Bad Religion - No Substance

No Substance is a Bad Religion album I generally always liked, but started enjoying it moreso after giving it rotation again a few years ago while I was at work, around 2002. As I said at Punk Rock Wisdom, I had been meaning to listen to it once again as it was coming up on being ten years since being released.

I believe No Substance was, and is an underrated album. In terms of Bad Religion releases, but overall too.

No Substance has a pretty unique feel to it, more down tempo for the most part, and that aside, possibly heavy on the use big words (for lack of a better word/term!), maybe just as much as any Bad Religion album, however the lyrics seem quite intellectual, and thought out.

I believe that this album feels the way it does as it was the first BR album after Greg Graffin released his first solo offering, American Lesion. While making American Lesion his marriage was ending, so that can also spell softer/slower music. Thus I feel American Lesion somewhat spilled over into No Substance.

The album starts off with "Hear It", what one would come to expect from Bad Religion, a catchy up tempo song. Basically, in my opinion how Greg (in the first person) doesn't want to hear the useless advice. "Priests and politicians pretend they're your friend, and police speak to you like you're children again, blanket statements cover you like a rug, and they tell me maybe I'm acting a little too smug." And, "they'd rather see us all pusillanimous, absorbent in their chorus of correctness."

"Shades of Truth" is one of the slower songs on the album, yet well thought out as I mentioned earlier. It was released as a single to modern rock radio stations, as I recall hearing it on the station I've listened to much in the past. "Shades of Truth" has a pretty distinct first line, which comes after the bass intro, "here inside this quiet room there's direction". It continues, "outside in the sultry noon-time reflection, a million people scurry, they're looking for advice..."

"The Biggest Killer in American History" is about Edward Teller, who is also known as "the father of the hydrogen bomb", a title he apparently did not care for ("I have always considered that description in poor taste"), gee, I wonder why! I can't comment too much on this song, as The Manhattan Project, J. Robert Oppenheimer, and Edward Teller are topics I am looking to read more on.

A recurring topic on this album, is, to steal from the song title, mediocre minds. There is the song "Mediocre Minds", "At the Mercy of Imbeciles", and a line from "In so Many Ways" goes, "ignoring mortality, we worship mediocrity."

A lyric from "At the Mercy of Imbeciles" that I find can tie into "Raise Your Voice" goes: "and it is oh so easy just to keep to yourself". Instead of being heard when you object to something, as the lyric states, it is just easier to keep to yourself, and do nothing. While talking about "Raise Your Voice", as I stated at Punk Rock Wisdom, it is an essential song, as far as the topic goes. That again, could be the second "Punk Rock Song". The lyrics are posted at Punk Rock Wisdom. They are worth a read, as everyone should be heard, there will obviously be conflicting opinions, but more could get done, and it could lead to better things.

"Raise Your Voice" has a couple versions, one where Greg Graffin sings the song in its entirety, and another where the verses are alternated between Greg and Campino from the German punk rock band Die Toten Hosen. Both versions are very good, but I'd probably lean towards the version with Campino. As I said how it could be Punk Rock song number 2, it is also anthemic in nature.

Continuing on the above, and going beyond, is "The State of the End of the Millenium Adress." It is indeed an address, albeit satirical, yet still being truthful, set to music.

"The Voracious March of Godliness" is a religious themed song. Following it is "Mediocre Minds", coincidence?

"Strange Denial" is a catchy toe tapper. Possibly a song about denying the truth, as in, there's no suffering in the world, ignoring images we would prefer not to see Many of which never find their ways to the American or even Canadian mainstream, which could also be what the song draws upon, at least broadly speaking.

The album ends on another catchy song, "In so Many Ways", for which I won't get into, as I'll leave some to you the reader/listener.

Worth looking out for as well is the Japanese bonus track "Dream of Unity", along with the b-sides disc that was given out around the time of No Substance, it includes the great "Markovian Process", and "Leaders and Followers", they can be found on European and Japanese versions of Stranger than Fiction.