Inflammable Material

Inflammable Material is more blistering than any other album of its era. Stiff Little Fingers were one of the first Irish punk bands, and among the first to write about the Troubles in their songs. Led by the barbed-wire vocals of Jake Burns, the political messages in “Suspect Device” and “Alternative Ulster” are packaged in songs that explode like bombs before the listener. The band specialized in furious social commentary along the lines of “White Noise” and “Law and Order,” but their buzz saw attack also proved to be the perfect complement to the pop hooks in “Barbed Wire Love” and “Breakout.” At a time when punk was growing rote and watered down, Inflammable Material presented a tightly-focused and precisely executed concept of uncontaminated fury. These songs don’t feel like a performance of rage; they embody it. The album’s ferocity is aided in no small part by the production work of Geoff Travis, Mayo Thompson and Doug Bennett. They knew exactly how to intensify every aspect of the Fingers’ sound, and the music they recorded leaps from the speakers like an electric charge.