Some say “Punk is dead,” but for iconic punk rock legend Bad Religion, it is still very much alive and kicking.
Over 30 years since making its debut, Bad Religion has released their sixteenth full-length studio album, True North. This pure punk rock masterpiece is everything Bad Religion fans have come to expect from the band – the same galloping drum beats, guitar slides and harmonic oohs & aahs that fans love.
But perhaps the most important thing that stays the same is the exact reason Bad Religion became one of the most iconic bands in punk rock: it’s all about the lyrics.
The album kicks off with the upbeat title track, True North. This song has a vintage Bad Religion sound, and it appears to be about a continuous search for the truth.
Lyrics such as “That’s your moral compass but what good is it to me?” appear to reflect wanderings about various things called “truth” though translating the exact meaning to any of Bad Religion’s lyrics would require hours in front of a thesaurus.
The next track, Robin Hood in Reverse, is a statement of the political climate when the song was presumably written. I think it is safe to say that these lyrics are directed at Mitt Romney, the Republican Party and the 2012 presidential election.
Bad Religion has a history of left-leaning lyric writing, questioning religion, politics and social issues; this collection is no exception. But there comes a time when one must let go all of the arguing and debating and simply resonate with this next track, F*** You. No need to expand, I believe the title says it all.
It might be safe to say that Bad Religion will never change. The songs collected in True North can blend well with everything else it has done over the past 30 years. The socioeconomics discussed in their lyrics seem tragically timeless but at least for fans of Bad Religion, the music stays progressively the same.
BOTTOM LINE: If you like Bad Religion, you’ll love True North.
