Review - Bad Religion

Bad Religion
True North

The phrase "pop punk" conjures up images of teenagers with stupid hair playing sonically and lyrically vapid music, while convinced that they're "edgy" and "punk". It's easy to forget that there's nothing inherently bad about pop music - the Ramones were a pop-punk band, in essence. So when I use the term to describe the new Bad Religion album, I mean it in a positive sense. I spend so much time reviewing heavy, angry, dark bands that sometimes I have to remind myself that upbeat music can be good too. And upbeat certainly describes True North - there's anger there, certainly, and protest too, but these are victory songs; this could be the soundtrack to the party after the struggle is over. There's a palpable sense of optimism about this album - BR can clearly see the light at the end of the tunnel.

I often have a problem when punk bands employ clean singing, where you can actually hear the lyrics, largely because the majority of punk lyrics are - not to put too fine a point on it - fucking awful. But Bad Religion manage to (mostly) get away with the dodgy lyrics by singing quickly enough that unless you;re really listening you only catch the odd phrase here and there, and where you can hear the lyrics, they aren't too bad (again, mostly). There are occasions where the band fall into the standard trap of preaching at the expense of poetry, but that doesn't happen enough to ruin the album.

The melodies are irrepressibly happy - there's nothing defeatist about this band. The hooks are good, the choruses are catchy, and the whole record is just altogether fun. Some people might find that gets a bit boring over the course of 35 minutes, and the album does drag in places, but overall it's a thoroughly enjoyable listen. My one criticism is that the songs are very, very similar - at times I found myself thinking, Dude, has this song been going on for ten minutes? Still, it's good fun so long as you don't expect too much from it. This album is unlikely to change your life, but almost certain to brighten your day.

Rating: 6/10