Album Haiku: Hard Times and Nursery Rhymes by Social Distortion
Polished Punk Stories
With Rock, Blues and Alt-Country
Worth the six year wait
3 out of 5
Songs we can’t take off repeat: “Gimme The Sweet and Lowdown”, “Machine Gun Blues”, “Still Alive” and “Alone and Forsaken.”
Hard Times and Nursery Rhymes is Social Distortion’s first album since 2004 and the first Social D album produced by front man Mike Ness. Point blank Social D still kicks ass and still has something important to say. When the album rocks on “Machine Gun Blues”, “Still Alive” and “Gimme the Sweet and Lowdown” it sounds like a classic Social Distortion record with great lyrics, raspy Mike Ness vocals and fun guitar riffs. The Hank Williams, Sr. cover of “Alone and Forsaken” is on par with Social Distortion’s fantastic cover of “Ring of Fire”. However when the songs on Hard Times and Nursery Rhymes slow down its a little boring and seems to be over-produced. The soulful backup signing on “California (Hustle and Flow)” and “Can’t Take It With You” sound like cheesy Kid Rock songs, when I think and hope Social Distortion was trying to sound more like “Tumbling Dice” by The Rolling Stones. Overall when the songs on the album shine they shine like a new Cadillac and when they don’t well they don’t. It was still worth the wait for Hard Times and Nursery Rhymes and Social Distortion is still very relevant in music today.
Review By Matt Auclair