Stiff Little Fingers Songs Ranked

Stiff Little Fingers are a punk rock band from Belfast, Northern Ireland. They formed in 1977, at the height of the Troubles. They started out as a schoolboy band called Highway Star (named after the Deep Purple song), doing rock covers until they discovered punk. They split up after six years and four albums, although they reformed five years later, in 1987. Despite major personnel changes, they are still touring and recording. In 2014, the band released their tenth studio album and a world tour followed its release. Jake Burns, their lead singer, is the only member to have been with the band during all its incarnations, but in March 2006, original bass guitarist Ali McMordie rejoined them following the departure of The Jam bass player Bruce Foxton after fifteen years. Here are all of the Stiff Little Fingers’ songs ranked.

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16. Beirut Moon (Flags and Emblems, 1991)

“Jake Burns showing his songwriting strengths with a good solid paced album that confirms why we followers of the band never give up on them. As Burns states in the later interview he didn’t want the band to become a parody of itself and this album put down a landmark that stands the band apart in that it embraced a more rock-based feel yet retained the ethos of what SLF was all about in the first place”

15. Strummerville (Guitar and Drum, 2003)

“The songwriting is passionate, relevant and intelligent. The album opens with a swipe at manufactured Boy Bands which is followed by a brilliant tribute to the late Joe Strummer (Strummerville). “

14. Doesn’t Make It Alright (Nobody’s Heroes, 1980)

“Jake Burn’s voice has got somehow more guttural – he’s developed a habit of holding on low notes for a semi-sustained period of time and it sounds vaguely comical.”

13. State of Emergency (Inflammable Material, 1979)

“Life in the Irish provinces was crap, to say the least. Catholics had no chance of work, same white skin pigment different religion is or were the display signs of confrontation between indigenous populations and the Protestant hordes. This song like the opener full of lyrics concerning teenage depression no solution because as the song lyric goes hate has made you blind.”

See more: Stiff Little Fingers Albums Ranked

12. Roots, Radicals, Rockers and Reggae (Go for It, 1981)

“Gone from Inflammable Material is any sense of anger. This is a workmanlike product. “Roots, Radicals, Rockers and Reggae” is the type of song that seems familiar even if you have never heard it before. It’s 75% rock/25% reggae.”

11. White Noise (Inflammable Material, 1979)

“A tongue in cheek racist lyric that in 1979 SLF could get away with because the whole subject of race was thought of by white people as something to be joked about. White people were not dispossessed to these racist insults and jibes so does that make it alright? I doubt that very much!. Race was embedded into the English psyche and its foulness permeated society especially through television. SLF were making an anti racist statement but looking at the lyrics they could be interpreted as pure racism. They used racism to make a joke about themselves calling the Irish as green wogs with faces not fitting into this white world. Even though the Irish skin is whiter than white life was cheap in Northern Ireland at the time.”

10. Tin Soldier (Nobody’s Heroes, 1980)

“”Tin Soldiers” is easily one of their best, most inspired tunes. The Stiff Little Fingers hit the punk scene right around the time it was no longer cool to be punk, and that’s to bad as this album is a fairly ignored classic.”

9. Here We are Nowhere (Inflammable Material, 1979)

“And the anger continues in this fast paced 1 minute ditty. Friday usually the day to look forward too at the end of the working week. But the only thought in the minds of (SLF) is from here to where to have a good time. It is only there a nowhere of misery no Youth Clubs, no Boys Clubs, no Cinemas the only solice for the disaffected youth are the squalid surroundings of closed down local shopping centres.”

8. Straw Dogs (Nobody’s Heroes, 1980)

“While this album lacks the masterful singles of its predecessor, as an album it stands incredibly well. The cleaner production really focuses the energy and the ferocity of Jake Burns & co. and forces it through a straw.”

7. Gotta Getaway (Nobody’s Heroes, 1980)

“SLF break into their gritty brand of energetic punk rock with album opener “Gotta Getaway”. They always seem to have a way of—and this will sound hopelessly nostalgic for the teenage years, but no, seriously—1) making you want to stand up and just go nuts, and 2) get out there, make a change, fuck shit up. “

See more: Parquet Courts Albums Ranked

6. At the Edge (At the Edge, 1980)

“At the Edge was SLF’s biggest selling single, scoring them a top 20 hit in 1980 (it peaked at #15 on 16th February). It was also one of their best. Suspect Device and Gotta Get Away were angrier, and Alternative Ulster was more renowned. But At the Edge combined the guts and passion of the pre-Chrysalis days with the polish and honed performance of the major label league. In short, the best of both worlds.”

5. Nobody’s Hero (Nobody’s Heroes, 1980)

“Whenever I listen to Nobody’s Heroes I wonder why I don’t listen to it more often, or at least as much as Inflammable Material. It’s less gritty, slightly less pissed off regarding Northern Ireland’s Troubles (oh, but still bitter), and musically tighter than their debut, but just as good… even if vocalist Jake Burns doesn’t sound quite as unhinged. Anyway, it’s always good, inspired listen.”

4. Barbed Wire Love (Inflammable Material, 1979)

“In all of the squalor of war and hate a little bit of love at the centre of conflict will relieve the stress for young love. Love in despair is the remedy in this rare love song. Probably their most poppier song as the sandpaper vocals are rested in most of barbed wire love. Vocal barber shop harmonies are prominent in the chorus of the song. A nice use of the drums especially the snare with the added resonance which compliments the structure of the recording. There is a nice clapping ingredient in this love song that adds to the catchyness of this harshness melody.”

3. Wasted Life (Inflammable Material, 1979)

“A great slow opener to a nexus of massive in your face simple punk guitar chords. All there is to live for estranged teenagers is to be a martyr for an impossible cause in an ongoing political confusion, hostility and turmoil. Yet, violence has to be questioned what a waste of life, this song is driven with powerful guitar riffs and guitar solo that are a highlight of side one of the album. Jakes sore throat vocals must have been painful after the recording at Spaceward Studios by the leafy streets of Cambridge.”

2. Alternative Ulster (Inflammable Material, 1979)

“Classic guitar lead at the start, one of the best political songs of the punk scene period. Mandatory in anyone’s punk singles collection. If Ulster is the source of the problems in this troubled society, then, there must be some kind of solution needed to help both sides. This was to be heralded later in the 1990s, with the Ireland peace declaration aided and abetted at first with the republican party called the SDLP. Freedom at last, however, there are still some hardcore radical groups like Continuity IRA who still are at war with the British State. They want the sovereignty of all Irish counties in Ireland to be a committee under control of the Republic of Ireland. Yet the power of the Good Friday agreement is still intact. Back to Alternative Ulster a classic that’s all i can say covered by many punk bands since its inception.”

1. Suspect Device (Inflammable Material, 1979)

“A smashing introductive display of simple chords with aggressive sand paper vocals from Jake Burns. Words of despair against an occupying British Army, or more generally a thrashing soundscape against all violence in the island of Ireland. This song hits you in the face like a hurricane and sets the tempo for the rest of the album. “Were gonna blow up in their face” Jake shouts, a smell of revolution in the air with ordinary kids arming themselves to rid the spotty Irish youth of the shitty law of force from the British occupation.”