Stranger Than Fiction

Stranger than Fiction is the eighth full-length studio album by Bad Religion, released in the U.S. August 30, 1994. It was their first album released on the major label Atlantic Records (although that label re-released the previous album, Recipe for Hate) and also its last release with guitarist Brett Gurewitz, who left just prior to the 1994-1995 world tour, only to return to the band seven years later. On tour, Gurewitz was replaced by Brian Baker, who would stay with the band permanently.
Stranger Than Fiction is one of Bad Religion's most successful albums, featuring two of their well-known hit singles, "Infected" and the re-recorded version of "21st Century (Digital Boy)", which both earned airplay on MTV and radio stations, such as KROQ. The album included one more hit single, "Stranger Than Fiction", though the last one, "Incomplete", failed to make any national chart. The album also includes fan favorites, "Leave Mine To Me", "Tiny Voices", "The Handshake", and "Better Off Dead." As of today, Stranger Than Fiction remains the only Bad Religion record to obtain gold status in the United States and Canada. The album was re-released by Epitaph Records on September 15, 2008.
In 2009, Rhino Records released a colored vinyl to coincide with this album's 15th anniversary.
European and Australian releases of this album (on Dragnet in Europe, and Murmur in Australia) featured two additional bonus tracks "News from the Front" and "Markovian Process". These tracks also appeared as b-sides of the "Infected (opens in a new tab)" CD single and on a CD promo (opens in a new tab) from 1998. "News from the Front" also appeared on the 2005 compilation album "Punk O Rama 10 (opens in a new tab)". Another track, "Mediocrity", was also recorded during the "Stranger Than Fiction" sessions, but did not appear on the album; that track can only be found in some versions of the "21st Century (Digital Boy) (opens in a new tab)" single and one version (opens in a new tab) of the "Stranger Than Fiction" single.