SLF were yet another band who passed me by at the time, and I only really became aware of them from a punk compilation with Suspect Device on it. So I was quite late to this album, only hearing it in full when I bought a compilation set of five SLF albums.
So what was I missing? Clearly some biting lyrical assessment of life in Northern Ireland for young people growing up in the 1970s, and I love SLF's ambition in attempting to present this to an audience, and when it works, it's fantastic. There are some powerful songs which really knock you off your feet.
Single Suspect Device kicks proceedings off, and promises greatness. While not as powerful State Of Emergency stands up well, but Here We Are Nowhere is just filler. Wasted Life is a bit brighter and makes an impact, but on the rest of the first half, only Barbed Wire Love makes any impact, and that's negated by the awful doo-wop style interlude, until Breakout, which is a decent listen, but no more.
The second half opens with the lively Law and Order, an enjoyable start, as is Rough Trade a less than complimentary song about their record label. Bob Marley cover, Johnny Was is the band's eight minute statement, and it's actually a very good cover, which catches the spirit without trying to copy Marley. But the high point was always going to be the punk classic Alternative Ulster, one of the finest singles of the 1970s and an all time great political song. And the album should end on that high, not the tedious Closed Groove which finishes off.
There's a stone cold classic twenty minute EP here, filled out to album length. SLF's intentions are honorable, and ambitious, but this first album doesn't convince me that they yet had the material for an album.
3* - a real mixed bag, but where it's good, it's great.
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