White Light, White Heat, White Trash

White Light, White Heat, White Trash is the fifth studio album by American punk rock band Social Distortion, released on September 17, 1996, by 550 Music and Epic Records. The album was produced by Michael Beinhorn. After the release of Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell, the band toured until the end of 1993 and needed a break. After dealing with court battles over early recordings and attempting to retrieve them, package them up, and release them, Social Distortion wrote songs for a new album.

Guitarist and singer Mike Ness was disappointed with the way music was during the 1990s, including punk rock and rock music in general. He wanted to make a new album that would be considered Social Distortion's best, and bring back the characteristics and emotions of 1970s punk rock. White Light, White Heat, White Trash includes fewer rock and roll, country and blues influences than the band's previous three albums, and instead returns to their 1980s pure punk era, for example Mommy's Little Monster. The album has more introspective and personal lyrics about topics like grief, regret, looking back to the past, and making changes or improvements in one's life, inspired by Ness' past, which involved drugs, alcohol, and jail.

Reviews for White Light, White Heat, White Trash were mixed-to-positive, with the musical style and lyrical content being praised by some critics and criticized by others. The album experienced moderate success and peaked at number 27 on the Billboard 200, selling 277,000 copies in the United States as of December 31, 1998, according to Nielsen SoundScan, making it Social Distortion's third best-selling album. The two singles , "I Was Wrong" and "When the Angels Sing". The former experienced chart success on the Billboard charts, playing frequently on rock radio and MTV. The latter was less successful. Social Distortion planned to tour both inside and outside the United States, also performing at Warped Tour 1997 along with bands like Lagwagon, Less Than Jake, and the Mighty Mighty Bosstones.