Punk Rock Songs (The Epic Years) is a compilation album by Bad Religion, released in 2002. All songs on this compilation are from their tenure on Atlantic and Epic Records from 1994 to 2000, in addition to four live tracks and both the English and German versions of "Punk Rock Song". Punk Rock Songs was released by Epic without any input from the band members, as Bad Religion had already returned to Epitaph Records, and as of 2017, it has not been released in the United States.
Background
While the first Bad Religion compilation album All Ages contains material from their 1982 debut How Could Hell Be Any Worse? to 1992's Generator, Punk Rock Songs almost takes off from that point, including material from Stranger than Fiction (1994) up through The New America (2000). It was during this period of their career that Bad Religion had risen in popularity. Like All Ages, Punk Rock Songs contains live tracks and omits anything from Recipe for Hate, which was released between Generator and Stranger than Fiction.
Although this compilation album was released after The Process of Belief, it contains no songs from that album as Bad Religion had switched record labels by that time.
Writing for AllMusic, Gregory Heaney felt that Punk Rock Songs contains some of Bad Religion's most instantly recognizable songs. He wrote that the compilation "is a great introduction to the band's work, and makes for an incredibly solid compilation of essential punk listening."[1]
Track listing
All tracks are written by Greg Graffin, except where noted.
