release date: Feb. 2, 1979
format: vinyl (ROUGH 1) / digital
[album rate: 4 / 5] [3,82]
producer: Geoff Travis, Mayo Thompson, Doug Bennett
label: Rough Trade - nationality: Northern Ireland, UK
Track highlights: A) 1. "Suspect Device" (4 / 5) - 4. "Wasted Life" (4 / 5) - 5. "No More of That" - 6. "Barbed Wire Love" (4 / 5) - - B) 1. "Law and Order" (4 / 5) - 3. "Johnny Was" (4 / 5) - 4. "Alternative Ulster" (5 / 5) - 5. "Closed Groove"
Studio album debut by Northern Irish punk rock band Stiff Little Fingers is also the first full-length album on newly-established record label, Rough Trade (founded by Geoff Travis). SLF was not from the Republic of Ireland but from Belfast, Northern Ireland, a centre of political conflict in the early 80s, which may be heard on many of their songs. The band consists of lead vocalist and guitarist Jake Burns, lead guitarist and backing vocalist Henry Cluney, bassist and backing vocalist Ali McMordie, and drummer Brian Faloon - the same quartet, who had stated a career as Highway Star, a Deep Purple cover band. Inspired by punk rock movement, the quartet changed band name to Stiff Little Fingers, which is a song on British punk rock band The Vibrators' debut album Pure Mania (Jun. 1977).
Inflammable Material is the first by Stiff Little Fingers that I listened to and also the first I purchased with the band. I had been too late (and too young to know) to pay attention when Ramones, The Clash, Sex Pistols, The Damned and everyone else kicked off the punk rock revolution, so it was pretty neat to be there when one of the major bands of the genre kicked off at a later point. Like 'real' punk rock, SLF sang about politics, the generation cleft, and had a strong social dimension - and much like Ramones, they also sang about love, which was perfectly fine, BUT not really part of the punk rock movement, despite the fact that most bands did it, one way or another. "Suspect Device" (their first single, released Feb. '78) switch it on like fire and gasoline. Jake Burns screams his lungs out in his characteristic spitting and rusty manner, punching the message right in your face, and it's clear from first scratch on that these guys play for a mission. Most tracks are only a little more than 2-3 minutes but "Johnny Was" is quite unusual for a punk rock band. It runs 8 mins. and is a heavily altered cover version of a song performed by Bob Marley & The Wailers (written by Rita Marley). This version was nearly always part of the band's set-lest when performing live and it really exemplifies how the band just played on another level than the majority of punk rock bands at the time. "Alternative Ulster" both sets the place and time. Yeah, it may sound outdated today, and I don't listen to it more than once a year, and although, it's not the band's best studio release, it's certified musical history.
[ allmusic.com, Rolling Stone 4 / 5 stars ]
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