STIFF LITTLE FINGERS – “No Going Back”

RATING: RRRRR

Label: Rigid Digits

Reviewed By: Alan Holloway

If you’ve never heard their stuff beyond a few old punk rock tracks, forget everything you thought you knew about Stiff Little Fingers. Firstly, they are not really a punk band, and secondly they have in their ranks one of the best lyricists in the business. Oh yeah… they also make fucking great music.

“No Going Back” is the 10^th SLF album, and I was amazed to realize it’s been eleven years since their last one, the powerful “Guitar & Drum”. As with many bands these days they’ve been funded through Pledge Music, surely one of the best ideas in music history. Go Pledge!

The band first came to my attention with their 1997 “Tinderbox” album, and I was amazed at how melodic they were, not even remotely like a punk band in the traditional sense. Vocalist Jake Burns, who had an angry growl when they started out in the late 1970’s, has quite a unique sound to his voice, a voice that spits pure venom when politicians and bankers come into the lyrics. When he’s not shouting at the powerful, however, he has a real melodic pitch that has defined the band’s sound for over 30 years now.

“No Going Back” has twelve tracks and is seriously as good as anything the band have ever done. It’s got some powerful, killer guitar tracks, but that’s true of any album by SLF. The rwal selling point if that it’s also stuffed with killer hooks, plenty of melody and choruses that have you singing along on your first listen. It opens with “Liars Club”, a track about politicians that the band have played previously on tour, and this powerful track sets the tone for the album. Jake Burns has always written about things that, basically, piss him off, and “No Going Back” doesn’t sway from serious topics, including Burns’ own depression in “My Dark Places”. Final track “When We Were Young” has a real retro SLF feel to it, not only in the riff and structure but also because it includes a snippet of their old single “At The Edge” if you listen closely. It has the great line “They said that it’s all over, I said like hell it is, They say it’s self delusion, I say it’s self belief”, and that encapsulates the sheer determination of this band and their indomitable frontman to keep on making great music and telling it like it is.

I know I’m banging on a bit, but this is so far the best album of the year, it’s such a pure release or raw energy and talent. There’s nods to the band’s history, there’s politics and personal life in the lyrics, there’s some superb songwriting in general, and there’s music that just kicks ass and gets you fired up from the first listen. The crowds at the gigs may only want to hear the old songs, but I hope Jake Burns and co play as many of these songs as possible on the upcoming tour, because they’ve never sounded fresher and more determined. Absolutely brilliant. 

Official Band Website