Ahhh... there's nothing more refreshing than listening to some good punk after a hard week! Here is No Control by Bad Religion. Bad Religion is an extremely influential punk band, and one of the best-selling punk bands of all time. As their name suggests, Bad Religion is very anti-religion, which is reflected in a lot of their songs. Bad Religion also covers many other topics common to punk music including racism, politics, drugs, equal-rights, and society in general. Something I always found really cool about Bad Religion is that the front runner of the band, Greg Graffin, is a professor of life science and paleontology at the University of California, and a professor of evolution at Cornell University. There are some that might say that "Bad Religion is too mainstream," or "not anarchist enough," or even "aren't real punk because they know how to sing and play their instruments." Obviously all of these people are wrong, but Bad Religion is definitely one of the more accessible punk bands. They are a skate punk band, which means melodic songs, slightly thrashy drums and guitars, and a catches and hooks that are common to pop. Similar to hip hop, skate punk is both a subculture and a music genre, both of which were popular in the 80s and 90s, and included other bands like The Offspring and *shudder* Blink-182 (just kidding, Blink-182 isn't that bad). Bad Religion's music often features three part harmonizing vocals and guitar solos. Guitar solos are especially unusual in punk because solos are used to show off the skill of the band members, but punk bands aren't exactly known for skilled guitar players.
The cover of this album isn't bad, but I don't like it as much as most of Bad Religion's other covers; I find it kind of boring. Despite this, I still think this is an appropriate cover for this album. It features words stamped onto a colorful background. This reminds me of punk graffiti, which is probably what this cover is referencing, which does reasonably indicate what type of music the album is.
No Control is Bad Religion's 4th studio album, and what I'd consider a classic Bad Religion album. It has some of their best songs on it. An interesting thing about this album is it's very short, only 26 minutes. There are some EPs which are longer than this album. Despite it's short length, No Control has 15 songs. As a result, all of the songs are pretty short in length. My favorite songs on the album are "Big Bang," "No Control," "I Want to Conquer The World," and "You".
The second song on No Control, "Big Bang" is my third favorite song on the album. The meaning of this song is pretty strait forward; this song is kind of a call to action. It is about how everyone is just waiting for their purpose under oppressive rule and meaninglessly following and serving the church. The song implies that the only way to end this oppressive system is to rebel against it. This song features driving drums and strummed guitar chords being played in the background, both of which are common in Bad Religion songs, but what really makes this song stand out is the awesome chorus: "big bang, big crunch/ you know there's free lunch/ kneel down and prey/ here comes your judgement day!" The great chorus, paired with the catchy chords used result in a really catchy song.
The next song "No Control" is a cool one because of the lyrics. The song is about how humans have the illusion of control, but in reality have control over almost nothing. Some people ask big questions about the universe, but these questions will remain when they die and never get answered. Even those who rule will eventually fall out of power and quickly fade away. In the end humans are extremely insignificant in the grand scale of things, and we have no real control of the things around us. Besides the usual Bad Religion things (strummed guitar chords, 3 part vocal harmonies, driving drums, etc.), this song also features a cool bouncy sounding melody with shorter, more staccato notes.
When people mention great Bad Religion songs, they will probably mention "I Want to Conquer the World." This song has a lot going for it cool lyrics, an interesting meaning, a catchy melody, and cool guitar solos. Despite this, this isn't my favorite song on the album, just #2 for me. This might be one of those cases where I just like one song better because I heard it first or something, because I have to admit that this might objectively be the best song on the album, but this is my blog, so I'm gonna say it's only the second best. This song says that no matter how you are, or how smart you are, if you think you have all the answers to the world's problems, you are an idiot and an asshole. Bad Religion basically calls out everyone in this song for all falling into the same trap of trying to "conquer the world" and solve everyone's problems by themselves: Christians, liberals, rationalists, conservatives, etc. This song features, as I mentioned earlier, several guitar solos, an awesome bold headbanging melody, and overall is extremely catchy.
Finally, here's my favorite song on the album, "You." This is one of the songs that got me into Bad Religion. This song is about how religion, especially Christianity, damaged the world. The song starts out describing Christianity's version of heaven, "There's a place where everyone can be happy. It's the most beautiful place in the whole fucking world. It's made of candy canes and planes and bright red choo-choo trains, And the meanest little boys and the most innocent little girls." The singer then says that he wishes he could go there, but he knows it's not real. He says that it's fine if you believe in it, he doesn't care, but why does the church teach you to hate non-believers or people who don't believe in the same religion? It is causing unnecessary strife in a world already full of problems. The song then gives one of my all time favorite Bad Religion choruses, "And you/ Painted my entire world/ But I/ Don't have the turpentine to clean what you have soiled." This says that religion hugely shaped the world in a bad way, but atheists and rationalists aren't powerful enough to reverse the damage. I really like this song because it has such a catchy and interesting chorus, and such a hard hitting, controversial message.
