Release and Reception
Against the Grain was released shortly after the conclusion of the No Control tour which had lasted until the middle of 1990. The album was highly anticipated by both music critics and fans as a result of the band's success with their 1988 post-reunion album Suffer and its 1989 follow-up No Control. While Against the Grain still failed to break Bad Religion into mainstream audiences, it was the first 100,000 seller, and showed how quickly they were growing.
The album has received generally favorable reviews in the years since its initial release. Allmusic's Johnny Loftus said that Against the Grain "found the band's edge honed sharper than it had been in years", and claimed that "Bad Religion had always warned against the excesses of the future and the assimilation of individuality. But the gospel cut deeper with Against the Grain. Songs began in an instant, with the single crack of a snare drum signaling the beginning of another screed."
The album's 13th track, "21st Century (Digital Boy)", was re-recorded and appeared on their eighth full-length studio album Stranger Than Fiction, released in 1994; four years after the release of Against the Grain, and became a single.
Read more about this topic: Against The Grain (Bad Religion album)
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