Not to fall into hyperbole, but this is one of the most important albums I have ever heard.
People REALLY like Suffer and I don’t blame them, but this album came at just the right time in my life. I was depressed from work, politically frustrated, disenfranchised with the trappings of capitalism, and had an overwhelming loneliness in the world.
I wasn’t in a good place.
And it’s not like this album put me in a better place per se, but it sure as hell made me feel less alone.
I love it. There’s no other way to describe it. Greg Graffin’s lyrics are sharp, sarcastic, and angry but, unlike SO many punk bands, it doesn’t stop there. There’s a sense of hope to Bad Religion that I don’t see enough people harp on.
There’s way I look at it, the core of punk (not just music) is a dissatisfaction with where we are as a society and a desire to make it better. That’s why you always hear people harping on community when it comes to punk.
To me, it’s about making the world a better place and this often DOESN’T include burning it down. It’s all about kindness and helping the people around you stay alive, stay hopeful, and stay in the game.
There’s a lot of anger in punk for sure, but the stages seem to go: dick and fart jokes as a dumb kid, anger at the world for being unjust, and then anger at the world for being unjust and actually trying to make it better. To recognize nuance.
A lot of bands get stuck in the first stage but I feel like most of them get caught in the second and oh-so-very few make it to the final evolution.
But Bad Religion did and we’re all better for it.
Diogenes would be proud.
#vinylrecords #vinylcollection #recordcollection #vinylcommunity #vinyl #recordoftheday #recordcommunity #musicsky #vinylsky #badreligion #punk #punkrock #processofbelief #theprocessofbelief #punkrecord #punkrecordcollection