Customer Reviews

How Will I Laugh

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Arguably the best album to come from the Suicidal Tendencies, "How Will I Laugh Tomorrow When I Can't Even Smile Today" combines the frenzied thrash sound of ST's classic debut with the slower tempos of "Join the Army". Mike Muir's lyrics reached unprecidented heights on "Trip at the Brain" (which is possibly one of the best album openers ever), "Pledge Your Allegiance", "Miracle", "If I Don't Wake Up", and "One Too Many Times", but his maturity as a songwriter reaches the breaking point on the classic title track, which is one of the most revered songs to ever come from the band. All in all, this is headbanging hard rock done right, and if you are new to the band, this is a great place to start.

Having seen the band at a tension filled show 6 months earlier at an odd metal/punk dual bill in Oakland, I was not surprised to see new faces on the cover. Gone was co-founder Louichi Mayorga on bass, and they had added Mike Clark on rythym guitar. Mike Clark also wrote the music almost across the board on this album, and I don't know if he'd been storing up these gems for a rainy....er...band, but WOW!

Add to that the release from the tension of battling with his homey (they barely made it through their Oakland gig)with the sheer joy of finding a songwriter/solid-phat player like Clark, and Cyko Myko Muir was set free! He wrote focused thematic lyrics that finally achieved the urban balance between punk bark and in-the-pocket smooth rap (witness the outro/vamp on "Trip to ...")he had been looking for.

Rocky George(the most underrated lead player in rock) was finally completely comfortable, and had some meaty hooks to launch from and soar. Rythym section locked tight... man I had no idea when I picked it up that day in '87.

I got home, was busy with work on my own label, was about to go to bed... "Let me just check this out for a second" - my curiosity piqued. Holy Cats! Next thing you know I was WIDE awake, volume up, stomping around my room, wrecking s**t! As if I neede proof, caught them at the ensuing support show and it was MAYHEM. And that's just about what you want... truly great moments in Rock, better yet Punk Rock!

-ted.o

This album was a masterpiece of emotional perfection when it first came out and still stands that way for me. The times of the late 80's where filled with alot of self emotion and a little rebellion. Suicidal Tendencies broke ground with this album combining the new wave of west coast metal with their current hardcore sound they had from thier previous album. The band recruted a second guitarist Mike Clark, who was not only a fantastic rhythem player but wrote the majority of the songs with Muir on this. A definite classic album. Second best album I've ever heard in my life.

This album comes one year after Join the Army and takes the crossover sound into a definate thrashy realm, and in doing so creates an awesome finished product. There isn't a bad song on here, they're all melodic, yet thrashy classics with good lyrics. I've been listening to this album since '93 and it's still one of my favorites. My vote as best Suicidal album and the pinnacle of their career.

I don't mind tellin'ya all: when my life sunk into the abyss before me, when all that I cherrished dripdripdripped away through my fingers, when all seemd lost and all fury and hell, and I finally ended up in the "cuckoo's nest", the lunybin, the cyco-ward, or whatever ya wanna call it, one of the few things I menaged to take with me was this CD.
I was deeply into hardcore metal at the time, from the Canadian Slaughter to Rigor Mortis and from Carnivore to Repulsion (see some of my other reviews).

But it was this amazing album by frontman / metal poet / icon Cyco Miko Muir that hoovered above all. No worn-out songs about axe-yielding maniacs, Satanistic rituals, senseless massmurders or graphicly described intercourses with freshly dugged-up grannies, but naked, truthfull lyrics about going insane, crazy, manic, depressed, confused, cyco.
Haunting, unnerving tales about taking "trips at the brain", about "hearing voices", about "silently screaming as I bang my head against the wall / seems like no one cares at all", and in the end, about that One Question "How will I laugh tomorrow, when I can't even smile today?"

And partly because of this audio Bible, I got through it all, the entire ordeal, the madness, the shrinks, the menace of obliteration.
"The clock keeps ticking but nothing else seemes to change" as Muir desperatly sings on the title track, was a truth for me then as hard as a rock, but music does something with the mind. It alters it, it makes you friends for a moment with the guy with the long hair and the rebellious self-blinding banner over his eyes, who sings as easily about the scary possibility "If I don't wake up" as about "The miracle" that once was in it hands but since then has slipped away.

