Album: Generator
Artist: Bad Religion
Release Year: 1992
Label: Epitaph Records
Bad
Religion is: Greg Graffin (vocals), Mr. Brett (guitar, background vocals), Greg Hetson (guitar), Jay Bentley (bass, background
vocals), Bobby Schayer (drums)
Tracklist:
1. Generator (B. Gurewitz)
2. Too Much To Ask (G. Graffin)
3. No Direction (G. Graffin)
4. Tomorrow (G. Graffin)
5. Two Babies In the Dark (B. Gurewitz)
6. Heaven is Falling (B. Gurewitz)
7. Atomic Garden (B. Gurewitz)
8. The Answer (G. Graffin)
9. Fertile Crescent (G. Graffin)
10. Chimera (G. Graffin)
11. Only Entertainment (G. Graffin)
Lyrics:
As
usual, Bad Religion’s lyrics are right up there. “Tomorrow”
spits upon people who live for tomorrow rather than today, and “No Direction” is a song about people being followers
rather than choosing for themselves. “Too Much To Ask” is about the
government, and how too many citizens of the U.S. just go with whatever the government says is good. “Only Entertainment” deals with people watching and believing everything they hear on TV, when,
in fact, most of it is not true. Bad Religion, thanks to the education of lead
singer Greg Graffin, have some of the most intelligent lyrics around.
Music:
Punk
isn’t supposed to be technical and structured, and, because of that, most of the music on Generator isn’t. However, Bad Religion manages to deliver it in a way that most people will still enjoy. Bobby Schayer’s drums may get monotonous, but you can’t blame that on
him - Graffin and Mr. Brett do the songwriting. Brett and fellow guitarist Greg
Hetson share the lead and rhythm duties, but both can do both parts equally well. Compared
to most of punk, Bad Religion is quite talented when it comes to the music alone.
Highlights:
The
three best tracks on this CD, in my opinion, would be “Generator”, “The Answer”, and “Fertile
Crescent”, but there isn’t a single weak track on the entire album. The
best known track on this album, “Atomic Garden”, is also quite good. A
solid pick for any music fan.
Overall:
This,
as it turned out, would be Bad Religion’s last release on their own Epitaph label before moving over to Atlantic. This is also one of their finer albums that they released. On 4/6/04, it was remastered and rereleased. This is also
one of the more controversial releases from Bad Religion, according to fans, as it slowed down the tempo radically from their
previous material. However, there is still plenty of energy to go around. This is especially apparent on the title track and Fertile Crescent.
FarSight37's Score:
94%
