BR have done very little wrong and damn near everything right, especially in the late 80's when they were at the height of their powers. No Control is an interesting release- it shows the band switching up styles a bit... it was put out between their best straight forward no frills punk album: Suffer (1988)- one of the best of its kind- and their explosive, experimental, incendiary, thematically-rich, dictionary-bursting masterpiece: Against the Grain (1990)- one of the best albums period. Of any genre or group. If you disagree fine, you're certainly entitled to be moron.
On No Control you can sense the growing pains. Personally, I don't think it holds a candle to the album it followed OR the album it preceded... Still, on this one you can hear the band become supreme punk badasses, veering into alien territory. Greg and Brett are starting to adopt their own unique lyrical tacts, and the band is exploring different rhythms and shifts in sonic texture. It's far better produced than any of their preceding albums. Lyrically it's closer to Suffer, musically it edges into the blazing speed attack that burned so bright on against the grain and dimmed on subsequent releases (Generator, Stranger than Fiction, Recipe for hate...)
While I dig Suffer's brazen rawness more than this and Against the Grains tightly constrained yet explosive fury more than this- without No Control everything that came later might not have come to pass. So I am thankful for it. had it not been for Bad religion, all of the crappy bands I played in would have been even crappier... If you can imagine...
Pick it up. It's better than anything you'll hear on your local alternative rock (whatever that means these days) station.
BR have done very little wrong and damn near everything right, especially in the late 80's when they were at the height of their powers. No Control is an interesting release- it shows the band switching up styles a bit... it was put out between their best straight forward no frills punk album: Suffer (1988)- one of the best of its kind- and their explosive, experimental, incendiary, thematically-rich, dictionary-bursting masterpiece: Against the Grain (1990)- one of the best albums period. Of any genre or group. If you disagree fine, you're certainly entitled to be moron. On No Control you can sense the growing pains. Personally, I don't think it holds a candle to the album it followed OR the album it preceded... Still, on this one you can hear the band become supreme punk badasses, veering into alien territory. Greg and Brett are starting to adopt their own unique lyrical tacts, and the band is exploring different rhythms and shifts in sonic texture. It's far better produced than any of their preceding albums. Lyrically it's closer to Suffer, musically it edges into the blazing speed attack that burned so bright on against the grain and dimmed on subsequent releases (Generator, Stranger than Fiction, Recipe for hate... )
While I dig Suffer's brazen rawness more than this and Against the Grains tightly constrained yet explosive fury more than this- without No Control everything that came later might not have come to pass. So I am thankful for it. had it not been for Bad religion, all of the crappy bands I played in would have been even crappier... If you can imagine... Pick it up. It's better than anything you'll hear on your local alternative rock (whatever that means these days) station.