album of the week: 2.2

Bad Religion
True North
(2013)

why you'll love it:  Bad Religion doing their best "old school" in over a decade!

why you'll hate it:  No real standout singles.  Nothing better than what they did in their height of popularity.

What can I say about Bad Religion that hasn't been said already?  They've been relevant in the punk scene about as long as I have been a living being.  It's pretty much impossible to have even a passing interest in American punk rock, and not be familiar with Bad Religion.  They've been active for so long that even cries of "Bad Religion is BACK" has became a tired phrase.  

My first ever concert was a festival with Bad Religion.  At the time they were going through the period without founding songwriter, Brett Gurewitz; and there were cries from the fanbase that they should hang it up.  In 2001, Gurewitz came back, and I recall a roommate making a snarky remark about how they should be in walkers.  These guys have done it all; been through good times and bad.  Which is why it's so remarkable that True North feels so fresh and full of life.

Every Bad Religion trope is here.  "oooh"s and "aahhhh"s, guitar slides, big vocabulary words, simple 4/4 drumming beat, Greg exclaiming "wa-choo!" before gutiar solos.  For over a decade, every other Bad Religion album harkens back to the '88 classic, Suffer.  2002's The Process of Belief rode on "Bad Religion is BACK" hype, but looking back on it, it wasn't very strong.  2007's New Maps of Hell felt too flat and safe, but maybe it just wasn't the right time for it.  This makes True North the first really good "retro" Bad Religion album since the 90s!

Why is the album so good?  That's kind of hard to figure out.  I can't put it any other way than lightning in a bottle.  "True North", "The Island", "Vanity", all great old-school style Bad Religion songs.  I absolutely love the choruses on "In Their Hearts is Right" and "Nothing To Dismay".  I think "Fuck You" will become a set-list mainstay.  It's a very clever dissertation of the phrase, and funny to hear Greg rant about it, after being a living thesaurus for so many years.  There are a few songs with corny lines, like "Robin Hood in Reverse" and "My Head is Full of Ghosts", but every song has such a fun pace and constant attack of guitars, that it doesn't really matter.

So if I'm keeping track correctly, I think this may be the third time, but Bad Religion is BACK!