{"id":290,"date":"2011-02-12T14:31:50","date_gmt":"2011-02-12T14:31:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/doktorjohn.com\/?p=290"},"modified":"2011-02-23T03:22:26","modified_gmt":"2011-02-23T03:22:26","slug":"new-album-by-social-distortion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/doktorjohn.com\/?p=290","title":{"rendered":"New Album by Social Distortion"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote><p><strong>Social Distortion\/ Hard Times and Nursery Rhymes\/ Epitaph<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>By <em>Doktor John<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/doktorjohn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/social_distortion_2004.jpg\"><\/p>\n<p>This newest album by the resurgent \u00e2\u20ac\u02dc80s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153punktry\u00e2\u20ac\u009d group Social Distortion comes in two versions, regular and deluxe, the former containing eleven and the latter 14 songs. <\/p>\n<p>      Times and styles change, and bands themselves evolve. Frontman <a href=http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Mike_Ness>Mike Ness<\/a> has forged a solo career of late, and this album reflects his delving heavily into what he calls \u00e2\u20ac\u0153roots\u00e2\u20ac\u009d music, mostly good ol\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 country and western with an added element of blues.<\/p>\n<p> A lightening-fast, two minute instrumental overture titled \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Road Zombie\u00e2\u20ac\u009d starts the set with twangy guitar showmanship followed by bluesy, autobiographical \u00e2\u20ac\u0153California (Hustle and Flow).\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>      \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Gimme the Sweet and Low,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Diamond In the Rough\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Far Side of Nowhere\u00e2\u20ac\u009d are each in the melodious country-rock style into which Ness lately crosses over.<\/p>\n<p><a href=http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=_Dg3wHfr8Rc> \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Machine Gun Blues\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/a> rises to a symphonic level, with retro-themed lyrics and a cinematic narrative. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Bakersfield\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is a six-minute magnum opus in the form of a lament for a faraway gal containing a Johnny Cash-style, spoken-word confession of obsessive desire for her company.<\/p>\n<p>     \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Alone and Forsaken\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is a minor-key, dark Gothic poem in the <a href=http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/home.php#!\/group.php?gid=103275249723068>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153cemetery-and-western\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/a> mode that is just beneath the surface of much of Ness\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s works.<\/p>\n<p>      \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t Take It With You,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d a clich\u00c3\u00a9d piece of pseudo-gospel nonsense, far below the musical standards of the group, should not have been included in this album. Otherwise the rest are great retrospective of the rockabilly lifestyle &#8212; utterly sincere, with equal doses of regret, honesty and the personal tenacity characteristic of Ness\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s late, autobiographical works.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Rating A<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/doktorjohn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/hard-times-cd-review.jpg\"><\/p>\n<p> In a word: True to form<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Social Distortion\/ Hard Times and Nursery Rhymes\/ Epitaph By Doktor John This newest album by the resurgent \u00e2\u20ac\u02dc80s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153punktry\u00e2\u20ac\u009d group Social Distortion comes in two versions, regular and deluxe, the former containing eleven and the latter 14 songs. Times and styles change, and bands themselves evolve. Frontman Mike Ness has forged a solo career of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/doktorjohn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/doktorjohn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/doktorjohn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/doktorjohn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/doktorjohn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=290"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/doktorjohn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/doktorjohn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/doktorjohn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/doktorjohn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}