Stiff Little Fingers

Nobody's Heroes (1980)

Strewtho

The follow up to the classic Inflammable Material is a sensational album from one of the best.

While the songs on their debut were mainly about the political situation at the time, the lyrics on this album have a more personal theme. Including the move from Belfast to London "Gotta Getaway", new found fan admiration "Nobody's Hero", "At the edge" shows how Jake was treated by his parents and the story of the band featuring a tribute to departing drummer Brian Faloon in "Wait and see".

While the songs on this release seem a tad slower, there is still plenty of passion and rawness about them. Jake Burns' vocals are a fine example of this as he barks loudly throughout the album. The major label support shows with cleaner production on this album compared to their debut but still retains a great sound and the emotion of the music.

The album features a couple of dub and reggae songs "Bloody Dub" and a cover of The Specials' "Doesn't make it alright". Both work very well and I personally prefer the cover to original.
The only weak point of the album would be the song "No Change" which just fails to meet the hight standard set by the other songs on the album. "I don't like you" is also not as good as the other tracks but is by no means a bad song.

Most of the songs have an anthem like quality about them and are great to sing along to especially "Gotta Getaway", "Fly the flag" and "Tin Soldiers".

As an added bonus is that it has been re-released on cd at a budget price with the bonus non album tracks "Bloody Sunday", "Straw dogs" and "You can't say crap on the radio". There's also part two of an interview done with Jake Burns, which is a fairly entertaining listen that documents what was happening with the band at the time. Personally I can't recommend this album enough to fans of earlier punk or just great music in general.