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[Full Album] BAD RELIGION | "Generator"

We're back for another round of the indelible BAD RELIGION! I'm grateful to know that I'll gradually be exploring this one-of-a-kind band over time, but Generator is my second pitstop through their discography. I sense a younger, more-willing band ready to lean into the musical stylings that made me fall in love with them, but who are still experimenting with what that actually is. Who cares what I think, though, because they're already six albums in!

I loved picking up on earlier musical glimpses of "The Process of Belief" while simultaneously feeling their pressing need to be heard and understood philosophically. These are some of the most poignant lyrics and themes I've heard in ages—and knowing this was written in the early 90s—I'm floored with how much they had to say back then. This album got me thinking deeply, and all of us need that once in awhile.

TIMESTAMPS
0:00 - Intro
1:44 - "Generator" (Live! 😉)
12:04 - "Too Much To Ask"
18:56 - "No Direction"
27:11 - "Tomorrow"
31:44 - "Two Babies In The Dark"
35:58 - "Heaven Is Falling"
41:28 - "Atomic Garden"
47:58 - "The Answer"
54:25 - "Fertile Crescent"
58:10 - "Chimaera"
1:04:56 - "Only Entertainment"
1:11:56 - Final Thoughts

[Full Album] BAD RELIGION | "Generator"

Comments

That's not a BR song.

Floyd Hill

No.

Floyd Hill

As much as I love BR, I think Oi To The World by The Vandals is the best christmas punk album of all time.

Floyd Hill

The key with the lyrics is Greg is a scientist, though as you've picked up, outside of his parents his wider family had a strong religious streak, and were big into old school American folk music and hymns, and Brett is big into literary fiction, and they're both very intelligent. As mentioned above, Brett has written a lot of great songs where he turns events of his life into little literary stories. Two Babies in the Dark from this album is about his sister being a pregnant teenager, little more than a baby herself. Hooray for me off Stranger Than has some lines relating to Brett's father having to become the man of the family and raise his little brothers and sisters after his father died, so missed out on his own teen years. Billy (No Control) and Billy Gnosis (Into the Unknown) are both about Brett's drug addictions. Broken from Process is partially about something a former girlfriend of his said, that he was Broken, and it's his response, that no human is truly broken, and we all have our issues, but shouldn't outright be written off. Devil In Stitches off Descent from memory is a fictionalised version of Brett and his current partner's relationship. Anyway, enough about Brett, this album has one of my favourite Greg songs, Chimaera. The whole song is a criticism directed directly at god, for his terrible work in creating human beings, making us fundamentally flawed in nearly every way, and always performing somewhat below what we could have been, due to the deficiencies in the way we were created... but in the last line of the song turns it all around by stating that it is God that as a concept is flawed, because he is just a piecemeal, thrown together, fictional creation of human thoughts. Fantastic stuff.

Bryan F

I think the sentiment is rooted in the fact a lot of bands couldn’t play the studio version of their songs if their lives depended on it because they were created in a studio.

Jason Flanagan

There’s no reason to discuss their second aberration, I mean album.

Jason Flanagan

Plus it’s somehow better than the original

Jason Flanagan

Samesies

Jason Flanagan

Could not agree more

Jason Flanagan

You need to do Bad Religion’s Christmas album when we get closer to the end of the year

Jason Flanagan

When I was 16 I got a mixed tape with generator on side A and Recipe for Hate on side B. Always thought recipe for hate was far superior.

Johnny Carcinogen

The song Atomic Garden is basically a story from the perspective of a paranoid warmonger. The line “we’ll pretend it’s Christmas Day” refers to Operation: Linebacker II, which was a bombing run conducted by the US during Vietnam, the largest air assault of its kind since WWII. The title itself refers to “atomic gardening” which is a form of mutation breeding via exposure to gamma radiation, but it thematically ties in with the premise of the concept of nuclear warfare. The more on the nose reference to Gorbachev maybe refers to the dissolution of the USSR on Christmas of ‘91? And of course the last section refers to the Cold War as a whole and the nuclear arms race by alluding to the narrator being safe and sound in a bomb shelter/bunker, “I hope there’s nothing wrong out there, I’m watching from the room inside my room.”

