Social Distortion - Hard Times and Nursery Rhymes

Social Distortion are pretty close to being an evergreen in the punk scene of today. Having embraced more of a rock and country sound in the last 20 years, they have avoided the '50 year old dude with liberty spikes' phenomenon that plagues so many older punk bands.

It would be wrong not to point out that Social Distortion is pretty much Mike Ness. As the only original member post-Dennis passing, he wisely added Matt Freeman to the fold (now replaced by Ness solo bassist Brent Harding). Atom Willard bailed over the five or so years it took to get this out, being replaced with David Hidalgo, Jr., although the ubiquitous Josh Freese was the hired hand for Hard Times and Nursery Rhymes. The record splits the difference between Stones-y tracks like California and Cash-ier tracks. Gimme The Sweet And Lowdown and Diamond In The Rough bring a real polish to the SD sound, perhaps a bit too much, but they are really great tracks that should go over pretty well live. Much like the recent Screeching Weasel record, there is nothing here that is particularly groundbreaking, but Hard Times and Nursery Rhymes should sate 21st century fans of Social Distortion nicely.

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