Sevens the Easy Way (series)

Stranger Than Fiction

by Bad Religion

Product Description:

Bad Religion: Greg Graffin (vocals); Brett Gurewitz (guitar, background vocals); Greg Hetson (guitar); Jay Bentley (bass, background vocals); Bobby Schayer (drums).

Additional personnel: Tim "Lint" Armstrong (vocals); Wayne Kramer (guitar); Andy Wallace (Hammond organ); Jim Lindeberg (background vocals).

Bad Religion is punk-rock's Bonnie Raitt, a cult band that persisted and persisted until the world finally came around to them. Around the time Robert Johnson's old Delta blues records started selling in the hundreds of thousands, Raitt started collecting platinum records and Grammys; likewise, in the era of Nirvana's and Green Day's run up the charts, Bad Religion began seeing big returns for the same kind of records they used to make for peanuts.

STRANGER THAN FICTION is where Bad Religion cashes in--at the alternative register, anyway. Far from a sellout, it's a confident reaffirmation of all the band's strengths: anthemic rhythm-guitar hooks that are equal parts 70's punk, 80's hardcore and classic heavy metal; a fast but super-tight rhythm section; unswervingly political lyrics; and, in defiant contrast to all of the above, pop harmonies. Songs like "Incomplete," "Stranger Than Fiction" and "Handshake" (which equates record-company business deals with class and race warfare) enter your head as hurricanes of information about the world's ills. They remain there because they're built upon blistering punk-rock guitar hooks.