Album Review

Bad Religion – Christmas Songs

• 28th Oct 2013

You can’t really help but admire the pure chutzpah of Bad Religion. For a band who have made it their sole mission to undermine the Christian church over the course of their 30 year career, it was only a matter of time before punk rock professor Greg Gaffin and crew ploughed headfirst into a Christmas covers album. They’ve been dabbling for a while, with a highly successful cover of ‘Silent Night’ that’s been floating around for a while a particularly successful experiment, but how will a whole album stand up to scrutiny, and is this more an exercise in one-up-man-ship and a big middle finger to the church this Christmas?

In terms of the actual music on offer ‘O Come, O Come Emmanuel’ is probably the most effective – a darkly chugging slice of punk dripping with the epic melodies and harmonies that made Bad Religion such a force to be reckoned with in the first instance. Hidden amongst the jollier major key tunes, a ripping solo by Brett Gurewitz puts the icing on the cake as per usual; a definite highlight.

It wouldn’t be a festive album without a ‘White Christmas’ cover, which here is given a Ramones-over with an ‘I Wanna Be Sedated’ groove and a soulful bluesy Chuck Berry solo that adds a new dimension to an old familiar. It has to be said that some of the traditional carols and hymns like ‘Hark! The Herald Angels Sing’ and ‘Little Drummer Boy’ really don’t translate all that well to a “pop” song formula and feel more like sneering parodies of the originals, which we would assume was part of the exercise anyway. With various members so busy and with such a vast catalogue of material behind them, unfortunately these days Bad Religion can often feel guilty of rushing out releases to keep the wheels turning. This album is no exception and sadly feels like something of an afterthought from a demo or jam session.

Brooding and almost unsettling versions of ‘God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen’ and ‘What Child Is This’ go some way to rescuing the whole affair, and there is definitely some meat for fans to get their teeth into, but as a collection of songs it’s not the most successful output we’ve seen in recent years from the proto-punks. A tagged on remix version of the sublime ‘American Jesus’ feels out of place and slightly misguided, but we’re not complaining – much better than any of the festive tat on offer.

– Jamie Otsa

Venue: Christmas Songs
Support Band: Epitaph