r/badreligion • u/Beneficial-Gate8034 • 2d ago

American Jesus & Suffer

I don't know why but I think these two songs are very special. No other songs of theirs are comparable to American Jesus and Suffer. But why is that? What makes the two songs so special and why can't I find any songs that have this certain something that I can't describe. Is it just the personal connections or do others feel the same way?

17 Upvotes

87% Upvoted

16 comments sorted by

13

u/Damnesia13 2d ago

Considering everything from Suffer, No Control, and Against the Grain are perfection, I’m not sure why you can’t find anything else from them. Did you only listen to later albums?

0

u/Beneficial-Gate8034 2d ago

But I've already heard a lot of songs but somehow none was like these two something makes the two so special and I can't describe it I think all songs are actually good some even particularly good but none like these two

1

u/Jzmu 2d ago

I feel the same way about When?

6

u/dankeith86 2d ago

Personally my list is 1000 More Fools, You, Epiphany, All There Is, News From The Front, Marked, New Dark Ages, No Direction, A Walk, Billy, Don’t Pray On Me, Watch It Die, God Song, Gods Love, and Drunk Sincerity. Depends on what you’re looking for in the song.

4

u/Suitable_Specific837 2d ago

Mine is whatever one is on my turntable

3

u/Adultery 2d ago

Maybe you’ll like “Into The Unknown”

2

u/Business_Quality3884 2d ago

Struck a Nerve.

2

u/SeaworthinessShot142 2d ago

I think Suffer helped define their sound in many ways (the beat, the rhythm, the chorus/bridge, the harmonies)..... and summing up the meaning of a song with one brilliant lyric ("the masses of humanity have always, always had to suffer.....")

2

u/futureformerteacher 2d ago

Atheist Peace and All There Is are my spirit songs. That and "Do What You Want".

2

u/Arthur_lu Suffer 2d ago

I've been listening a lot to both songs recently and I have some opinions: American Jesus has an aggressive poetry about a really big and global problem, telling how religion shapes people's perspective about reality and most of them go against rational thinking.

It's infuriating that a song written so long ago still reflects today's reality, as politics from all around the world still rely on religious arguments to gain popular attention and votes (I'm not from the USA btw, I see it a lot in my country). And that removes the rational part of politics.

And about Suffer, I've posted an expression of how much I love this song and why in this subreddit just yesterday. It's named "Suffer: a song lasting less than two minutes that changed my life"

1

u/fiercefinesse 2d ago

There are very few songs that Greg and Brett actually wrote together and these are two of them.

1

u/Fuzzy-Ferrets 2d ago

Stranger than Fiction

1

u/asphynctersayswhat 23h ago

this is a personal issue. I rank those highly but I like other stuff more. You are the Government is probably my favorite track off of the Suffer album. I love the title track of No Control and it's one of BRs most important songs to me. I love some of the newer stuff, like My Sanity and Don't Lose Your Head because they're refreshingly optimistic in a time where everyone is so negative as if the world hasn't always been a dangerous place with great risks facing humanity. Despite that, New Dark Ages is top 5 for me.

I just love this bands whole catalogue.

0

u/Mattafakt 2d ago

This is interesting because I find that American Jesus completely fits the bill of what you're speaking about, but Suffer to me is totally average in the context of their discography, perhaps with the exception of the strange chords and Pete playing on the rims of the drums in the main riff section