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Hard Times and Nursery Rhymes is the latest album release by the popular rock group Social Distortion.

The album relies on the band’s unique rough sound.

Although the CD is not a particularly progressive album, its grunge feel will suit most Social Distortion fans.

Many of the songs feel like a bit of mixture between 60s, 80s and modern rock. Most of them have a steady beat generated by drums and a bass guitar, while the lead guitar solos freely behind. At times this is pulled off very successfully creating a powerful sound.

Unfortunately, although the soloing is fun and interesting it is also not particularly ground-breaking.

There are also points on this album when the lyrics don’t seem to flow naturally over the music, which will be a nuisance to any listener.

Hard Times and Nursery Rhymes begins with an instrumental song entitled “Road Zombie.” This is a particularly bold beginning that is also a good microcosm of the entire album as “Road Zombie” almost works with some real instrumental gems, but there are parts of the song that also drag on for far too long.

Some of the better songs on the album include “Machine Gun Blues,” which follows the story of a 1930s gangster and has some of the better solos on the album and “Alone and Forsaken,” which has some great buildups and is the most reminiscent of older Social Distortion songs.

The production of the album is also quite interesting as it has the feel of an early Nirvana album with the amount of grungy distortion used.

However, that grungy feel is what separates Social D from many other popular rock bands. The producer of the album did a great job finding the right amount of rawness to fit in with the grungy growl of lead singer Mike Ness.