Bands/Artists We Love – The Rifles






The Rifles have been one of my favorite bands ever since I stumbled upon the video for Local Boy online around the time their superb debut album No Love Lost was released. I remember hearing Local Boy for the first time and feeling an urgency to get their album, a feeling I could only compare to the same urgency I felt the first time I heard The Jam or The Clash.

Most of my favorite artists and bands back then had been around for a while and I’ve gotten into them with (at least) a few albums already under their belt. That’s what made The Rifles so special for me, they (along with Arctic Monkeys) were the first new bands I discovered that I still listen to regularly today.

I have waited anxiously for each of their releases and bought each of them on their release date. The Rifles’ biggest strength for me lies in the fact that their entire catalog is strong. They have no weak tracks, there’s no album of theirs where I want to skip a single track. It’s all great. When I heard that their last album Big Life was going to be a double album I was a bit worried, as usually double efforts have a bit of filler in them... but that was not the case here, it’s like they are a machine, all hits no misses.

Picking a favorite Rifles album is extremely hard. Their debut was a game changer for me. Their sophomore album The Great Escape is pure gold (no sophomore slump there). Even Freedom Run which was probably my least played album of theirs is amazing (I just rediscovered how great it is now that it was released in vinyl for the first time). But my favorite is probably None The Wiser, a perfect album from start to finish.

Here at home we play them constantly, specially the acoustic albums which are absolutely beautiful. The acoustic version of Victoria is played here every night at bedtime, in part because my daughter Vicky is convinced she’s named after the song (although she was born 4 years before it was released... don’t tell her she’s actually named after Victoria by The Kinks 😉 ).

If I still haven’t convinced you of how great The Rifles are, then hear for yourself and be ready to be converted. Here’s a playlist of my favs, you can thank me later:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4It0jSvwTvbzYmlioofVl9

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