I’m identifying the best three albums by my fifty favorite rock bands of all time. This blog is for #3 – Stiff Little Fingers. This band is also known as SLF.
Criteria for selecting the best three albums
First, Greatest Hits albums are not permitted. Second – no live albums. I will share I’ve seen this band multiple times live. They are awesome and have released a lot of excellent live music. Third, I’m including an honorable mention album or two for the top 25.
Who in the world are Stiff Little Fingers?
You are probably wondering who in the world is SLF. Great question. I queried my favorite artificial intelligence tool ChatGPT for a summary about the band. The bottom line is that they are a Northern Ireland punk rock band. They formed back in 1977. After The Clash toured Ireland, Jake Burns and the boys said we should do the same thing here in Belfast. As far as their music style – they started as a punk band. They play hard and almost all of their songs contain politically toned and themed lyrics. That’s what they’re known for since they lived through the Troubles of Northern Ireland. This band did an excellent job describing the death, destruction, chaos, and violence that was happening all around them while painting a picture of a brighter future that eventually came to pass.
SLF albums ranked by ChatGPT
Let’s look at what artificial intelligence has to say about this list. According to ChatGPT below are the top five Stiff Little Fingers’ albums based on sales and critical acclaim.
It is the five albums I expected. Most of them come from their early years. The reality is that this band kind of has had two perhaps even three eras. They took a big hiatus for almost a decade and I would say their earlier music definitely is better than their more recent recordings.
Popular releases for this band
Let’s look at some Spotify data. According to that streaming music platform below are the five most popular SLF albums. Once again their first four show up which is what I would expect and then their comeback album Flags and Emblems which they released in the early 90s.
The third-best album by this band is Go For It
The third-best album by SLF is called Go For It. This record was their third release. This album is where you start to see them truly move away from their punk roots and start to play a much more diverse set of songs. It is an excellent album that includes the song “Just Fade Away” as well as the title track which they always play before coming out on stage.
The second-best album by Stiff Little Fingers
The second-best album by Stiff Little Fingers is their debut release Inflammable Material. It is a landmark record. I saw the band play this entire album live during the anniversary tour. It is a killer punk album that truly captures the despair and anger of the youth in Belfast during the troubles in Northern Ireland. You hear it in songs such as “Suspect Device”, “State of Emergency”, “Wasted Life”, “Barbed Wire Love” and “Law and Order”. If you’re looking for an Anthem song by this band that hits the mark, then listen to “Alternative Ulster”. The opening guitar chords of that song always get me going.
Honorable mention albums for this band
Here are the honorable mention albums for SLF. First, Now Then. their fourth record. It was a big departure from their punk rock roots. Some fans and most critics didn’t like it at all. They are both wrong – it is a strong album. The second honorable mention album is a much more recent release called No Going Back. The band actually funded this themselves with fan support. It includes several good songs. I saw them on tour for this album and really enjoyed the show.
The best album by Stiff Little Fingers
The best album by Stiff Little Fingers is their second record, Nobody’s Heroes. This is the album that made me fall in love with this band. I borrowed it from some soccer buddies in high school and haven’t stopped listening to it since I dropped the needle on the opening track “Gotta Get Away” which is the best SLF song. This album includes “Tin Soldiers”, another classic, along with “Fly the Flag”, “At the Edge”, and “Nobody’s Heroes”. If you want a starting point for this band because you’ve never heard of them I recommend listening to this album first.
There you have it – the three best SLF albums. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.
I am Doug Keating and this is my letter to my sons.
Agree with a lot of what your saying but as a fan I disagree with your view of the later albums ,yes the first 2 are iconic albums but every album SLF have released is relevant both musically and lyrically, the band have moved on musically and vocally from the early days but still maintain that raw edge ,every song tells a story of real life events not just words thrown in because they sound good like so many bands tend to do,every new member who joined fits in but today’s band (the longest serving)fit like a glove ,I have listened to them from the beginning and still the hairs on the back of my neck stand up when the intro of GO FOR IT comes on at a show ,long may it continue and HANX
COLIN VANNUCCI
Great feedback. I will give some of the more recent albums another listen. Agree about their live shows. I hope to catch them again this year. Hanx.