BAD RELIGION: AGAINST THE GRAIN (1990)
1) Modern Man; 2) Turn On The
Light; 3) Get Off; 4) Blenderhead; 5) The Positive Aspect Of Negative Thinking;
6) Anesthesia; 7) Flat Earth Society; 8) Faith Alone; 9) Entropy; 10) Against
The Grain; 11) Operation Rescue; 12) God Song; 13) 21st Century (Digital Boy);
14) Misery And Famine; 15) Unacceptable; 16) Quality Or Quantity; 17) Walk Away.
The last album in Bad Religion's classic
trilogy — for some fans, the best, and for some the worst of the lot, although,
personally, the only big difference that I can see is that the guitar solos are
back, in a big, easily noticeable way. More than ever before, the band now
sounds like a slightly «cleaner» version of Mötörhead — «cleaner» only because
Jay Bentley is just a bass player, with no ambitions of turning his instrument
into Hell's own jackhammer like Lemmy does. In all other respects now, this
goes beyond a simplistic headbanger's dream and heads for the pleasure centers
of the raving fan of the air guitar.
The only other flash of individuality is that
this is the album that has ʽ21st Century (Digital Boy)ʼ on it. Slower than the
rest, with more overtly melodic vocals and a downright «poppy», sing-along
chorus, it stirs some fans the wrong way — especially since it has gone on to
become Bad Religion's most famous number, despite not being ideally typical of
their sound (sort of like Blondie with ʽHeart Of Glassʼ, which still makes
many people erroneously remember them as a disco band). Still, the riffs are
anything but pop, and the chorus is not just simplistically catchy, but rings
out loud and proud with Bad Religion's usual spirit.
Besides, goddammit, those catchy lyrics are
wond'rously prophetic: "'Cause I'm a 21st century digital boy / I don't
know how to live but I got a lot of toys / My daddy's a lazy middle class intellectual
/ My mommy's on valium, so ineffectual" may have already been partially
true in 1990, when it was written, but now that the 21st century is finally
here, the song is ten times as relevant as it used to be. The epitome of irony
is that, during the fade-out, Graffin hums a cross-reference from King
Crimson's ʽ21st Century Schizoid Manʼ — "cat's food, iron claw,
neuro-surgeons screamed for more, innocents raped with napalm fire" —
perhaps hinting at just how silly these visions of World War III, nuclear
apocalypses, ultra-fascist dictatures etc. have turned out to be next to the real danger to society, eh?..
Of the other songs, which mostly just soldier
on and on in nearly identical uniforms, the title track, with its shrill
seven-note riff and easily imprintable sloganeering ("against the grain,
that's where I'll stay") is a clear standout, as is ʽModern Manʼ (who
happens to be a "pathetic example of earth's organic heritage", and
try singing that in two and a half seconds without losing the message), and
ʽThe Positive Aspect Of Negative Thinkingʼ — typing in its title takes almost
as much time for the slow-moving typist as it runs (0:57), but it still manages
to incorporate a «boogie» and a «grindcore» section and a large political,
philosophical, and even linguistic ("syntactic is our elegance"?)
manifesto.
The whole package is longer than No Control (seventeen tracks in all),
but with all these ecstatic, anger-choked guitars, tiny injections of
poppiness, and even cleverer slogans than before, may be even easier to
tolerate and assimilate for the non-hardcore customer in the hardcore store.
Hence, another thumbs
up — yes, there would be a
moment when Graffin and co. would finally start a downhill slide, but Against The Grain still finds them
dashing along a straight line.
Check "Against The Grain" (MP3) on Amazon
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