This came out in 2004 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
Quick, name your favourite Israeli band? What’s that? You don’t have one? Maybe that’s because you haven’t heard RockFour yet.
Of course, even if you have, you’d never be able to tell their nationality from their sound. After all, these Tel Aviv boys don’t sing in Hebrew or kick it on the Klezmer tip. Although the influences on their seventh CD Nationwide are definitely old-school — from the British Invasion pop-rock of The Beatles to the jangle-folk of The Byrds to the velvet-goldmine glam of David Bowie and the new wave robotics of The Cars. Toss in the odd surf lick, the occasional hint of psychedelia, and enough tremolo, vibrato and echo to give an old hippie an acid flashback — and then squeeze it all through the lightly fuzzy garage-rock prism of Detroit producer Jim Diamond (Dirtbombs) — and you’ve got a disc that suggests music really is the international language.
