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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.
[edit] 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.
[edit] 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,[1] 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:
| “ |
That was an ordeal! We chose the songs, but man did we fight. The songs that were left off the U.S. release were voted off by a majority. You should've seen the lobbying! |
” |
[edit] 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,[2] and on March 4, 1998, also became Bad Religion's first (and only) album to be certified gold in the United States.[3]
All Music Guide'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.
[edit] Re-releases
Stranger Than Fiction was re-released several times, with different labels, covers and formats in different countries (see the table below).[4]
| Year |
Country |
Format |
Label |
Note |
| 1994 |
Europe |
CD |
Sony 477343 2 |
Bonus Tracks |
| 1994 |
USA |
Vinyl LP |
Atlantic 82658-1 |
|
| 1994 |
Germany |
CD |
Dragnet DRA 477343 6 |
Alternate Cover; Bonus Tracks; Collector's Edition |
| 1994 |
USA |
Cassette |
Atlantic 82658-4 |
|
| 1994 |
USA |
CD |
Atlantic 82658-2 |
|
| 1995 |
Germany |
CD |
Dragnet DRA 477343 60 |
Bonus Tracks |
[edit] Track listing
[edit] Personnel
[edit] Collaborations
[edit] In pop culture
- The Japan only bonus track "Leaders and Followers" was on the movie Clerks.
- The song "Inner Logic" was included on the soundtrack for the video game Crazy Taxi.
- The song "Infected" is one of the first available songs in the video game Guitar Hero and was released as a part of a 3-song pack via Xbox Live for the Xbox 360 title Guitar Hero II on April 11, 2007.
- Kubo Tite chose "News From the Front" as the theme song of Ichigo Kurosaki, the main character of his manga Bleach.
[edit] Trivia
- Gurewitz recorded the album, but was not part of the tour, due to his concentration on the future of the band's original label Epitaph Records. He was replaced on tour by Brian Baker (of Minor Threat fame), who would play on their next album, 1996's The Gray Race.
- 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.
- Progressive rock band, Anathema covered the song "better off dead" with female vocals. Anathema's version is very slow and involves mostly piano.
[edit] Charts
Album - Billboard (North America)
| Year |
Chart |
Position |
| 1994 |
The Billboard 200 |
87 |
Singles - Billboard (North America)
| Year |
Single |
Chart |
Position |
| 1994 |
"21st Century (Digital Boy)" |
Modern Rock Tracks |
11 |
| 1994 |
"Stranger Than Fiction" |
Modern Rock Tracks |
28 |
| 1995 |
"Infected" |
Mainstream Rock Tracks |
33 |
| 1995 |
"Infected" |
Modern Rock Tracks |
27 |
[edit] References