Thomas Sanchez

This album was done before Brian Baker joined the band. Brian is the guy you heard ripping on Process. Greg Hetson and Brett Gurewitz shared lead duties from the early 80’s til ‘96 when Brian came in. Lots of Brian’s solos are a blend of Pentatonic/Harmonic minor. He’s got excellent phrasing and legato approach. Greg was really heavily dependent on just kinda scrambling around in pentatonic minor, you’ll hear less legato and less picking speed and more big bends and repeated hammer ons/pull offs from the same “blues” box on the fretboard. Brett was kinda the same way but had a more abstract approach and favored textured leads, still did big bends and stuff but his sense of melody was also pretty present. So that’s what you’re hearing on this album are those two performing with a somewhat less limited “bag of tricks” than Brian. But they still were quintessential to the Bad Religion sound and it’s unmistakable on this album… But Brian is definitely a certified shredder 😂

Thomas Sanchez

Don’t think it’s been mentioned, but the song “Fertile Crescent” is about war in the Middle East—a region historically known as the Cradle of Humanity— and if our species can’t work out conflict, war in the region has the potential to destroy humanity. Incredibly timely….I had forgotten about this song. Haunting to hear it today. And another example of Bad Religion’s ability to identify and write about timeless topics.

Matthew Figueira

Great choice, best album outside the holy trinity

Daniel Storino

You haven't heard Bad Religion until you've listened to Suffer.

Jason Humphreys

Subbed to YT for your punk videos, and subbed to Patreon for your Bad Religion. I love your deep breakdowns. Too bad I missed the vote for Rise Against, I hope they make it next time!

Mors Codefood

You mentioned in this video that you want to check out more live versions of songs. NOFX Decline at Red Rocks is killer. Professionally filmed and with an orchestra. Please !?!!!

Shawn Burns

Here's two other live versions of that "festival version" of Generator...with (I think) better quality than the one from 1996... 2011: https://youtu.be/eDSPQwRy9RQ?si=7eIexb12UxqJJOWQ 2018: https://youtu.be/JPTnWmbscAI?si=pQPT9zCop1RTy_Ia The one from 2011 has three guitars playing because Brett Gurewitz is playing bit usually don't. Brett is a founding member and a song writer of the band but left the band in 1994 and came back in 2001. Since he came back in 2001, he doesn't tour with the band because he's at Epitaph Records full time, the label that he created in the 80's to release Bad Religion records at first...It is now one of the biggest independent music label.

JC Nutz

It's an interesting choice for your second BR album. Probably my least favorite from this era. Looking at the late 80s until they left Epitaph, Recipe for Hate, Suffer, No Control, and Against the Grain, and then finally Generator are how I would have ranked them. I even like Into the Unknown better even though the band has tried to erase it from their history.

Tomas

I recently watched the Me First and the Gimme Gimmes reaction where you, not being entrenched in punk so it's ok, missed how they often add nods to punk classics. Came here to post that MFATGG did "Favorite Things" and the opening is the opening from Generator and it's such a great lead-in to the song. My fav for sure.

Kenzi Graham

I second that 100%

Craigarius

Bad religion’s bass is worst then Blink’s ! That says it all …

Craigarius

Great album. Beginning of them starting to experiment and slow down a bit. Except for that other slow down and experiment that we don’t talk about.

Brad Clarke

having a thought here. I actually have never heard anyone say they want the band to play exactly like the record. For me I want faster and different riffs and extra drums more cymbals blah blah blah. That’s very interesting you say that, arent you bored of the studio version? haha Also In my humble opinion there is no punk look. Punk is about your heart Its about taking the road less traveled, being alone while surrounded by people, its about the beauty of flaw, its about come as you are, its about love of music, it’s about flirting with the fringe and pushing it. It’s not, again this is my PERSONAL opinion, about a look. And anyone who tells you it is, is a friggin poser! AGAIN my opinion. Okay going back to watch.

Papa Shango

This was maybe the worst react, idk why they voted up the 7th worst BR album but this was not fun. Its not a good bass album, its not even a good album. The community ran us astray

Dan P

Thank you, loved your album review! Just joined to watch this, as a huge Bad Religion fan since the early 90s. The album one year before Genetator, Against The Grain, contains much more thesaurus terms… scientific even… Dr. Greg Graffin is evolutionary biologist, this shows in many songs in my opinion. As a German, they improved my English a lot! I like your channel on YouTube a lot!

Achim Esser

Can sing the sorrow please get on the list? You gotta hear it.. seriously

kreviss jurjesss

I disagree…I think The Grey Race was a pretty good album.

