Stranger Than Fiction

Stranger Than Fiction

Bad Religion, one of the last bands you'd expect to join the ranks of major-label rockers, makes the leap from its own Epitaph Records to Atlantic for its eighth album, <I>Stranger Than Fiction</I>. The quintet doesn't compromise its integrity or its aesthetics, delivering its familiar Ramones-style pop songs at crash-and-burn tempos and continuing to rail against business as usual in corporate America. (The band's social critiques have always been a cut above the average hardcore punk's, as befits a group led by a vocalist pursuing his PhD at Cornell.) Especially effective is the opening track, "Incomplete," which features guest guitar by Wayne Kramer of the MC5. <i>--Jim DeRogatis</i>