After the unabashed brilliance of
Go for It,
Stiff Little Fingers' fourth album, September 1982's
Now Then came as something of a disappointment, a bedraggled mish-mash that illustrated (though nobody knew it at the time) the internal dissent that was already pulling the group apart. Within weeks of
Now Then's release,
Stiff Little Fingers would have disbanded, to lie fallow for much of the next five years, and it was only with the release, in 1983, of the
All the Best compilation that the true brilliance of the best of this album was revealed. Divorced from the often workaday filler that punctuated the album, the U.K. hit single "Bits of Kids," the snappy "Touch And Go" and "Talkback," and a genuinely moving version of
Nicky Thomas' reggae smash "Love of the Common People" are as good as any earlier
Fingers masterpiece, while the bonus tracks appended to the Captain Oi! reissue round up the solidly excellent 1.10 or Less EP, plus the bitter B-side "Good for Nothing." ~ Dave Thompson