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For other uses, see Stranger Than Fiction.
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 and would 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 fifteen years after its release, Stranger Than Fiction is widely considered Bad Religion's most successful album, due to the success of the two singles, "Infected" and the re-recorded version of "21st Century (Digital Boy)", that eventually 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 2009, Stranger Than Fiction remains the only Bad Religion record to obtain gold status in the United States.
[edit] Musical style
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. [edit] Production and marketing
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:
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 couldn't "hear a single" on this album. [edit] Reception
Stranger Than Fiction was released on August 30, 1994 and became the first Bad Religion album distributed via Atlantic Records. On September 24th of that year, the album peaked at number 87 on the Billboard 200 album chart,[2] and on March 4, 1998, also became Bad Religion's first (and only) album to be certified gold in the United States.[3] 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. [edit] Track listing
[edit] Bonus tracks
[edit] Personnel
[edit] Collaborations
[edit] In pop culture
[edit] Re-releasesStranger Than Fiction was re-released several times, with different labels, covers and formats in different countries (see the table below).[5]
[edit] ChartsAlbum - Billboard (North America)
Singles - Billboard (North America)
[edit] References
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