Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7.5/10
The feeling of separation is one that all of us encounter at some point in our lives, the distance between us is such that a void, a slither of darkness in an otherwise bright space, becomes apparent and can make mockery of what we set out to attain; separation is a fuel that keeps being added to when not all the parts flow at the same rate.
Fuel is important though, without it nothing gets done at all and despite the miles that may separate us completely, the slight detachment felt when not in the altogether, Fuel is what brings the message to the heat of hope without ever scorching the details, without fuel the fire never burns brightly or for long; the more it is tended then the fire will grow and consume.
It is to Fuel that 4Square turn and despite the slight feeling of separation that sneaks between the songs at time throughout the new album, Fuel is still something to roar about, to pour the gasoline of appreciation onto the burning desire and waft it with vigour, for whilst the feeling of separation, of a gap in the way the story of the album unfolds, something very astonishing is to be felt right alongside it. The kick of dynamic expression, of ferocity, is never far from the surface and it one that will be added too as the band progresses onwards.
The kick is a constant, the ferocity within the playing of Folk a given in a way that the latest generation to find their feet within the genre can only bring as they allow with accuracy the devastation of anger to well within their hearts and in songs such as Enough To Be On Your Way, Message From Cloud Nine and Balls To Balls, 4Sqaure find themselves a notch, a lectern in which to sing the praises and point fingers of damnation with.
A part may be missing, distance between souls as they write perhaps the biggest killer of the ever awake muse in the modern society, yet distance, the small hole of awareness, is something that can be taken care of and when it is sorted Fuel rages with prospective and beautiful fury; Fuel after all invigorates the soul and energises the musical beast.
Ian D. Hall