And yet, as the end of the album comes closer, there is some kind of catharsis: first there is a epic like apology in the form of the fast pacing "Sorry!?", then there is the self-confrontation in "One too many times", only to be concluded by a possible mental sunrise, with the hopefull "The feeling is back" when Mike Muir shouts out loud: "I dug my hole too deep - I couldn't admit, I didn't know when to stop / but you can only dig your hole six feet, until the dirt comes back on top."

It's Mike Muir's unique high-pitched voice, Rocky George sublime solo works on the lead guitar, and the backing of the entire ensemble, that makes this a unique album, both in the compounds of heavy metal and beyond it. Making it perhaps, partly because of the musical aspects in itself, but also because of the new life it gave to me, my number one album of all time.

Six stars. Hands down.

Love and slack.
YD.

It's all been said before, but I'll add my two cents worth. This album by Suicidal Tendencies is not only their greatest, but the greatest by any band at anytime anywhere. It makes your life better simply by listening to it and thrills you every single time you play it. Trip at the Brain is an electrifying opener with an absolutely unprecedented heavy trip in the middle over Rocky George's endlessly melodious lead guitar, it is simply stunning. Pledge Your Allegiance will have every ST fan jumping around with reckless abandon. The Miracle was the song every metal band in the world prayed to God to have delivered upon to them, ST lucked out I guess. Sorry?!, an intensely personal (so much so its lyrics aren't in the liner notes), utterly thrilling and endlessly sad song. The album's title track How Will I Laugh Tomorrow is simply ST's best ever. It encapsulates the virtuosity both musically and lyrically of this band and is as essential to life as the blood in my veins and the air in my lungs. Just buy this album.

what more can i say about this cd that hasnt allready been said? this is a classic like master of puppets kill em all countdown to extinction suicidal rocked and were doing newage sounding metal years before these posers theseday saying they are numetal but unlike todays trashy disgraceful bands suicidal made it cool buy this classic

this was the first compact disc i ever bought i was 15 years old and hair metal was huge at the time alot of people in my school were into poison and motley crue etc. i just never got past the lipstick and makeup i couldnt relate just seein suicidal on the cover of this album let me know what was up this album was about kickin ... and playin some serious hardcore jams these dudes were into skateboarding, surfing, cheech and chong , weightlifting, but most of all rockin out i was like hell yeah the music is awesome on this album every cut rules rocky george is without a doubt the most underated rock guitarist of all time hes like hendrix every solo blazes
this album is ultimately really positive i rock this and walk away inspired suicidal tendencies was in my walkman all the way through high school and i still jam this album its a classic this band is long overdue in getting the credit they deserve for making great heavy metal without the hairspray

get this album

Suicidal has made great leaps from hardcore punk to thrash. They did it subtly,hinting at it with their second effort JOIN THE ARMY,with the aquisition of Rocky George. HOW WILL I LAUGH...(1988) their third effort and first on a major label,kicks in to full throttle thrash,but NOT leaving their punk roots far behind.Powerchord riffing,rhythm guitarist Mike Clark joins S.T on this one complimenting George,making the once quartet a quintet. This starts off with "Trip at the Brain" a thrashy powerhouse that I listen to alot even today.I love Suicyco Mania,some parts in it kind of remind me of the Ramones. Some stuff I dont'care for, maybe one or two songs,but overall a very good disc. Some say ST went commercial with this one,but alot of bands were crossing over at this time. If your sick of the stupid world,people,and life.Before doing anything drastic,listen to this,you ought to feel alot better.

Alot of people seemed to lose interest in Suicidal after their first two albums which is shame as they were getting stronger and stronger all the time. I think this album is among one of their best, combining the best moments from their self-titled debut and the slower approach seen previously on Join the Army. This album is packed full of classics and kicks major ass. The lyrics are also Mike's best yet as they have a lot more depth to them than previously.

Great stuff.