again,” which combine the pathos of Ness’ voice with the throttling attack of classic punk. Producer Michael Beinhorn (Red Hot Chili Peppers, Soul Asylum, Soundgarden) gave the music a dense and heavy sound that made Ness and his band appear like wizened troubadours. Where other punk bands jacked up the tempos for effect, the songs here with the strongest impact are purposefully slow, as in “When the Angels Sing,” “Dear Lover," and the hit single “I Was Wrong.”