SOCIAL DISTORTION Born To Kill( Epitaph Records)
The road to Born To Kill for SoCal punk rock mainstays Social Distortion was as long and twisted as the Pacific Coast Highway. Originally announced back in 2010 as a quick follow-up to the wellreceived comeback of Hard Times And Nursery Rhymes, Born To Kill’ s gestation turned out to be anything but quick. At first, the touring life beckoned, relegating the new demos to remain as demos. Then a case of writer’ s block put a damper on the new material. Once that subsided, the floodgates opened, and the band recorded enough songs for not one but two new albums. Then fate once again pulled the football away from Charlie Brown, with singer Mike Ness getting diagnosed and treated for stage one tonsil cancer. Luckily, they found it early, and after another year of recovery, the band was finally ready to unleash Born To Kill on the world. Hardly a departure, the album sticks to Social Distortion’ s strengths. While the band really broke through on 1990’ s self-titled album with“ Story Of My Life,”“ Ball and Chain” and their cover of Johnny Cash’ s“ Ring Of Fire” all getting massive airplay in that taint between the hair metal and grunge eras, the reality is that Mike Ness and Social Distortion had been kicking around the punk rock trenches since the late 70s placing them close to the first wave of American punk rock. When grunge hit, it didn’ t really boost their popularity, since they had more in common with the Stray Cats than with Alice in Chains. Mike Ness, proud to be rockabilly in the era of flannel, had that indelible star quality while also being happy to remain a SoCal punk rock lifer. Born To Kill rolls out of the gate with the muscular title track, all scrappy Sunset Strip riffing punctuated by a cascading dark chorus.“ The Way Things Were” glides along on a bittersweet Americana vibe where Ness invokes the early days of the scene with a voice just as powerful as it was decades ago. While most of this music retains the muscle of punk rock, it also comes off as a louder take on the current
state of country radio, with Lucinda Williams even turning up on the lovely“ Crazy Dreamer.” The cover of Chris Isaac’ s“ Wicked Game” seems like a missed opportunity. Where they could have taken the song to a different, more left-field place, they instead stick pretty close to the original. While nothing on the album will convert the uninitiated, Born To Kill sounds like a band comfortable with their legacy, and the no-frills production job by D. Sardy lends the album some heft and warmth missing from most modern rock albums. Hopefully, the road to the next Social Distortion album will be a smoother ride.
- Andy Derer
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TALK TALK Spirit of Eden Half-speed Mastered LP
( Rhino / Parlophone)
Although more broadly known for a handful of smart and catchy post-new wave singles in the mid-’ 80s, Talk Talk achieved true musical immortality on a smaller scale with the release of two truly exceptional albums that hammered the proverbial nails into the coffin holding the remains of their collective career. It was done willfully, and history has proven it was worth it. 1988’ s Spirit of Eden and 1991’ s Laughing Stock are gorgeous works of art, worthy to be named alongside masterpieces like A Love Supreme. These Talk Talk albums are emblematic of the post-
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14 illinoisentertainer. com june 2026