CJ LoBaido

We gotta request a song from Empire! And thoughts?

CJ LoBaido

You ask near the end of the video about the reasoning for the complex word choices, the type of lyrics you need a thesaurus for. Is this done for a musical purpose, like to have that proper syllable usage or rhyming scheme? Or are they using complex words on purpose, to challenge people, trying to get people to learn and understand? I personally think it’s 50/50, it’s both. I think Greg is a damn lyrical genius and a lot of these words and concepts come to him naturally. And he’s not about to dumb it down. Quite the contrary, everyone else needs to catch up. Thanks for the album review, Mark, you killed it yet again.

Nicholas Mumbach

The empire strikes first or true north would be my go to for later bad religion. For early, suffer.

Aacc

Idk why but atomic garden always reminded me of a Beatles song. Not any in particular.

Aacc

Mark, I think you would like their album True North a lot. A full reaction vid to that would be awesome. Released after Process of Belief and has that same level of quality production and variety that you seemed to enjoy hearing on PoB.

Pieter Wessels

Yeah, Generator is solid but not as good as the "Unholy Trinity" albums imo.

Pieter Wessels

Glad you got to do another Bad Religion album Mark. I'd recommend Against the Grain as others have, or Suffer, or (for later BR, closer to The Process of Belief), The Empire Strikes First. Personally I prefer all of these to the Generator album, but glad to see some analysis of it nonetheless. Really, actually, BR is more of a songs band for me than albums--they'd make an *awesome* mixtape. Lots of great tunes in their distinctive sound across many of their albums.

Ray Dweck

Brett is the artist. Greg is the craftsman. They need each other in order to write their best songs. When Brett was absent it was noticeable - their worst albums were released during his time away.

Pieter Wessels

Heaven is Falling is about the first invasion and occupation of Iraq. Can also be interpreted in general as an anti-war song.

Pieter Wessels

Well, of all the albums reviewed so far, this was certainly one of them. Rage’s debut album also came out in 1992, and I’d argue it tackles these themes much better, both lyrically and musically. Rage certainly doesn’t make a point of telling you they don’t have the answers and then end the album by asking Mr. FCC for answers. And sartory is not a word (unless he’s nominalizing the name of a bow-maker?). Sartorial is a word, though.

Matthew Gladys

You should listen to Against the Grain immediately.

Josh Ott

15 songs are not enough! There are 15 albums left 😄

Daniel Baunach

My favorite on that album is "Candidate" (Brian Baker said that, too)

Daniel Baunach

Great reaction! I Love this album 😊 I think the next one has to be their latest one. There are more different types of songs and it shows that they are still the best after 39 years (Age of unreason)

Daniel Baunach

Its Whiplash, if no had said it yet

Gary Webb

Two babies in the dark was written by Brett, then and now guitarist and writer. This was recorded in 1991, so could just be about becoming a father (Brett jay and singer greg became dads at about the same time) Also sounds like an absentee dad being far away telling tall tales, but I think it’s the former

Grant Richardson

How many sing? That’s the one thing that’s their kryptonite- backing vocals live. They can’t really do them justice, it’s always had to have been stripped down, but they tend to find pretty great ways of translating the songs live, even if they can’t pull off the lush backing vox from the albums. This era and most it’s been jay and Brian (mostly lead guitar) doing backing vox live, and since about 2017 their most recent drummer doing a lot as well (he’s actually a pretty good singer whereas jay and Brian can be ok but definitely benefit from new drummer helping) Most backing vox on albums are singer with jay and Brett (guitarist who left from 1994-2001) supplementing so it doesn’t sound like a “wall of greg”

Grant Richardson

Glad you spent time reading and breaking down the lyrics. They have some of the most profound song lyrics of any band in any genre. Greg is obviously very well educated and while the choice of $5 dollar words maybe comes off as someone projecting their intellectualism I'm pretty confident it's for reasons you suggested regarding fitting in the proper amount of syllables but also to say things in way that's poetic and can make statements concise. Fun fact: this is the first punk record I every owned and the opening chord progprogression on Only Entertainment is the first time i was able to learn something by ear playing guitar. I was so proud of myself when I was able to duplicate it. The simplicity of punk music was appealing to me while u struggled learning to play the guitar. This record opened Pandora's box for me. Next came Rancid and Pennywise. I just about abandoned my heany metal roots when I heard this record. I love it all now but punk music was something I didn't know existed and needed my life!

