From Puppy Love to Rejection

If all the hearts and flowers you sent on Valentine's Day are paying off and you need some audio candy to share with that special someone, check out the Lightning Seeds Sense. It plays like a soundtrack from one of John Hughes' eighties Brat Pack flicks--vulnerable and dreamy and above all cute. This is music for the alternative prom.

lan Broudie puts a Hammond organ and seamless vocals into an upbeat, trippy groove. Sometimes, he throws in a trumpet or an accordion or a harmonica for novelty. Generally, it comes out like spun sugar, fuzzy and sweet with no edge whatsoever.

Which is good if you're in the mood for it. "The Life of Riley," for instance, is playful enough to coax a nostalgic smile from even an armchair romantic. Broudie's lyrics are at their best in his love songs, which invariably describe ephemeral and perfect romance. "Blowing bubbles it's the final straw/They never last too long but for a moment/There's perfection floating through an open door/But if you try to hold it then it turns to nothing/Your whole world can turn on a moment." The teen princess and her prince kiss, and the credits roll up.

It helps to be in this general frame of mind while listening to Sense, because it's the only way you'll relate to lyrics like "The only reason is just because/It all makes Sense/When you're near it all makes Sense." And it's the only way you'll be able to tolerate Broudie singing about ice-cream clowns crying frozen tears.

But when the flowers dry up and the pink cloud dissipates, and you realize that the gorgeous creature you met the other night is not going to call you, it's time for Social Distortion. Between Heaven and Hell is pissed off and bitter and loud. If you crank it high enough and yell, you will feel better, guaranteed.

Mike Ness is the master of the Angry Loser song. Just scan the titles--"Cold Feelings," "Bad Luck," "Bye Bye Baby," and "Born to Lose." In the latter, he sings "I was brought in this world in 1962/I didn't have much choice you see/But by the time I was eight, I could tell it was too late, I was already barking up the wrong tree."

Social Distortion sticks to standard eight-bar rock chord progressions most of the time, but they never promise innovation, just catharsis. And sometimes humor. In "99 to Life," Ness sings about lonely weekends spent in jail. "I wish she could be here, lord if she only could/Instead she's lying in a pool of blood/She was my baby, thought she'd be my wife/I killed my baby, I killed her with my knife."

Granted, this is not an album for all occasions. But in this post-Valentine's Day, pre-spring lull, the timing may be perfect.