Stranger Than Fiction (album)

Infobox Album
Name = Stranger Than Fiction
Type = Album
Artist = Bad Religion


Released = start date|1994|08|30
Recorded = April-May 1994 at Rumbo Recorders in Canoga Park, California
Genre = Punk rock, Melodic hardcore
Length = 38:28
Label = Atlantic
Producer = Andy Wallace and Bad Religion
Reviews =
*Allmusic rating|2.5|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:xx8ibkg9jakc link]
*Robert Christgau rating-Christgau|hm1 [http://www.robertchristgau.com/get_artist.php?name=bad+religion link]
*Rolling Stone rating|3.5|5 [http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/album/_/id/233087 link]
*Ultimate Guitar rating|10|10 [http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/reviews/compact_discs/bad_religion/stranger_than_fiction/index.html link]
Last album = "Recipe for Hate"
(1993)
This album = "Stranger Than Fiction"
(1994)
Next album = "All Ages"
(1995)
Misc = Singles
Name = Stranger Than Fiction
Type = studio
single 1 = 21st Century (Digital Boy)
single 1 date = 1994
single 2 = Infected
single 2 date = 1994
single 3 = Stranger Than Fiction
single 3 date = 1994
single 4 = Incomplete
single 4 date = 1995

"Stranger Than Fiction" is the eighth full-length studio album (tenth release overall) by Bad Religion, released in 1994 (see 1994 in music). It was their first album released on the major label Atlantic Records (although that label re-released the previous album, "Recipe for Hate") and also last release with guitarist Brett Gurewitz, who left just prior to the 1994-1995 world tour and would return to the band seven years later.

With sales continuing fourteen years after its release, "Stranger Than Fiction" is widely considered Bad Religion's most successful album, due to the success of the two singles, "Infected" and "21st Century (Digital Boy)", that eventually earned airplay on radio stations, such as KROQ.

Musical style

The album found the band retreating from the experimentation of "Generator" and "Recipe for Hate" and producing a fast and harmonic punk record, perhaps in response to allegations of the band 'selling out' when they signed with Atlantic Records.

Production and marketing

After the "Recipe for Hate" tour ended, Bad Religion immediately began writing songs for their eighth studio album. The band teamed up with producer Andy Wallace (of Nirvana, Sepultura and Slayer fame), then entered Rumbo Recorders in April 1994, [The exact date that the recording of "Stranger Than Fiction" began is uncertain.] booking five weeks of studio time in which to record the album. This would be the first time Bad Religion had not recorded an album at Westbeach Recorders since 1984's "Back to the Known". As far as the song selections, bassist Jay Bentley commented:

The closing track (on the US release), "21st Century (Digital Boy)", was originally recorded on Bad Religion's fifth full-length album "Against the Grain", released in 1990; four years before the release of "Stranger Than Fiction". Sony wanted them to release it again because they couldn't "hear a single" on this album.

Reception

"Stranger Than Fiction" was released on August 30, 1994 and became the first Bad Religion album distributed via Atlantic Records. On September 24th of that year, the album peaked at number 87 on the Billboard 200 album chart,cite web|title=Stranger Than Fiction's entry at Billboard.com| publisher=Billboard.com|url= http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/discography/index.jsp?pid=4026&aid=155314|accessdate=2007-10-26] and on March 4, 1998, also became Bad Religion's first (and only) album to be certified gold in the United States.cite web|title=RIAA Certification (type in "Bad Religion" in the artist box)| publisher=RIAA|url= http://www.riaa.com/goldandplatinumdata.php?table=SEARCH|accessdate=2007-10-26]

Allmusic's Jack Rabid (The Big Takeover) praised this album as a "rare case of selling out in reverse" and songs such as "Leave Mine to Me," "Individual," "Tiny Voices," and "Marked", calling them "all uptempo barnburners, pulverizing in their rapid passion". He also criticizes "'Infected' and 'Television'" as "the two least effective songs of their 15 years, the former a third-rate 'Sanity'", referring to the seventh track on 1989's "No Control".

Re-releases

"Stranger Than Fiction" was re-released several times, with different labels, covers and formats in different countries (see the table below). [cite web
url = http://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/bad_religion/stranger_than_fiction/
title = Stranger Than Fiction by Bad Religion : Reviews and Ratings - Rate Your Music
accessdate = 2008-02-07
publisher = rateyourmusic.com]

Singles - Billboard (North America)

References