No Rest For The Wicked

EMI, 1985

NMA came under fire from punk’s agit-prop wing for signing to EMI – a company with links to the arms trade – for their first fulllength album.

But having the bigger platform seemed only to focus their ire. Sullivan took aim at xenophobia (My Country) and toxic smalltown masculinity (Better Than Them), while the furious title track remains one of their greatest anthems.

But Young, Gifted And Skint possessed an underdog empathy that evoked no one so unlikely as Bruce Springsteen, in spirit if not in sound – a side of the band that remains intact today.