I dunno, Suffer was good, but I lost interest around the No Substance period.
Addicted was a nice way to ease into the 5th button on GH though.
I like my punk with brass, a la Catch 22, who have also seen better days. (At least Bad Religion still sounds like Bad Religion!)
One thing I dislike to the extreme is when punk bands try to rock out with political themes. Flogging Molly's last album was just a huge anti-Bush add, which was really disappointing.
After No Substance, they seemed to change a little bit, but overall they are still pure BR. The New America was a superb album, but unlike any of their others. The newer one seems to have a few tracks that cater more towards the mainstream crowd, but whatever gets more listeners I guess. It's their 15th album, so they can't
all sound the same.
I agree about the political side of things as well. However, I'd rather they throw off intelligent lyrics about such subject matter than listen to some whiny punk band cry about breaking up for the first time. Bad Religion is in a league of their own though. Both Brett and Greg (Graffin) are incredible writers, and the music isn't only great to listen to, but actually makes you ponder things. I think NOFX said it best with, "I bought Suffer, then I bought a thesaurus" ;-)
But yeah, I am biased I guess when it comes to BR. I love a lot of punk music though. It's too bad most of the mainstream stuff lately has been pure crap. Most of the best punk music stays in LA.
