Review by UnhinderedbyTalent for Suicidal Tendencies - Lights Camera Revolution (1990)

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.