''Christmas Songs'' is the third EP album by American

punk rock Punk rock (also known as simply punk) is a rock music genre that emerged in the mid-1970s. Rooted in 1950s rock and roll and 1960s garage rock, punk bands rejected the corporate nature of mainstream 1970s rock music. They typically produced sh ...

band

Bad Religion Bad Religion is an American punk rock band, formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1980. The band's lyrics cover topics related to religion, politics, society, the media and science. Musically, they are noted for their melodic sensibilities and ...

, released October 29, 2013, on

Epitaph Records Epitaph Records is an American independent record label owned by Bad Religion guitarist Brett Gurewitz. A large portion of the record label, known as Hellcat Records, is owned by Tim Armstrong, frontman of the punk rock band Rancid. Several ...

. It is their first full-length

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a Religion, religious and Culture, cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by coun ...

album, featuring eight covers of seasonal songs and an " Andy Wallace mix" version of "American Jesus". This is also the first Bad Religion album not to feature

Greg Hetson Greg Hetson (born June 29, 1961) is an American musician. He is best known as the guitarist for the influential punk rock bands Circle Jerks and Bad Religion. He is known for his high energy stage antics which people have coined the term "The He ...

on guitar since 1983's '' Into the Unknown'', although he appears on "American Jesus", and the first time they recorded as a five-piece since 2000's ''

The New America ''The New America'' is the eleventh studio album by punk band Bad Religion. It was released in 2000 and is their last album (to date) on Atlantic Records. ''The New America'' is also Bad Religion's last album with Bobby Schayer on drums. Though ...

''. ''Christmas Songs'' is also Bad Religion's final release with

Brooks Wackerman Brooks Wackerman (born February 15, 1977) is an American musician. He is the current drummer of heavy metal band Avenged Sevenfold, which he joined in 2015. His first album with Avenged Sevenfold was ''The Stage'' (2016). He was previously th ...

on drums.

Background

Although Bad Religion had played many Christmas songs in the past, mostly during the

KROQ KROQ-FM (106.7 MHz) is a commercial radio station licensed to Pasadena, California, serving Greater Los Angeles. Owned by Audacy, Inc., it broadcasts an alternative rock format known as "The World Famous KROQ" (pronounced "kay-rock"). The sta ...

Almost Acoustic Christmas Almost Acoustic Christmas is an annual concert run by the Los Angeles radio station KROQ-FM. Like the radio station's other festivals (including the Weenie Roast, LA Invasion and Epicenter), it is a festival organized by KROQ-FM to raise money ...

shows, the band had reportedly turned down offers to release a Christmas album. After three days of speculation, the official announcement of ''Christmas Songs'' came via Epitaph press release on September 10, 2013. 20% of the proceeds from Christmas Songs will go to

SNAP Snap or SNAP may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Snap'' (film), the initial release title for the 2013 film ''Enter the Dangerous Mind'' * '' The Stanly News and Press'', a newspaper in Albemarle, North Carolina, US * "Snap" (''Duty Free'') ...

(Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests).

Cover

The cover picture comes from a picture titled "New Shoes" by Gerald Waller (Austria 1946). It is of an orphan boy who received new shoes from the

American Red Cross The American National Red Cross is a Nonprofit organization, nonprofit Humanitarianism, humanitarian organization that provides emergency assistance, disaster relief, and disaster preparedness education in the United States. Clara Barton founded ...

Reception

Critical

''Christmas Songs'' received mixed reviews from

music critics Music journalism (or music criticism) is media criticism and reporting about music topics, including popular music, classical music, and traditional music. Journalists began writing about music in the eighteenth century, providing commentary on ...

upon its release. At

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, which assigns a

normalized Normalization or normalisation refers to a process that makes something more normal or regular. Science * Normalization process theory, a sociological theory of the implementation of new technologies or innovations * Normalization model, used in ...

rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has received an

average In colloquial, ordinary language, an average is a single number or value that best represents a set of data. The type of average taken as most typically representative of a list of numbers is the arithmetic mean the sum of the numbers divided by ...

score of 60, based on 15 reviews, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.

Track listing

Personnel

Adapted from the album liner notes. ;Bad Religion *

Greg Graffin Gregory Walter Graffin (born November 6, 1964) is an American singer who is the lead vocalist and only constant member of the punk band Bad Religion, which he co-founded in 1980. He has also released three solo albums. Graffin obtained his PhD ...

– lead vocals, backing vocals, producer *

Brett Gurewitz Brett W. Gurewitz (born May 12, 1962), nicknamed Mr. Brett, is an American musician and record producer, best known as the co-founder and guitarist of the Punk rock, punk band Bad Religion. He is also the owner of the music label Epitaph Records ...

– guitar, backing vocals, producer * Brian Baker – guitar *

Jay Bentley Jayson Dee Bentley (born June 6, 1964) is the bassist and co-founding member of the punk rock group Bad Religion. He has played with the band through its whole existence with a small break between 1983 and 1985. Along with vocalist Greg Graffin, ...

– bass *

– drums ;Additional musicians *

– guitar on "American Jesus" *

Bobby Schayer Bobby Schayer (born December 23, 1966, in Los Angeles, California) is an American drummer. He was a member of Bad Religion from 1991 to 2001. Schayer is from Encino, a suburb in the San Fernando Valley. He started drumming in 1976 at the age of ...

– drums on "American Jesus" ;Technical *

Joe Barresi Joe Barresi (nicknamed "Evil Joe") is an American record engineer and producer who has worked with Kyuss, The Melvins, Tool, Chevelle, Apocalyptica, Queens of the Stone Age, Coheed and Cambria, Tomahawk, L7, The Jesus Lizard, Parkway Drive ...

– producer, engineer, mixing * Josh Smith – assistant engineer * Jun Murakawa – assistant engineer *

Bob Ludwig Robert Carl Ludwig (born December 11, 1944), is a retired American mastering engineer. He mastered recordings on all the major recording formats for all the major record labels, and on projects by more than 1,300 artists, including Led Zeppeli ...

– mastering * Gerald Waller – cover photography * Fred Hidalgo – additional photography, art direction, design

Charts

References

External links

''Christmas Songs''
at

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

(streamed copy where licensed) {{DEFAULTSORT:Christmas Songs (Bad Religion Album) 2013 Christmas albums Bad Religion albums 2013 EPs Covers EPs Epitaph Records EPs Charity albums Christmas albums by American artists Rock Christmas albums