Stiff Little Fingers

No Going Back

Written by: PP on 17/06/2014 23:27:12

Stiff Little Fingers FROM Belfast, Northern Ireland have been performing as a band since 1977, which means they were a part of the original first wave of punk rock alongside bands like Ramones, Sex Pistols, The Clash and so forth. While their sound has changed over the years, references to said bands are still audible on their tenth studio album "No Going Back", which is their first studio material in 11 years, although a clean, modern production ensures their brand of punk is more suited for arena style venues than small basement these days.

"No Going Back" is packed with straight forward, simplistic punk songs with old school vibes referencing The Clash as much as they do Social Distortion, with a few notions towards modern bands like The Gaslight Anthem in the process. A song like "I Just Care About Me" has a power-pop style chorus that demands to be sung along to, whereas "Full Steam Backwards" is just a blatant feel good track in general. This despite the politically charged lyricism that has been a staple in the band's universe over the years. There's space for experimentation as well, as the ska guitars of "Don't Mind Me" show, and their celtic heritage, given the flute and acoustic guitar combo in "Guilty As Sin", that has a distinct celtic folk punk vibe to it even though it is a ballad. A song like "One Man Island" and "Throwing It All Away" take us all the way to 80s style rock'n'roll (thinking Twisted Sister wouldn't be all that far out here!), and it's clearly not here where the band are at their strongest. The more upbeat tracks mentioned earlier is where Stiff Little Fingers make their best mark.

But overall, "No Going Back" does leave its listener a little cold. While decent in many places, as a whole package it feels out-of-place in today's punk scene, and doesn't really fill any void that hasn't already been filled by a band doing it much better. The sound is deceptively modern thanks to the production, but the songs simply aren't on par with the rest of the punk scene anymore.

6

Download: I Just Care About Me, Full Steam Backwards, My Dark Places
For the fans of: The Clash, The Gaslight Anthem, Social Distortion
Listen: Facebook

Release date 15.03.2014
PledgeMusic / Rigid Digits

Related Items | How we score?
Comments
comments powered by Disqus

Legal

© Copyright MMXXIV Rockfreaks.net.