Reject All American by Bikini Kill

Reject All American, Bikini Kill's second full-length, was cut in November 1995 with John Goodmanson producing and released on April 5, 1996, by Kill Rock Stars. The Olympia, Washington band that lit the fuse for riot grrrl still had its original lineup: Kathleen Hanna singing, Billy Karren on guitar, Kathi Wilcox on bass and Tobi Vail on drums.

It's lean and mean, 28 minutes of abrasive, hardcore-bred punk with a few mid-tempo breathers, and Entertainment Weekly pictured it as the Go-Go's reborn as riot grrrls. Robert Christgau singled out Hanna's voice and Karren's guitar for giving the songs sharper definition and real confidence. The title track is the one that later found its way onto the countdowns. It turned out to be their last full-length: the band called it quits in 1997, and in 2026 Rolling Stone ranked it 19th among the greatest punk albums of all time.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.