Take it or leave it.' It's so easy to pull that card, but it's a lot harder to look inward and just go, 'You know what? You're right. I was wrong.'" "Down on the World Again" is "about having the worst day", according to Ness. He says it is inspired by his painful childhood and how it made him an angry person. He considers it useful to use that anger for songwriting but considers it unhealthy to use anger in one's daily life. He says: "I was fighting the world, but I didn't even really have a reason." "When the Angels Sing" is about the death of Ness' grandmother and how being single intensified the grief. Ness' grandmother died in December 1993. Ness said about "When the Angels Sing": "My feelings came out more in that song than what I felt in the actual funeral." "Gotta Know the Rules" is about rules and laws in life and the consequences of disobeying it. Ness elaborated: "Crown of Thorns" is about repeating the same mistakes in life, expecting different results. Ness elaborated: "I knew I wasn't going to find love where I was looking. At some point there's an aspect of self care that has to come into play, otherwise it's never going to change." "Pleasure Seeker" is about struggling to make a decision because a decision feels good but one considers it morally wrong. "Down Here With the Rest of Us" is about the level playing field. Ness said: "It's a level playing field no matter who you are. We're still going to go through pain in life. I think it was kind of a snub at people who think they're above that. It's like no, we're all in this mess together, bro. No one gets out alive." Critical reception Reviews and ratings for White Light, White Heat, White Trash were generally mixed to positive. AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine, however, called the album a "conscious attempt to cash in on the alternative 'revolution" of the early '90s" and expressed mixed feelings towards the band's musical direction, stating, "Underneath the layers of glossy hard rock production, the band still hold fast to some of their punk roots, but too often they sound like a heavy hard rock band. Of course, that commercial sheen is intentional – it's the only way they could appeal to the legions of post-grunge alternative fans who appeared