Reviews list for Suicidal Tendencies - Lights Camera Revolution (1990)

It's always surprising to hear just how much Suicidal Tendencies rock out when everything comes together. It's easy to put them in the punk / crossover box and then suddenly, there's this chunky riff and lead work to die for that reminds me that in their prime, these guys knew exactly how to write perfectly good thrash metal. Unfortunately, there are always parts of their albums that just don't sit too well with me and stop me from loving any of their releases from start to finish.

Lights Camera Revolution is a perfect example of the above. You Can't Bring Me Down, Lost Again and Alone start things off in fine style and I'm totally into it. But then the silliness starts with tracks like Lovely and Send Me Your Money and it just loses something for me. I'm sure there are a bunch of crossover fans out there that dig both sides of the band, but I guess I'm just not one of them. But if I took the heavier tracks off How Will I Laugh Tomorrow and Lights Camera Revolution, I reckon I'd have one kickass album. Mike Muir's distinctive vocals are a little unusual (they're wussy at times), but he's got great range and a bunch of talent to go. Rocky George pumps out great riffs and leads throughout and Robert Trujillo shows why he'd eventually be handpicked for Metallica on bass.

All up I'd say this is probably my favourite Suicidal Tendencies album, yet I still can't rate it too highly. At times it's fantastic, but it's just not consistent enough to reach higher grades from this thrash head.

This record is an odd one for me.  I enjoyed the debut by Suicidal Tendencies enough but Join The Army and How Will I Laugh... lit no fires for me and so when their 1990 offering came around I had little excitement at the prospect.  What the band did have though was excitement in abundance and it came across well in the maniacal vocals of Mike Muir, the gritty chops of Rocky George, the rumbling four strings of Robert Trujillo and the strong stick performance of R.J.Herrera.

As with most of their releases there was a mix of comedic elements that sat atop of a very critical and dark commentary of society, politics and culture of the time and this tongue in cheek element did not sit well with everyone.  I thought though that Lights..., balanced this the best out of all of their albums to that point.  This felt modern, somehow refreshed and still stayed true to the core of the band's sound to breathe the necessary amount of familiarity for the fan base.

The hi-octane opening track and MTV favourite You Can't Bring Me Down started things off in the manner required, bursting with angst and energy.  After the opening track the album does lose its way a little for me and only really picks up again from Give It Revolution onwards.  Tracks 2 through 4 just stand out as being to dissimilar to the rest of the thrashy style to the record and therefore feel out of place.  I am not sure of how they would fit in but surely the option to spread them out throughout the record would have made more sense, if not still run the risk of disrupting the overall flow more obviously.

Despite being something of a mixed bag the lyrical commentary on here remains smart and sarcastic in equal amounts and the band use the music well to enforce their dark comedy and make a real point without ever feeling like they are labouring it.