Four Against Fate

Description

An air of the unsettled is a staple of Robert Lloyds career, from The Prefectss dank dexterity and jittery paranoia of the first Nightingales release, Idiot Strength, onward through four decades of top-notch recordings. If the unique persona of Lloyd and crew always came across on their ten albums and countless line-ups, it was largely as an acquired taste of the musical cognoscenti. Labels good and bad seemed to feel, at one point or another, a public duty and a point of pride to release a Nightingales album before returning to the business of business. Four Against Fate is remarkable. Its the work of whats now the bands longest-serving line-up. The instrumental precision of any version of Nightingales has been one of the bands defining hallmarks, but the psychic interplay of a group can take a few albums to kick in with full majesty heres proof of that. The rhythm section of Fliss and Andi functions now on a purely intuitive level. Jims work now ranks with that of any guitarist in modern rock music, not just in originality, but also across an egalitarian mass of inspiration. Each member sings. Although Roberts voice functions as the bands superego, Fliss takes lead in several songs. Few bands today sound as much like a single unit as do Nightingales, but this group has the bonus of a distinct and credible musical language, exemplified by The Desperate Quartet, which comes across as both a medieval war march and the anthem of looming apocalypse. When at the songs halfway point, American classical musician Clara Kebabians violin and Mark Bedfords (of Madness) double bass overtake the Robert, Fliss, Jim and Andi, its a jawdropper of such intense perversity that it alone defies the listener to not play the album again from the start. Not that this album lacks hits The Top Shelf, Everything Everywhere All Of The Time, Devils Due and The Other Side are stunners. Robert claims Four Against Fate is the first of his album on which he skips no tracks on playback! Finally, the world has awakened to one of British musics last treasures. After forty years of new labels, this is the first time Nightingales have released an album on the same label as their last full-length. James Nicholls of Fire Films has commissioned a documentary on Robert and the band, written by comedian Stewart Lee and directed by Michael Cumming, which will be released this year. An expanded double vinyl album reissue of the previously cd only No Love Lost, was released last autumn, followed swiftly by the first complete collection of The Prefects recordings on vinyl. More reissues, multiple tours across the UK and Europe and more news will follow in 2020.