Radio 4 - 'Enemies Like This' (EMI) Released 19/06/06

Wot, no cowbell? The five New Yorkers that make up Radio 4 probably wouldn’t be too happy to find that a pre-schooler’s percussion instrument has become the defining element of their sound. Whatever they say though, it played a key role in the band’s 2002 punk-funk cult classic ‘Gotham’, but is sadly lacking here as they decide to get all grown up on us – less partying, more politics.

It may seem a trite observation to make, but such a change really is indicative of the band’s decision to streamline their sound. ‘Gotham’s 2004 follow-up, ‘Stealing Of A Nation’ suffered from some severe instances of filler, and so here they’ve cut out all the flab – and in the process, cut the beating heart right out of their music. You don’t need to be a plastic surgeon to know that that’s not right. 

Whereas once they would have had a subtle political message that seeped into your brain while you danced, on tracks like ‘Too Much To Ask For’ they resort to blatant sloganeering. While it’s lyrically about drought, famine and Third World debt, musically it’s all about debt to Gang of Four. It’s also one of the album’s many examples of forsaking danceability for straight up post-punk-by-numbers. Elsewhere, tribal drums that were perhaps intended as a clever nod to multiculturalism instead sound like you’re stuck in Jools Holland world music hell. There’s plenty of sleazy two-note basslines, loping dub and mid-tempo bleeps ‘n’ handclaps numbers, but the only place where all the ingredients work well together is, fittingly enough, the critic-baiting ‘Always A Target’. Featuring LCD Soundsystem man Phil Mossman on guitar, it does make one realise the effect working with LCD production team DFA must have had on the band’s former glories.

Radio 4 singer Anthony Roman says that the idea behind this record “was to get as close to what we sound like live as possible”. Their live show is indeed great – the sort of “non-stop über-rocking disco party” that the Brakes sing about, it comes on as if the Haçienda and CBGB’s put on a night together.  ‘Enemies Like This’, however, is about as wild and visceral as the block of executive flats that now stands in the Haçienda’s place.