Tracks

If you take the energy and gritty lyrics from the Clash and the New York punk harmonies from the Ramones, add to that the trash glamour Rock’n’Roll of Hanoi Rocks mixed with the darkness of Lords of the New Church, and transport it all to the sick sad state of the 1990s where the TV junkies live their remote controlled lives through a digital wide screen tube… Then you’ve got D Generation’s third album Through The Darkness.

As with D Generation’s first two albums, Jesse Malin has you hanging on his every word right from the start with his unrivalled energy and anger as he rips into the social corruption surrounding us. Musically, there doesn’t seem to be an enormous departure from the style of the two previous albums D Generation and No Lunch, although Through The Darkness benefits from Tony Visconti’s much deeper and darker production that finally does justice to the songwriting skills of the band.

Although eventually all 14 tracks on the album have become classics, the songs that initially stood out were the opening track ‘Helpless’, ‘Rise And Fall’, ‘Good Ship Down’, ‘Sunday Secret Saints’ and an unlisted track at the end of the CD called ‘Violent Love’. This is a tragic love song that strays somewhat from D Generation’s traditional sound but has since proved to be quite close to some of Jesse Malin’s more recent solo compositions. The final listed track is a cover of Neil Young’s 1973 ‘Don’t Be Denied’ that surprisingly fits in quite comfortably with the overall feel of the album.

Through The Darkness has never been given a UK release although American imports shouldn’t be too difficult to find. And as with all D Generation’s albums the rewards from searching out a copy are very much worth the effort.