The curse of increasing age for, specifically, rock bands is the view of commercial halycon days generating the best songs. The truth is that - for some, anyway - the songs that become hits are written impulsively and spontaneously; with due reflection, the autumnal material has much more substance.
So it proves with Newry brothers The 4 of Us, a band that first flourished in the late 1980s, and which has continued its stringently independent way ever since. Sugar Island is imbued with many years of experience, but mostly in autobiographical terms – most if not all of the songs here reference their Northern Irish border town background, their childhood lived during The Troubles, and their aims for better, if not bigger.
Rational, perceptive pop/folk of the highest order.
