Reflections on Bad Religion's All Ages

Content warning: this post discusses punk music that contains themes of humanity repeatedly failing itself. I recently came across some of my music writing from years ago where I reflected on my favorite albums of all time. Since I've been listening to one of these in particular a lot during the last couple of years, I thought it fitting to dig in to a few of the tracks and discuss why I find them relevant in today's world. The album in question is All Ages, by Bad Religion, which was released in 1995. This is a compilation album that mostly focuses on their best work from the late 80's and early 90's, where the vast majority of the writing credits are represented by Greg Graffin (aka professor punk) and Brett Gurewitz (aka Mr. Brett, founder of Epitaph records). In their early years, both men were titans of influence on the American punk and hardcore scene. Interestingly, this compilation is the first Bad Religion album album that I purchased, and the circumstances around it are…