| Stranger than Fiction | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studio album by Bad Religion | ||||
| Released | September 6, 1994 | |||
| Recorded | April-May 1994 at Rumbo Recorders in Canoga Park, California | |||
| Genre | Punk rock, melodic hardcore | |||
| Length | 38:28 | |||
| Label | Atlantic (Original) Epitaph (Re-release) Rhino Records (Vinyl re-release) |
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| Producer | Andy Wallace and Bad Religion | |||
| Bad Religion chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Stranger Than Fiction | ||||
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Stranger than Fiction is the eighth full-length studio album (tenth release overall) by Bad Religion, released in 1994 (see 1994 in music). It was their first album released on the major label Atlantic Records (although that label re-released the previous album, Recipe for Hate) and also its last release with guitarist Brett Gurewitz, who left just prior to the 1994-1995 world tour, only to return to the band seven years later. On tour, Gurewitz was replaced by Brian Baker, who would stay with the band permanently.
With sales continuing seventeen years after its release, Stranger Than Fiction is one of Bad Religion's most successful albums, featuring two of their well-known hit singles, "Infected" and the re-recorded version of "21st Century (Digital Boy)", which both earned airplay on MTV and radio stations, such as KROQ. The album included one more hit single, "Stranger Than Fiction", though the last one, "Incomplete", failed to make any national chart. As of today, Stranger Than Fiction remains the only Bad Religion record to obtain gold status in the United States. The album was re-released by Epitaph Records on September 15, 2008.
In 2009, Rhino Records released a colored vinyl to coincide with this album's 15th anniversary.
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The album found the band retreating from the experimentation of Generator and Recipe for Hate and producing a fast and harmonic punk record, perhaps in response to allegations of the band "selling out" when they signed with Atlantic Records.
After the Recipe for Hate tour ended, Bad Religion immediately began writing songs for their eighth studio album. The band teamed up with producer Andy Wallace (of Nirvana, Sepultura and Slayer fame), then entered Rumbo Recorders in April 1994,[1] booking five weeks of studio time in which to record the album. This would be the first time Bad Religion had not recorded an album at Westbeach Recorders since 1984's Back to the Known. As far as the song selections, bassist Jay Bentley commented:
| “ | That was an ordeal! We chose the songs, but man did we fight. The songs that were left off the U.S. release were voted off by a majority. You should've seen the lobbying! | ” |
The closing track (on the US release), "21st Century (Digital Boy)", was originally recorded on Bad Religion's fifth full-length album Against the Grain, released in 1990; four years before the release of Stranger Than Fiction. Sony wanted them to release it again because they could not "hear a single" on this album.
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic | [2] |
| Robert Christgau | [3] |
| Hot Press | 7/12 [4] |
| Rolling Stone | [5] |
Stranger Than Fiction was released on September 6, 1994 and became the first Bad Religion album distributed via Atlantic Records. On September 24 of that year, the album peaked at number 87 on the Billboard 200 album chart,[6] and on March 4, 1998, also became Bad Religion's first (and only) album to be certified gold in the United States.[7]
Allmusic's Jack Rabid (The Big Takeover) praised this album as a "rare case of selling out in reverse" and songs such as "Leave Mine to Me", "Individual", "Tiny Voices" and "Marked", calling them "all uptempo barnburners, pulverizing in their rapid passion". He also criticizes "'Infected' and 'Television'" as "the two least effective songs of their 15 years, the former a third-rate 'Sanity'", referring to the seventh track on 1989's No Control.
In November 2011, Stranger Than Fiction was ranked number one on Guitar World magazine's top ten list of guitar albums of 1994, with The Offspring's Smash in second place and Weezer's Weezer in third place.[8]
Stranger Than Fiction was re-released several times, with different labels, covers and formats in different countries (see the table below).[12]
| Year | Country | Format | Label | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1994 | Europe | CD | Sony 477343 2 | Bonus Tracks |
| 1994 | USA | Vinyl LP | Atlantic 82658-1 | |
| 1994 | Germany | CD | Dragnet DRA 477343 6 | Alternative Cover; Bonus Tracks; Collector's Edition |
| 1994 | USA | Cassette | Atlantic 82658-4 | |
| 1994 | USA | CD | Atlantic 82658-2 | |
| 1995 | Germany | CD | Dragnet DRA 477343 60 | Bonus Tracks |
| 2009 | USA | Vinyl LP | Rhino R1 82658 | Reissue; Colored Vinyl |
Album - Billboard (North America)
| Year | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|
| 1994 | The Billboard 200 | 87 |
Singles - Billboard (North America)
| Year | Single | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1994 | "21st Century (Digital Boy)" | Modern Rock Tracks | 11 |
| "Stranger Than Fiction" | Modern Rock Tracks | 28 | |
| 1995 | "Infected" | Mainstream Rock Tracks | 33 |
| Modern Rock Tracks | 27 |
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