Nationwide isn't too different from previous
Rockfour releases, and it's still highly reminiscent of much late-'60s pop-psychedelia, usually of the British sort. That's okay -- when you do retro-indebted sounds as well as
Rockfour does, the many spottable influences aren't a source of annoyance, as they are for such a high percentage of bands that take their cues from a prior era. It should be said that very few groups have done
Beatlesesque (late-'60s period) harmonies as well as
Rockfour (particularly on parts of "Nationwide"), and it's good news that so many of them are on this disc. If you want a more obscure reference point -- obscure to much of the general public, at any rate, if not the kind of hipped-in collectors predisposed to like a band such as
Rockfour -- it's hard to imagine that anyone who likes the
S.F. Sorrow-era
Pretty Things won't like this, or like the haunting track "Candlelight," in particular. Something else that distinguishes the group from others with similar grounding -- and something that might find them some favor with critics and listeners who are usually dismissive of bands with these leanings -- is the rather tense, probing mood of many of their arrangements and lyrics, which stand in opposition to the too-cheerful inclinations of more power-poppish outfits. In a lighter vein, "Have a Good One" recalls the late-'60s
Beatles in their mellower interludes, while "Moving Fast"'s drum sound convincingly emulates the most thwacking beats of
The White Album. A few more standout tunes on the order of "Candlelight" would have gotten the band over the hump to a new level, but certainly it's a satisfying record.