Various Artists
The Stiff Records Box Set
Label:  Rhino 
Date:  8/4/1992
Length:  0:00
Format:  CD box set
Genre:  Rock; Alternative
  Category:  rock
    Track Listing:
      1.  
      Nick Lowe - So It Goes    
      2.  
      Nick Lowe - Heart of the City    
      3.  
      The Pink Fairies - Between the Lines    
      4.  
      Roogalator - Cincinnati Fatback    
      5.  
      Sean Tyla - Styrofoam    
      6.  
      The Damned - New Rose    
      7.  
      Richard Hell - Blank Generation    
      8.  
      The Damned - Stab Your Back    
      9.  
      Elvis Costello - Less Than Zero    
      10.  
      Max Wall - England's Glory    
      11.  
      Jill Read - Maybe    
      12.  
      The Adverts - One Chord Wonders    
      13.  
      Elvis Costello - Alison    
      14.  
      Dave Edmunds - Jo Jo Gunne    
      15.  
      Wreckless Eric - Whole Wide World    
      16.  
      Alberto Y Lost Trios Paranoias - Kill    
      17.  
      Ian Dury - Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll    
      18.  
      Ian Dury - Razzle in My Pocket    
      19.  
      The Yachts - Suffice to Say    
      20.  
      Mick Farren - Let's Loot the Supermarket Again (Like We Did Last Summer)    
      21.  
      Elvis Costello - Watching the Detectives    
      22.  
      Ian Dury - My Old Man    
      23.  
      Larry Wallis - Police Car    
      24.  
      Jane Aire - Yankee Wheels    
      25.  
      Graham Parker - Back to Schooldays    
      26.  
      Nick Lowe - I Love My Label    
      27.  
      Nick Lowe - Marie Provost    
      28.  
      Ian Dury - What a Waste!    
      29.  
      Elvis Costello - I Just Don't Know What to Do With Myself    
      30.  
      Humphrey Ocean - Whoops-A-Daisy    
      31.  
      Lene Lovich - I Think We're Alone Now    
      32.  
      Devo - Jocko Homo    
      33.  
      Ian Dury - Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick -    
      34.  
      Wreckless Eric - Semaphore Signals    
      35.  
      Jona Lewie - I'll Get by in Pittsburgh    
      36.  
      Rachel Sweet - B-A-B-Y    
      37.  
      Lene Lovich - Lucky Number    
      38.  
      The Members - Solitary Confinement    
      39.  
      The Rumour - Frozen Years    
      40.  
      Wreckless Eric - Take the Cash (K.A.S.H.)    
      41.  
      Kirsty MacColl - They Don't Know    
      42.  
      Mickey Jupp - You'll Never Get Me Up in One of Those    
      43.  
      Rachel Sweet - Who Does Lisa Like?    
      44.  
      Motor Boys Motor - Drive Friendly    
      45.  
      Lew Lewis & Reformer - Win or Lose    
      46.  
      Theatre Of Hate - Hop    
      47.  
      Madness - One Step Beyond    
      48.  
      The Rumour - Emotional Traffic    
      49.  
      Ian Dury - Inbetweenies    
      50.  
      Lew Lewis & Reformer - Lucky Seven    
      51.  
      Madness - My Girl    
      52.  
      Desmond Dekker - Israelites    
      53.  
      Joe "King" Carrasco - Buena    
      54.  
      Graham Parker - Stupefaction    
      55.  
      Jona Lewie - You'll Always Find Me in the Kitchen at Parties    
      56.  
      Any Trouble - Trouble With Love    
      57.  
      Dave Stewart - What Becomes of the Brokenhearted    
      58.  
      Graham Parker - Mercury Poisoning    
      59.  
      Dirty Looks - Let Go    
      60.  
      Madness - Baggy Trousers    
      61.  
      Dave Stewart - It's My Party    
      62.  
      John Otway - Green, Green Grass of Home    
      63.  
      Tenpole Tudor - Three Bells in a Row    
      64.  
      Jona Lewie - Stop the Cavalry    
      65.  
      Department S - Going Left Right    
      66.  
      Department S - Is Vic There?    
      67.  
      Equators - If You Need Me    
      68.  
      Tenpole Tudor - Wunderbar    
      69.  
      Desmond Dekker - Allamana    
      70.  
      Alvin Stardust - Pretend    
      71.  
      Billy Bremner - Loud Music in Cars    
      72.  
      Tenpole Tudor - Throwing My Baby Out With the Bathwater    
      73.  
      Pookiesnackenburger - Just One Cornetto    
      74.  
      Via Vagabond - Who Likes Jazz?    
      75.  
      Tracey Ullman - You Broke My Heart in 17 Places    
      76.  
      Belle Stars - Sign of the Times    
      77.  
      Belle Stars - Sweet Memory    
      78.  
      Electric Guitars - Language Problems    
      79.  
      Tracey Ullman - Breakaway    
      80.  
      Passion Puppets - Like Dust    
      81.  
      Jakko - Dangerous Dreams    
      82.  
      King Kurt - Destination Lululand (Humdiddlededumhoowahayha)    
      83.  
      The Pogues - Sick Bed of Cúchulaínn    
      84.  
      Inspirational Choir of the Pentecostal First-Born Church of the Living God - Pick Me Up    
      85.  
      Makin' Time - Here Is My Number    
      86.  
      The Pogues - Dark Streets of London    
      87.  
      Untouchables - Wild Child    
      88.  
      Kirsty MacColl - New England    
      89.  
      Jamie Rae - Pretty One    
      90.  
      Untouchables - Free Yourself    
      91.  
      The Pogues - Sally MacLennane    
      92.  
      Furniture - Brilliant Mind    
      93.  
      Dr. Feelgood - Don't Wait Up    
      94.  
      Tommy Chase - Killer Joe (Right Cross)    
      95.  
      Furniture - Shake Like Judy Says    
      96.  
      Dr. Feelgood - Hunting Shooting Fishing    
    Additional info: | top

      Understand from the get-go that label retrospectives are spotty affairs. Rare is the label that's free of stiffs, and Stiff Records' raison d'état was to serve as a refuge for castoffs, including a fair share of flaccid acts. The off-center likes of Nick Lowe (having recently fleed the misbegotten Brinsley Schwarz), Ian Dury, Wreckless Eric, Larry Wallis, and a very young Elvis Costello found a home with Stiff in the '70s. It wasn't a punk label, though it boasted the Damned; it wasn't a ska imprint, though Madness and Desmond Dekker recorded for the company; it wasn't a power-pop or pub-rock haven, though a number of Stiff's leading lights (Dury, Lowe, Costello, Dr. Feelgood, Dave Edmunds) fell into those categories. And it wasn't terribly long-lived. This imaginatively designed four-disc overview definitely loses momentum toward the end, but there's a humble enchantment to an overwhelming percentage of tracks here from label mainstays, the semiacclaimed (Devo, Graham Parker, Lene Lovich, the Pogues), and uncelebrated (Mickey Jupp, Mick Farren, Jona Lewie). -- Steven Stolder