Joe

R.I.P. Chi Pig. Another underrated band.

Matt Gerken

this was a sick reaction! i love the analogy about seeing them in first grade vs. senior year lol - for the baby pics i *highly* recommend SUFFER (pure energy and killer melodies one after another without a single millisecond of fluff or filler), and for the teenage years i *highly* recommend STRANGER THAN FICTION; the song "Inner Logic" from that one is a perfect example of what you noted about how they like to build up the energy during their songs (ie, palm muted first verse, hybrid second verse, open chords third verse, etc). anyway keep up the awesome videos dude!!!

brian’s shadow

Great episode. I loved how you really paid attention to The Answer. That’s my favorite song of this album. It talks about how through history some men have tried to trick people that they know the answer to everything: a prophet to a poor village in the first verse and an astrologer in the second one. Great themes through this album: Atomic garden, about nuclear war. Fertile Crescent, about God’s creating men. Heaven is falling: I think it’s about WWII (king George and planes darkening the sky and making murder legal and dying with a rifle in your hand, etc.) Freaking great album. Thanks for making me want to listen to it again! Can’t wait for the rest of the discography! 😜

Juan Manuel Morales

Slightly different versions of heaven is falling and Fertile Crescent appear on an ep they did with Noam Chomsky

Robin Langford

I’ve only seen them once , in 1995. Chi Pig from SNFU accidentally broke my nose at that show hah. I got a hoodie which had a giant cross with line through it on the back. The amount of hate I got from Christians over that hoodie was crazy. I’d love to see them again someday , but at the same time I feel like seeing them in 95 was a really great time for that and perhaps that’s just best left as the only time.

Chad Smoliak

Thank you!! Based on sheer listens, this is likely my favorite Bad Religion album, though I don't do favorites well. Would also love to see you do Recipe for Hate or Stranger Than Fiction or Against the Grain!! So hard to pick with these guys

Kevin Ward

Holy shit! Thanks for the shout out! Glad you enjoyed the live version, yea, the "weird" part is SO MUCH weirder live. The record they have to keep it kind of dialed in, but Live like you said, its like "Go anywhere, play anything, do what you want, as long as we meet back up" and it creates this super uneasy chaotic sound that gives me chills. As always, incredible stuff my dude.

Hans

BR 101: they are total geeks. Songs are first written on piano or acoustic guitars and then turned into punk rock epic’s. Most of the songs are either written by Greg Graffin or Brett Gurewitz. Graffin is more on the materialistic-science-humanistic vision of life. Gurewitz is way more philosophical-existancial and profound. Especially on the Generator/stranger than fiction/recipe for hate era.

Maxime Laroche

Was just going to comment this. Need at least a song review from that album.

OSCAR MARTINEZ

One of the things I like about Chimaera is that it's a take down of both a literal interpretation of the creation story, and a take down of Intelligent Design. Either god had a bunch of parts laying around and just started shoving them together, or he designed evolution to lead to monstrosities of creatures. The most monstrous being humans.

charlie grasse

Greg Graffin, who wrote The Answer, said himself many years later, that this is his favorite song he ever wrote. What an amazing and timeless song. I think that the song Generator itself is just about how ideas come to life. How things you see, the traumas, the good memories, all affect your thinking. They give you that spark, that experience. You might not remember that exact moment in life, but you will keep that generated feeling. I think that the lyrics of the song are vague on purpose. Those are probably some of Bret's personal experiences that shaped his worldview. Fertile Crescent is about Gulf war and how US was basically destroying the space of ancient Mesopotamia. The place, where humanity very much evolved into modern society to some degree. Atomic Garden's "We'll pretend it's Christmas day..." likely means that they will exchange presents, really trivializing the reality of nuclear war. No Direction's last part is based on a real experience that Greg had with one of his students. It's probably my favourite song from them. I find it to be such an amazing paradox, how the song with "no BR song can make your life complete" lyrics is actually resonating with me so hard. It claims that it provides No Direction, yet it provides the direction of trying to look for your own direction. Just amazing. Yea the band was insanely ahead of it's time with the society and technology/media predictions they did.

