Bad Religion - Generator

They made an essential early 80s punk record. They went off the rails and went prog-rock, and broke up. They reformed and played a huge part in late 80s punk revival with some more mature punk albums. Then they matured a bit more and produced some great punk-heavy rock albums in the early 90s, a time which saw them picked up by a major label. Then they went off track again and produced a couple of relatively weak albums that, while not terrible, were perceived as such after a run of well-received albums. A return to the home label and a return to form followed in the early 00s, and now they’re staying relevant by becoming a caricature of sorts, blending their successes in the late 80s, early 90s and early 00s with some heavily exaggerated songwriting.

Whilst having three of their four original members and their original fifth member still with them, in a career spanning over thirty years and fifteen studio albums, is an impressive feat, Bad Religion have had more line-up changes than this line-up suggests, and some, though definitely not all, of the changes in sound can be attributed in part to some of these. 2002’s “return to form” album The Process Of Belief saw the return of guitarist/songwriter Brett Gurewitz and the introduction of drummer Brooks Wackerman, seeing the band expand to six members. Gurewitz is often credited with the return to form, and is the suspected cause of the band’s sonic demise starting in the late '00s. That’s not to say that they don’t still put on a great live set. Touring without Gurewitz has allowed Greg Hetson and Brian Baker more space to show off their chops, and the band seem to have fun on stage whilst giving a pretty intense show with a plethora of great songs to put out. Seeing an increasingly balding Greg Graffin mock-disc jockeying on a turntable that obviously wasn’t meant to be on the stage a couple of times during a Birmingham show ranks among the funniest things I’ve ever seen at a gig I’ve been to. When I read that Bad Religion would be supporting a Rise Against tour, I nearly choked on my own spit. I’m not sure whether this represents the symbolic decline of Bad Religion, or the continually lofty heights that those pesky radio-rock irritants from Rise Against seem to be achieving by using established punk rock acts as stepladders.

One of the less prominent line-up changes was the departure of drummer Pete Finestone in 1991. Finestone featured on Suffer (1988), No Control (1989), and Against The Grain (1990), Bad Religion’s most consistently brisk works. The introduction of Bobby Schayer to the drum kit saw slightly less frantic drumming on Generator. This darker, more intricate album has its slower moments, and more obvious tempo changes, and although it contains many traits from the previous records, there was a significant change in direction, hinted at on the previous record in songs like “Anesthesia” and “Faith Alone”. That there were such hints makes you wonder if the album would have been all that different with Finestone still pounding the skins.

The title track opens up proceedings at a noticeably slower pace than “Modern Man” or “Change Of Ideas”. With a few screams, some occasionally aggressive guitars and quickening drum fills disguising what is closer to a ballad than anything Bad Religion had put out thus far (although not as close as many songs on future records and even songs later on this record), “Generator” is easy enough to identify as a Gurewitz song, with a relatively simplistic set of lyrics that challenge Graffin’s note holding rather than the more tongue-twisting songs penned by Graffin himself. After a muted introductory piece, the music stops, and suddenly Graffin’s urgent “Too Much To Ask” kicks into life at a much brisker pace that recalls Against The Grain, and is one of the tracks here that would have fit well on that album but for the unusual intro.

“No Direction” is one of the tracks that define Generator. The pace is reined in a fair bit, the guitar chords ring out that bit longer, and a sullen menace permeates the track rather than the trademark direct anger. This is reflected not just in the music, but the slightly more coarse vocal delivery that Graffin demonstrates on the record, which proves to be more effective on slower songs such as this one and “Generator”. It’s also the track where Graffin refutes accusations that the band is preaching. “Tomorrow” threatens to go back to the classic sound, but darker undertones keep things in theme, and there are some of the best changes in tempo that Bad Religion have pulled off in this song.

