After a third album that even the group admits was a misstep, Radio 4 return to doing what they do best. In other words, it's time for another pseudo-political punky reggae party, filled to the (Andy) gills with the stuff you'd expect from a group that hasn't figured out where the line between homage and plagiarism lies. This could be the group's most accomplished record musically, but when Anthony Roman opens his yap he consigns the band's good deeds to the remainder bin.

Radio 4 have always striven to add meaning behind the motion, but good intentions only get you so far. For a guy who's all about starting fires and affecting change, Roman could use a foot in the ass-- even at his most impassioned, he sounds like Leonard Cohen imitating Eeyore. DFA, bless their souls, knew how to work around this shortcoming: push the monochromatic proselytizing down in the mix, turn up the guitars, and add oodles of percussion. That bit of studio chicanery garnered Radio 4 their best album, and probably also earned them the right to run their mouths off on Astralwerks' dime.

Unfortunately, Enemies Like This features Roman front and center, weighing in on such topical chestnuts as corporate greed, corruption, the unease one feels living in Western society (the band's words), and, of course, Hurricane Katrina. Dig this big crux: "It's easy to feel/ They're dragging their heels/ As far as the eye can see." That said, if the result of Radio 4 eschewing politics leads to weak tracks like "Grass Is Greener", then preach on, preacher man, and spare listeners any more half-ass attempts at one-upping Interpol. Or maybe they should just write instrumentals. "Everything's in Question" starts off fine on a slinky dub-flecked tact and "This Is Not a Test" tries to go for the funk, but then in each case the vocals kick in.

This isn't to say the album is worthless. For instance, if you're jonesing for some melodica, and your Augustus Pablo records are MIA, then cue up "Ascension Street" and try not to notice that it's supposed to be about the gentrification of Brooklyn. If you can't find your copy of the Rapture's Echoes (admit it-- you have one), give "All in Control" a bit of your time. Frisky songs like "(Always a) Target", the title track, and especially "Too Much to Ask For" sound like they learned how to do something besides rewrite "Anthrax" for the umpteenth time. That the latter is also the shortest track on the album is probably just a happy coincidence.

Of course, after this screed, I'm sure someone from the group would be happy to point me to the following quote from Kurt Vonnegut paraphrased in their press materials: "Any reviewer who expresses rage and loathing for a novel is preposterous. He or she is like a person who has put on full armor and attacked a hot fudge sundae." Radio 4, no doubt still stinging from the outrageous slings and arrows lobbed in their general direction over previous aesthetic crimes, paraphrase that sentiment. However, they conflate the expression of rage and loathing with the act of critiquing, and turn a comment on critical overreaction into a preemptive dismissal of would-be naysayers. Given what they've cranked out to date, maybe Radio 4 should worry less about their enemies, and more about the finished product.

-David Raposa, June 5, 2006