Most melodic, but arguably finest statement the band made.

Track Listing

1. Statement Of Vindication
2. Capri Pants
3. Jet Ski
4. Distinct Complicity
5. False Start
6. R.I.P.
7. No Backrub
8. Bloody Ice Cream
9. For Only
10. Tony Randall
11. Reject All American
12. Finale

---

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #45721 in Music
• Released on: 1996-04-05
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Dimensions: .21 pounds

From Amazon.com
With three years since their last album, Pussy Whipped, and only a few 7-inch singles in the meantime, Bikini Kill had loads of time to become a band that stands on its own merits. Reject All American, their 1996 sophomore release, reveals a refined punk band with increased clarity, verified competence, and expanded range. While the band's heart still lies in the sneering brat punk of the Sex Pistols or X-Ray Spex--heard here on thrilling two-minute slices of attitude like "Capri Pants" and "Statement of Vindication"--the band also gives a go at airy alt rock (bassist Kathi Wilcox's jangly "False Start"), classic new wave pop (the title track's Go-Go's chorus), and even drops a trumpet and xylophone into the mix. Still, it's Kathleen Hanna's words and vocals that have matured most and remain the band's primary strength. It's enough to make you proud: Just look at how our little grrrl has grown. --Roni Sarig

CD Description
Initially pegged as "riot girls", something to which BikiniKill always objected, the band took nearly four years to record its second full-length album, REJECT ALL AMERICAN, by which time the "movement" had died down somewhat, thus freeing it from the stifling label. Furthering a trend evident since its earliest material, the album again marks a step up inimproved production, as well as continuing the band's move from barely structured primal scream assaults into pop-oriented, though still aggressive, songs--and hey, at 27 minutes,it's Bikini Kill's longest record yet!
The pop move is most obvious on "False Start", which, given sweeter lyrics, could have given the Bangles a run for their money. It repeats the gambit on "R.I.P"., a lyrically wrenching cry for a dead friend. Other standouts include "Capri Pants", a barreling freight train of a song, "Jet Ski", which features Kathleen Hanna belting out a chorus of "I ain't got no candy for you", and the title track, which is built on a controlled rhythm and guitar base and makes a great sing-along anthem. If you like your punk rock tuneful, REJECT ALL AMERICAN will make a fine addition to your collection.

---

Customer Reviews

The best Bikini Kill release, the best riot grrl release.
Bikini Kill started off with the priorities of making their political statement and playing load gigs over making an attractive and lyrically clever studio album / E.P., they certainly developed their sound with each album they made.
Now they have split up, I see this album as the pinnacle of their musical achievements - a mission statement if you like.

Like most punk bands, Bikini Kill, over a few years recording and playing together, learned to play their best music and entwine within it extremely clever and lasting lyrics - a proven talent of singer Kathleen Hanna during and since Bikini Kill.

For me this album encapsulates a true new punk movement in the shape of riot grrrls but it goes far further. You can hear that it has been created from a pure struggle, it embrases everything the band stand for - it has an uncommercialised punk ethic that has rarely heard post 1970's and it fears nothing.

I dispair for would be buyers that this is currently unavailable as I feel it has been overlooked as a truly historic and culturally important album.

must have for any bikini kill/riot grrl fan
This is a fantastic album, the type that never ever leaves the cd player, even when you have listened to it 50million times and are begining to hate it, you still have to listen so that you can get through the day. Its quite different from their other stuff, more melodic, but just as good as any other album, in its own way.
Look out for the sleater-kinney like guitar bit at the end of finale, very cool