Having been given three songs in a row, Graffin puts the pen down and sings a trio of Gurewitz songs. “Two Babies In The Dark” has a strange bluesy tint to the lead guitar, giving a distinctive character to an otherwise mostly inane song, particularly in the coda, which gradually grinds to a halt and doesn’t prepare us at all for “Heaven Is Falling”. A track with a strangely uplifting vibe that’s somewhat at odds with its lyrical content, a fairly direct criticism of the Gulf war. These juxtapositions don’t always come off, but a powerful musical performance leaves us with a great little track with smart lyrics and measured use of the backing vocals that sweeps away any doubts sewn by the previous track. “Atomic Garden” starts off with some... is that a keyboard? Littered with metaphors, it’s a jab at nuclear proliferation with a very thin veil of teeny pop, created entirely out of those metaphors.

The album is seen out with Graffin-penned material. “The Answer” is in a similar vein to “No Direction”, but chastising those that wish to be followed rather than just focusing on those looking for something to follow. It’s all a bit of a downer, being walked through examples of people in history who claimed to have the solutions meeting their demise. “Fertile Crescent” starts quietly but kicks into life after a few bars, and is another track that could have worked on Against The Grain. Recalling historic human failings and suggesting that intrinsic human nature is to blame is something often discussed by Graffin, who went on to get a doctorate in evolutionary biology. So it’s no surprise that this theme is a recurring one throughout Bad Religion’s albums, making “Fertile Crescent” quite standard fare.

A diatribe to god, “Chimaera” is another apparent criticism of our favourite species directed at the creator who’s apparently scarpered and left us to our own destructive devices. Some atypical gaps in the vocal flow help the song stand out, and one of the more memorable guitar solos, a short and simple but effective two-part piece, make “Chimaera” the highlight of the back end of the album. Following that highlight is a quite bizarre end to the album. The eleventh and final song, making Generator the band’s shortest in that respect, “Only Entertainment” is a strangely danceable tune that sounds far more alien and peculiar to chronologically loyal Bad Religion fans than anything else on the album, and is probably the only track that still sounds a bit jarring to those familiar with the band’s entire output. Rich backing vocals are typical Bad Religion currency, but here they’re used to bend the genre heavily towards a sort of morbid pop, substantiated by the minimalist interplay between the guitars. Only the lyrics, which criticise television and our dependence on the device designed to assault our senses, keep this track on the ground. One would be left quite disjointed by this affair, unless one bought the reissue, in which case one would not have the time to reminisce, for the reissue contains the 1991 versions of two of the songs featured here that were released on a split single with speaking man Noam Chomsky that sound quite like demo versions, featuring Pete Finestone’s last recordings for the band. This version of “Fertile Crescent” has a solo that’s about an octave higher and more intricate, and “Heaven Is Falling” has some quite different backing vocals. So other than being completionist items and having a rougher sound, there is extra audible value to these tracks. The single was released with the intent to be a protest to the Gulf war, and being released that year, the two songs were all the more relevant.

Generator is perhaps the darkest record Bad Religion made. Not so much because the cover is mostly black, although the album’s artwork is pretty grim, but sonically this is the album that saw the greatest substitution of anger for the macabre. With that substitution came (relatively) longer songs, and the only songs that are essentially under the two minute mark are “Tomorrow” and “Heaven Is Falling”, the latter attempting to bypass this statistic with a long feedback exit in both versions, but those punks can't fool me. Like many albums produced by rock bands that get labelled as “the dark one”, Generator is underrated for what it is, but appreciated as a turning point in the story of Bad Religion.

Personal picks: Heaven Is Falling, Chimaera, Tomorrow

Picks for others: Generator, Atomic Garden, Heaven Is Falling

Relative weaknesses: Two Babies In The Dark, Only Entertainment

Tracklist

01 – Generator

02 – Too Much To Ask

03 – No Direction

04 – Tomorrow

05 – Two Babies In The Dark

06 – Heaven Is Falling

07 – Atomic Garden

08 – The Answer

09 – Fertile Crescent

10 – Chimaera

11 – Only Entertainment

Bonus tracks

12 – Fertile Crescent (demo)

13 – Heaven Is Falling (demo)