Generator (album)

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Generator
Generator cover
Studio album by Bad Religion
Released March 12, 1992
Recorded May 1991 at Westbeach Recorders, Hollywood, California
Genre Punk rock
Length 30:04
Label Epitaph
Producer Bad Religion
Professional reviews
Bad Religion chronology
80-85
(1991)
Generator
(1992)
Recipe for Hate
(1993)

Generator is an acclaimed album by the punk rock band Bad Religion. Although the album was completed in the spring of 1991, it was not released until 1992. It was also the band's first release with drummer Bobby Schayer, who replaced Pete Finestone during the Against the Grain tour. Today, Generator is remembered as one of the best albums to emerge from the early 90s punk scene, and one of the most enduring works of Bad Religion's career.

The album was originally planned for release sometime around mid 1991, but the band had decided not to release it. They wanted to take a break after the Against the Grain tour ended, so its release was forced to be delayed until early 1992.

Like Bad Religion's first four albums (minus Into the Unknown), Epitaph Records released a remastered version of Generator on April 6, 2004, with two exclusive tracks that were taken from the split 7" with Noam Chomsky issued by Maximum Rock'N Roll in 1991. These versions feature Finestone on drums, making it his final recordings with Bad Religion. The 1992 original version of the album on CD is now out of print.

Contents

[edit] Musical style

Generator is considered the band's most ambitious and mature effort to date, slowing tempos on songs like "The Answer" and "No Direction," and experimenting with darker lyrics and, on "Two Babies in the Dark," bluesy guitar work.

[edit] Production and marketing

Writing for Generator began around late 1990/early 1991. After Schayer joined Bad Religion in April 1991, the band immediately started work on their follow-up to Against the Grain. With an intended release date of mid-1991, they recorded it at Westbeach Recorders in Hollywood, California in May of that year.

Generator was recorded almost live in the studio,[1] because, at the time, guitarist Brett Gurewitz had moved Westbeach to larger premises, and for the first time, the entire band could play in the studio at the same time. He stated that it was "time to change" and the band "did it in a different studio, but as far as the songwriting, it was a deliberate effort to try something different".[1]

According to The Bad Religion Page, 100,000 copies of the album were shipped.[1]

[edit] Track listing

# Song Length Credits
01 "Generator"
3:21
Brett Gurewitz
02 "Too Much to Ask"
2:45
Greg Graffin
03 "No Direction"
3:14
Greg Graffin
04 "Tomorrow"
1:56
Greg Graffin
05 "Two Babies in the Dark"
2:25
Brett Gurewitz
06 "Heaven Is Falling"
2:04
Brett Gurewitz
07 "Atomic Garden"
3:10
Brett Gurewitz
08 "The Answer"
3:21
Greg Graffin
09 "Fertile Crescent"
2:08
Greg Graffin
10 "Chimaera"
2:28
Greg Graffin
11 "Only Entertainment"
3:12
Greg Graffin
12 "Fertile Crescent" †
2:18
Greg Graffin
13 "Heaven Is Falling" †
2:18
Brett Gurewitz

† = Exclusive to the 2004 remastered version of Generator. Prior to the recording of the album, these tracks were part of the 7" split with Noam Chomsky, issued by Maximum Rock 'N' Roll as part of an anti-Gulf War benefit.

[edit] Personnel

[edit] Notes/Trivia

  • A video was made for "Atomic Garden". It is available for watching here. This was the first video Bad Religion ever released.
  • This album marks the first time that Bad Religion had not collaborated with another songwriter since No Control.

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c Generator -the album (HTML). The Bad Religion Page. Retrieved on November 15, 2007.