Stranger Than Fiction

Bad Religion

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 6, 1994)
• Original Release Date: September 6, 1994
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Atlantic / Wea
• ASIN: B000002J11
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (78 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #9,928 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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  #41 in	Music > Alternative Rock > American Alternative > American Punk
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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Bad Religion, one of the last bands you'd expect to join the ranks of major-label rockers, makes the leap from its own Epitaph Records to Atlantic for its eighth album, Stranger Than Fiction. The quintet doesn't compromise its integrity or its aesthetics, delivering its familiar Ramones-style pop songs at crash-and-burn tempos and continuing to rail against business as usual in corporate America. (The band's social critiques have always been a cut above the average hardcore punk's, as befits a group led by a vocalist pursuing his PhD at Cornell.) Especially effective is the opening track, "Incomplete," which features guest guitar by Wayne Kramer of the MC5. --Jim DeRogatis

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Punk with a thesaurus, June 10, 2000

By	"tomthedog" (San Bruno, CA United States) - See all my reviews

In a nutshell: Bad Religion rock, and they rock HARD. And Stranger than Fiction, despite being their "sellout" album (their first on a major label), which soured many long-term fans (as such moves inevitably do), is surely their most balanced, most accomplished, all-around best effort.

A friend of mine described Bad Religion as "punk with a thesaurus." And that's accurate, to a certain extent: how many other punk bands have a vocabularly which includes "sallow," "dichotomy," and "sagacious," or lyrical nuggets like "languid wills and torpid minds" or "poignant morose wonder"?

Nonetheless, this is by no means dispassionate intellectualism. Bad Religion may have a penchant for five dollar words, but there is powerful emotion behind them. Anger, yes, of course, is dominant: there aren't many tranquil punks. But, as Bad Religion chronicle and judge the follies of mankind, they convey a wide range of feeling: pity, sympathy, scorn, remorse, and equal parts hope and resignation, all backed with dark and ironic humor.

Sadly, this was Brett Gurewitz's last album with the band as a full-time member. The best songs here are his work: the title track (If I could fly/High above the world/Would I see a bunch of living dots/Spell the word "Stupidity"?), "Incomplete," "Better Off Dead," "Infected," "Hooray for Me...," "21st Century (Digital Boy)" -- all Gurewitz compositions, all insightful, funny, blistering, without drifting into joyless polemic as Greg Graffin has been known to do.

Final advice: crank up the volume, and play frequently.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Second only to Suffer as Bad Religion's best work., June 17, 2008

By	Puzzle box "smockey_421" (Kuwait) - See all my reviews

I agree with the reviewer below, this was the weakest album I heard from Bad Religion (I only have 4 BR albums) but that doesn't necessarily mean that its bad I mean compared to the joke that punk music has turned into nowadays its like a masterpiece. Stranger Than Fiction is packed with great punk tracks that are filled with brilliant hooks and catchy lyrics like on previous Bad Religion albums it's also the first Bad Religion album I bought since I heard alot of great things and I wasn't disappointed the only problem is that the album needs a few more listens to appreciate. The best songs have to be Better off dead, The handshake (which is about greedy music executives) and the awesome punk track Infected with its yeah-yeah chorus line and Inner logic with its smart lyrics, 21st century digital boy is the big single release from this album and its worth checking out along with Marked and the great and catchy pop song Slumber and Incomplete was a great opening song. The only bad songs were Hooray for me and Tiny Voices which sound a bit generic, Stranger Than Fiction shows more mature musicianship from these guys and Greg is a good songwriter but I still preferred their earlier stuff since it sounded more raw and less mainstream, Suffer was a much better album in my opinion and its one of my favorites but still you should definetely check out this great album especially if you're looking for some proper punk rock music.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The last GREAT BR album, June 17, 2005

By	Michiel Heinicke (Amsterdam, NL) - See all my reviews

The last Bad Religion album wich deserves 5 stars. They managed to release 6 masterpieces in 7 years. Of course it had to end someday. But before Brett's departion, and dropping into Mediocrity. They released my favourite Bad Religion album, Stranger than Fiction.
It's my favourite because Greg's songwriting is at peak level here, the vocals NEVER HAVE BEEN BETTER. Wich you can hear immediatly after the opener "Incomplete".
"Slumber" is their best ballad ever, the best track "Inner Logic" is so great because of the catchy chorus.
This is BR's best album, even the terrible Rancid infested "Television" can't ruin that for me.
The european version is WAY superior to the US release, it has got two extra songs, "News from the Front" and "Markovian Process" wich makes sure the closes with a BLAST (and not with a rerecording of "21st centruy digital boy")