Jan Holeček

They were massive Beatles, Beach Boys and Crosby Stills & Nash fans too

Mark Campbell

i hadn't heard about it being about his sister before but i've always found the lyrics to this one really fascinating

Robin Langford

if you're interested in doing a christmas themed reaction video bad religion has an album of christmas songs

Robin Langford

I’ve said this before, but I feel BR would benefit most from the mixtape format, because the vast majority of their songs are very good, but don’t blow you away, at least music-wise. I feel Process of Belief is probably their best beginning-to-end album. Having a top 15 to listen through would really give you a better idea of the heights they achieved throughout their career.

Simon Lapoisse

I’m not exactly sure if the word Sartory is made up, but it does stem from the word sartor which is Latin for tailor. I think it’s like a tool to sew with.

CJ LoBaido

The notable difference in the band between Generator and Process is Brooks Wackerman coming in on drums and Brett returning to the band, giving them a 3- guitar attack

Dustin Roberts

Awesome reaction man! This was the first record where they sonically broke from the popular template they established with Suffer, No Control and Against The Grain, which were balls-to-the-wall melodic hardcore punk (for the time). Pete Finestone was also replaced by Bobby Schaeyer on drums here, who came from a much more eclectic technical background than Pete which freed up the band to experiment with different tempos and rhythms while retaining the speed and fire they were known for. The more diverse music and writing became more fully realized on Recipe For Hate and especially later records when they returned to Epitaph in 2001 for Process of Belief and future albums.

Mark Campbell

It's a matter of prescience, but not the science fiction kind....

charlie grasse

I'm just going to reply to myself, with my running commentary. The noise/atonal part of the first song, I like to that part, the Generator.

charlie grasse

Brett's song sound very hymnal because he was very inspired by jewish hymns he heard as a boy going to the synagogue, pretty much where bad religion's big harmonies stem from

Mickael noel

Greg doesn't look punk, but he does look like an ivy educated professor. Lol

charlie grasse

Generally, Greg Graffin's songs are the more analytical, "three-dollar word" songs like "Chimaera" and "Fertile Crescent" that tackle the lyrical subject like a reporter would (his own words). Brett's songs and lyrics tend to be a little weirder and full of allegory, poetic imagery and metaphors like in "Heaven Is Falling", "Anasthesia" or "Two Babies". Generator (the title itself) is a metaphor for God, "Chimaera" is about God creating the human race and "Only Entertainment" is definitely about the media, who were endlessly cheerleading the invasion of Iraq / first Gulf War in 1991 when they were writing the album.

Mark Campbell

"Fertile Crescent" and "Heaven Is Falling" were written by Greg and Brett respectively and were directly about the first Gulf War in Iraq under George H. W. Bush

Mark Campbell

About "Two Babies In The Dark", Brett had this to say: Brett: "Two Babies in the dark was about my little sister and when she was pregnant and the two babies in the dark are my sister and her unborn baby. You could say that that's what inspired the song, the song took on a life of its own, it actually became a song about babies having babies and young girls having babies, they themselves or maybe a friend in the world that is not really prepared for adulthood themselves."[1] General The song appears in the movie The Chase. The band has made fun of the song on a couple of occasions - Brian said the only difference that Brett's departure would make in '96 is that BR wouldn't have songs with the word "babies" in the title. Brett had a thing he'd do where he'd tape up his hands and to his guitar and play weird atonal solos, I think this was one of them. Arty/creative thing I suppose

Mark Campbell

Fun facts: Brian Baker plays the first solo on Generator live much differently on purpose - largely because on-record it's a lot of sloppy feedback/noise (one of Brett's trademarks when he was lead guitar before quitting in 1995-96) and Greg Graffin hated how it sounded. Brian's lead guitar style is a lot more technical than Brett and in the vein of Angus Young and Captain Sensible from The Damned, you can hear that in his lead work all over their records post-Gray Race and especially in his guitar work with Dag Nasty. He also tracks the vast majority of the guitar on all their records post-1995 because he can play just about anything. You can hear the subtle differences in the playing style - Brian is the tighter clean-up hitter and "prettier" lead player that does the cool / melodic stuff ("Cease", "The Quickening"), Brett has the fat / "gooey" tone and bluesy, sloppier leads that are more "feel" than technique ("I Want To Conquer The World" or "Two Babies In The Dark"), and Greg H. has the more traditional simple pentatonic licks ("Part III")

Mark Campbell

most of punk's message from the 90s was a warning of what we're really feeling now.. seems like back then it was true, but it was "screaming into the void" and just about everything that punk music has been railing against for 40+ years is just getting rapidly worse.. almost cartoonish levels at this point.

DV Punk


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