This is a great album, but not really one for those who get offended easily, or are are stuck with opposing views, but I really shouldn't have to say that, it is a punk album, and you probably know what you are getting into if you are listening to it. For everyone else, this is an awesome album that I definitely recommend you should listen to. Bad Religion is one of the best punk bands, and this is one of their best albums.
The cover of this album isn't bad, but I don't like it as much as most of Bad Religion's other covers; I find it kind of boring. Despite this, I still think this is an appropriate cover for this album. It features words stamped onto a colorful background. This reminds me of punk graffiti, which is probably what this cover is referencing, which does reasonably indicate what type of music the album is.
No Control is Bad Religion's 4th studio album, and what I'd consider a classic Bad Religion album. It has some of their best songs on it. An interesting thing about this album is it's very short, only 26 minutes. There are some EPs which are longer than this album. Despite it's short length, No Control has 15 songs. As a result, all of the songs are pretty short in length. My favorite songs on the album are "Big Bang," "No Control," "I Want to Conquer The World," and "You".
The second song on No Control, "Big Bang" is my third favorite song on the album. The meaning of this song is pretty strait forward; this song is kind of a call to action. It is about how everyone is just waiting for their purpose under oppressive rule and meaninglessly following and serving the church. The song implies that the only way to end this oppressive system is to rebel against it. This song features driving drums and strummed guitar chords being played in the background, both of which are common in Bad Religion songs, but what really makes this song stand out is the awesome chorus: "big bang, big crunch/ you know there's free lunch/ kneel down and prey/ here comes your judgement day!" The great chorus, paired with the catchy chords used result in a really catchy song.
The next song "No Control" is a cool one because of the lyrics. The song is about how humans have the illusion of control, but in reality have control over almost nothing. Some people ask big questions about the universe, but these questions will remain when they die and never get answered. Even those who rule will eventually fall out of power and quickly fade away. In the end humans are extremely insignificant in the grand scale of things, and we have no real control of the things around us. Besides the usual Bad Religion things (strummed guitar chords, 3 part vocal harmonies, driving drums, etc.), this song also features a cool bouncy sounding melody with shorter, more staccato notes.
When people mention great Bad Religion songs, they will probably mention "I Want to Conquer the World." This song has a lot going for it cool lyrics, an interesting meaning, a catchy melody, and cool guitar solos. Despite this, this isn't my favorite song on the album, just #2 for me. This might be one of those cases where I just like one song better because I heard it first or something, because I have to admit that this might objectively be the best song on the album, but this is my blog, so I'm gonna say it's only the second best. This song says that no matter how you are, or how smart you are, if you think you have all the answers to the world's problems, you are an idiot and an asshole. Bad Religion basically calls out everyone in this song for all falling into the same trap of trying to "conquer the world" and solve everyone's problems by themselves: Christians, liberals, rationalists, conservatives, etc. This song features, as I mentioned earlier, several guitar solos, an awesome bold headbanging melody, and overall is extremely catchy.
Finally, here's my favorite song on the album, "You." This is one of the songs that got me into Bad Religion. This song is about how religion, especially Christianity, damaged the world. The song starts out describing Christianity's version of heaven, "There's a place where everyone can be happy. It's the most beautiful place in the whole fucking world. It's made of candy canes and planes and bright red choo-choo trains, And the meanest little boys and the most innocent little girls." The singer then says that he wishes he could go there, but he knows it's not real. He says that it's fine if you believe in it, he doesn't care, but why does the church teach you to hate non-believers or people who don't believe in the same religion? It is causing unnecessary strife in a world already full of problems. The song then gives one of my all time favorite Bad Religion choruses, "And you/ Painted my entire world/ But I/ Don't have the turpentine to clean what you have soiled." This says that religion hugely shaped the world in a bad way, but atheists and rationalists aren't powerful enough to reverse the damage. I really like this song because it has such a catchy and interesting chorus, and such a hard hitting, controversial message.
This is a great album, but not really one for those who get offended easily, or are are stuck with opposing views, but I really shouldn't have to say that, it is a punk album, and you probably know what you are getting into if you are listening to it. For everyone else, this is an awesome album that I definitely recommend you should listen to. Bad Religion is one of the best punk bands, and this is one of their best albums.
Bad Religion - No Control
1.) Change of Ideas
2.) Big Bang
3.) No Control
4.) Sometimes I Feel Like
5.) Automatic Man
6.) I Want to Conquer the World
7.) Sanity
8.) Henchman
9.) It Must Look Pretty Appealing
10.) You
11.) Progress
12.) I Want Something More
13.) Anxiety
2.) Big Bang
3.) No Control
4.) Sometimes I Feel Like
5.) Automatic Man
6.) I Want to Conquer the World
7.) Sanity
8.) Henchman
9.) It Must Look Pretty Appealing
10.) You
11.) Progress
12.) I Want Something More
13.) Anxiety
14.) Billy
15.) The World Won't Stop
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