Bad Religion - The New America

I'm seeing bad reviews and not understanding...

This album is very different from the albums that preceded it. "The New America" is one of the first "poppy" and less punkish Bad Religion albums but the fact of the matter is that this album still contains amazing song structure, great lyrics and the catchiest hooks that Bad Religion has ever written.

In my opinion, this is Bad Religion for the open-minded fan. The drummer does not do the standard punk drum beat and the rockin' solos we have all come to love are almost none-existant, but the energy and soul are still there and therefore, this is still a great Bad Religion Album...five stars from me! July 1, 2006

At Least This Would End The Slump

Probably being Bad Religion's most controversial release of their career, "The New America" is the album that almost put the nail in the group's coffin. Honestly I've listened to this album hundreds of times. I've tried to give it every possible chance I could to somehow see the genius in it, just like I've done for "The Grey Race" and "No Substance". But no matter how many times I listen to this album, I still arrive at the same conclusion; This is by far Bad Religion's worst release. Now before going off and getting upset, there's plenty of legitimate and justifiable reasons as to why this album is bad. For a band of this standard (probably one of the greatest, if not the greatest, punk bands of modern music) this album is just not up to par. Although I give them plenty of credit for releasing this (hey it had been 19 years since they had put out their first album "How Could Hell Be Any Worse?"), there's no way I can honestly say that this sounds like it should have come from an amazing band like Bad Religion.

A brief history note first:
Bad Religion's career can basically be separated into four distinct eras. First there is their beginning which housed anything they released before their brief breakup and then reuniting (anything that was released before "Suffer"). Next there is their prime, which saw them release a string of unbelievably good releases ("Suffer", "No Control", "Against The Grain", "Generator" and "Recipe For Hate"). Following you have their post-Brett period which showcased three below-average-for-this-band quality albums ("The Grey Race", "No Substance" and this record "The New America"), and finally the current era which now has them reunited with Brett and has seen two great pieces of music ("The Process Of Belief" and "The Empire Strikes First"). Of course there are albums which fall out of these four respected divisions (Their compilations and various EPs and "Stranger Than Fiction" which was their transition album from "Recipe For Hate" (prime era) to "The Grey Race" (not so good era)).

"The New America" was the last of three mediocre albums from Bad Religion. Compared to anything the band put out in their "Suffer" era, this album feels totally recycled and contrived. The songs themselves hold no real substance and seem to drag on much past their relevance, even when they're only three minutes. I swore I heard better versions of these songs on previous releases. For a band which was known for great guitar solos, powerful melodies and insightful lyrics, you'd never guess it. While there are a few good tracks ("You've Got A Chance", "1000 Memories" and "Don't Sell Me Short"), most everything here is slow and boring. The passion that embodied previous releases is all but gone, and for sake of sounding over-critical the band really does sound like they were ready to throw in the towel. In the past Bad Religion were known prominently for their distinct political messages and views on free-thinking and religion, but this time around the lyrics are all but stale (and of considerably lesser quality than anything written previously). Not to mention Greg seems terribly uninterested in singing them. His voice used to have a certain presence to it, but now it just feels like he's going through the motions (much like the rest of the band), almost like "ok let's do another album, here's my vocals". Look at "Whisper In Time" or the god awful "I Love My Computer" and try to tell me different. Also there's a terrible use of the backing vocals that have always made Bad Religion's music so great.

There are plenty of reasons which could be attributed to why these things make this album bad. One could argue Bad Religion had simply run out of ideas, and no longer possessed the same intensity and passion for writing music that they did on their earlier releases. However the following record "Process of Belief" totally destroys that theory. It could also be said that the label (Atlantic) had a hand in this and changed the band's sound. Too bad they were dropped shortly after this record hit the shelves. The simplest explanation was simply that they were in a slump after parting ways with Brett (who left the band to manage his record label Epitaph primarily). If you look at their last album with Brett, "Stranger Than Fiction" and their first one after reuniting with him, "The Process Of Belief", this seems to be the most logical explanation. The three albums that fell in between these two releases are anything but memorable and show just how much the band suffered from Brett's departure.

Now I understand that Bad Religion are no longer in this slump (just listen to "Process Of Belief"), but that doesn't make this album any better. "The New America" is totally forgettable, and almost laughable at times. Not laughing in the good way though, laughing in the way that you can't believe you spent money on it. Aside from the 3 or 4 good songs, you have an album more or less compiled of "No Substance" and "The Grey Race" b-sides (or so it feels like) and that's not a good thing. Even if I had never heard another Bad Religion release, I still wouldn't change my view on this record. Boring music is boring music. Period. While I have the utmost respect for this band and what they do, and they still are one of my highest regarded and favorite groups, "The New America" is simply not up to standards. If you are looking for something from these guys, check out anything from "Suffer" to "Recipe For Hate" first. If you must, sample "The New America" sparingly. While it may not be anything to write home about, at least it paved the way for Bad Religion to return back to Epitaph and release the phenomenal "Process Of Belief". For that reason I guess it serves some purpose. Otherwise avoid. March 17, 2006

Their poppiest album, but by no means their worst...

I have all BR's studio albums except No Substance and the Gray Race, and of the ones I own I can say that Recipe for Hate is the worst, and Generator is the best. The New America is slammed a lot by people who have nothing better to do, but in truth it is a good album. The lyrics are a hell of a lot more optimistic and upliftng than albums like Suffer, No Control and Generator, and the sound is more pop, but I still like it.

One thing, I have seen a lot of people mention how much of a geek Greg is fro writing "I love my computer". It saddens me that i need to explain this, but the song is ironic, and it condemns how we are nothing but a soul-less race who care more about our technology than each other. It is not to be taken literally, you idiots. In fact, much the same point is made in "21st Century (Digital Boy)", so all you stupid "Only the first Epitaph years are worth listening to" people have nothing to complain about. For once.

All in all, this is a good album, and as good a place to start as any (but it's a little hard to find here in England). October 30, 2005

ever band has one bad album

and this is it....this is just real bad....im mean burn it and forget about it bad.... July 1, 2005

Poor Bobby...

The last album with Bobby Schayer. Poor Bobby didn't want to leave... he had to because he had this medical problem with his arms.
The New America is actually a little better than "No Substance", It's not much of a diffrence, cept I think it's got more catchy songs. "You've got a chance", "The New America", "Dont sell me short" are the stand out tracks.
BUT it's got the baaaad baaaaaad baaaad "I love my computer". (Greg what were you thinking????) And well, The rest is not really good, but not bad either. June 17, 2005

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