Pop Reviews: Bad Religion’s ‘Christmas Songs’ rings in the holiday spirit
An album of Christmas standards: LA punk band Bad Religion had been threatening this stunt for years. The record works well as a contrarian stocking stuffer for the young punk in your life, but what’s more interesting is how, despite a career railing against organized religion, “Christmas Songs” shows the band was clandestinely informed by church music.
Want to know where their rafters-reaching vocal harmonies came from? Listen to the a cappella opener of “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing.” Their ear for turning thickets of Latin-derived science phrases into moshable choruses? They make “in excelsis deo” sound like a totally natural BR hook on “Angels We Have Heard on High.”
The album is definitely tongue-in-cheek but suggests a real affection for these standards, putting Bad Religion in a long line of acts that find religion interesting even if they don’t believe in it for a second.
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Bad Religion
“Christmas Songs”
(Epitaph)
2 and a half stars
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