A Streetkid Named Desire (The New America - Bad Religion)

Member Name: rleigh

Product:	The New America - Bad Religion
Date:	25/06/08 (37 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: The lyrics are always excellent, the vocal performance is passionate and powerful.

Disadvantages: Quite instrumentally average, certainly not the best album the band has ever produced.

'The New America' was the last album that Bad Religion released on Atlantic records before moving back to the Epitaph record label. The album was released in the year 2000 and is the bands eleventh studio album. The album consists of thirteen tracks and clocks in at just over 40 minutes in length. Whereas in the past the music of Bad Religion had always taken quite a political tone in terms of lyrical content; with this release the lyrics are more personal to the bands lead vocalist Greg Graffin, you get to learn more about the man than ever before as he here tackles the tough subject of what was then his recent divorce.

This is an interesting album in that it covers new lyrical ground for Bad Religion, you can relate to the lyrics on a personal level rather than a political one and in some respects the lyrics are therefore of a higher quality. I have always been a huge fan of the political stance taken with the lyrics of Bad Religion, it was nice to hear the band cover something new here however and listening enjoyment can therefore be gained on a whole new level. Musically this is certainly not the best Bad Religion album that there is, the lyrics are however of great interest and intrigue and for this reason I do thoroughly enjoy listening to this album from the band.

'The Hopeless Housewife' has a fairly self-explanatory title, it's a torrid tale about Greg Graffin's ex-wife and the passion is there in his voice for all to hear. There's a lot of pent up anger and aggression which is expressed with this track, the lyrics are fiery and Greg Graffin here shows himself to be an incredibly hot-headed individual. This album is not all about his divorce/ex-wife though, the story of Gregg Graffin's upbringing also is told here through tracks such as 'A Streetkid Named Desire', and the more modern day man of Greg Graffin is looked into with tracks like 'I Love My Computer'. Lyrically this album is an absolute cracker, there's so much to be taken from the lyrics here and always throughout this album this is something that comes across incredibly well. On a non lyrical level this album is quite hit and miss really, even when the tracks are not musically strong however the lyrics always provide plenty in the way of entertainment and overall enjoyment that can be gained from listening to the thirteen tracks of this 'The New America' release.

If you like your punk rock to have insightful personal lyrics then 'The New America' may well be the right album for you. This is not the strongest album that Bad Religion has ever released as a band, it is however quite an interesting thirteen track album of music and the lyrics most definitely are of great appeal here. The bands best work can most definitely be found in political punk rock; this album is still quite interesting however and with 'The New America' Bad Religion certainly showed a whole different side of the band that had never before been showcased. After listening to this album I really felt as though I knew the bands lead vocalist a little better, Greg Graffin is an incredibly intelligent man and as much as I do prefer the political music of the band; I do still have a strong appreciation for the lyrical content of this album even if the music is not particularly effective on the whole.

Bad Religion has never released a bad album as such, this is certainly one of the weaker efforts in terms of musical prowess however and aside from the excellent lyrical content of the album the music created by the band here is really rather average. If you're a die-hard Bad Religion fan you'll still want to give this album a listen, it's excellent to hear the band tackle new lyrical territory but really this album has relatively little to offer the listener. The instrumental progression of this album is particularly uninspiring, and whilst the vocal performance of Greg Graffin is here incredibly passionate; none of the thirteen tracks contained within this album stand strong amongst the finest of music that Bad Religion has ever recorded and released as a band.

Summary: 'The New America' is a lyrically excellent but in all other areas really rather average album.