Stealing of a Nation

by

Radio 4

Edit

The problem with having your name bandied about exclusively by hipsters and indie geeks is that eventually they turn on you. Radio 4 were loosely affiliated with the DFA production team for about 5 minutes and because of this, hordes of Rapture fans and casual alternative types who liked "Dance to the Underground" (on the car commercial) flocked to Gotham! like it was the second coming of the Strokes. Critics weren't much better -- they dismissed the band for retreading Gang of Four and the Clash as if it wasn't bands like this, who carry such a torch, that exposed them to Gang of Four in the first place. Now Radio 4 have moved on beyond the indie labels and the hipsterdom and the Go4 retreads, and they're still being lambasted. The sad thing is that this record is actually quite strong; there isn't a lot of variation from song to song, but the choruses groove themselves into your head and the busy, slick dance production exalts Anthony Roman's bass to give the whole thing a mighty wallop. "Party Crashers" makes a great intro single, despite what Pitchfork may want you to think, mainly because it is recognizably *Radio 4* and probably the first song of theirs to override the derivation; it sounds wholly like themselves. "Absolute Affirmation" and "Transmission" both house tremendous central guitar-based hooks, while "FRA Type I & II" pumps up the bassline to unveil a healthy dub influence and "Shake the Foundation" throbs along at a post-modern funk/disco tempo. Lyrically, the band are still about political sloganeering and anthemic calls to action, but are thankfully never heavy enough to distract from the rhythms. In fact, the gloss, the beat, the good times -- all of these things seem to anticipate a resurgence of late 80s values (the INXS comparisons are really quite appropriate) that will come back into vogue as soon as the kids today get just a little bit older, and if they play their cards right, Radio 4 may just ride the crest of that wave all the way to the top.

At first I loved this CD, but then I realized that it didn't contain much depth and that the songs all sounded very similar. There are definitely highlights, but the ones that aren't are noticably worse. "Party Crashers", "State Of Alert", and "Absolute Affirmation", for example, are pretty good mindless songs, but really you wouldn't mind not having them either. It's one of those situations where if you have the songs, cool, but if you don't you wouldn't care much. Not an entirely unsatisfying purchase, but I couldn't really recommend this album when there are so many better ones out there to get first.

Highlights include:

"Party Crashers"

"State Of Alert"

"The Death Of American Radio"

"Nation"

"Absolute Affirmation"