David Sinclair Four

ds4-album_REVIEW
David Sinclair Four’s “4” does the blues justice. This is the heart and soul of rock and roll. While plenty of bands have moved away or watered down the blues, David Sinclair lives it. Lyrically the pieces emphasize this exhaustion. Behind him is a band particularly adept at highlighting this sort of malaise with life. Every song builds off of the past as David Sinclair’s songs explore what it means to be alive in a world that can oftentimes feel so confining.

Nowhere is this more evident than on the album opener “Sick of Being Good”. By taking on a slight amount of defiance that song truly celebrates the misfits, those unwilling to live by society’s rules. Disappointment colors in the downtrodden “Life Gone Cold” whose slow build towards a wonderful release is particularly satisfying. Here David Sinclair lets the small flourishes of sound grow ever larger until they peak for the finale. Taking on a relaxed summer groove is the sunlit, dub reggae inspired work of “Down by the Canal”. Gracefully the song shows off the ease of the simple things in life. Opting for something a bit more raw is the wonderful “World Turns Around” which presents the slow-burning blues. Dreamy in tone is the haze of “Coming out of the Rain”. Bringing things to a satisfying conclusion is the expertly executed work of “Coming off the Rails”.

“4” shows the future of the blues and it looks remarkable indeed. - http://skopemag.com/2015/08/10/david-sinclair-4

HATS off to the Half Moon for this Bank Holiday Monday fundraiser for the Nepal earthquake appeal.

And hats off too to the great bands on the bill, with openers The David Sinclair Four giving a bluesy rock masterclass that displays the band’s pure musical talent and tightness as a unit. - Morning Star

Submitted by Iain Patience:

To me, there are some ringing, raging undertones of the best of punk rolling around in this mix from Londoner David Sinclair, here joined by Maxi Priest, Scottish jazzer Lorna Reid, and supported on a couple of tracks by the wonderful Paul Jones on Harp. I have my personal doubts about labeling this a blues album, however, it still works as a good, solid bit of lyrical modern light blues-rock with positively piercing lyrics and gripping, groaning insight. The musicianship is second-to-none while the ten songs included each tell a story, a vision of heaven or Hell, a metropolitan take on life in the slow-lane, tinged with melancholy, perception and sharp, visceral vision.

Sinclair's fretwork is strident and soulful, varied and victorious, with ripping, rippling riffs that might even make dear ole Keef sit up and take notice. His lyrics are rhythmically mesmerizing, evidence of a genuine love of the power of words and rhyme, dripping with powerful poetic nuance and irridescent influences. This is not an album that will necessarily please lovers of hard-nosed traditional electric blues; there are no BB King-esque licks or Hendrix power-plays here. Instead there's a delightful light touch and an album absolutely jam-packed full of catchy music, subtle lyrics and sheer pleasure. Highly recommended. A fabulous fourth offering from Sinclair. - Cashbox Canada

http://www.davidsinclairfour.com/uploads/companydirectory/id45/blues_magazine_review_2015.pdf - The Blues Magazine

David Sinclair is something of a polymath – writer, critic, journalist, man about town and musician. But unlike many he actually can talk the talk AND walk the walk and this album is excellent. - Music-News.com

David Sinclair, who has shared stages with Wilko Johnson, the Oli Brown Band, Marcus Bonfanti, Johnny Dowd, Graham Bonnet, Willie Nile and many others, has released the critically-acclaimed albums Hey, Threewheeling and Take Me There. Now we have “4”, released on Critical Discs/IRL on May 11; featuring contributions from harmonica man Paul Jones, rock legend Maxi Priest, and Scottish jazz singer Lorna Reid.

The David Sinclair Four currently consists of David Sinclair (Vocals/Guitar/Songwriter), Geoff Peel (Lead Guitar/BVs), Jack Sinclair (Drums/BVs) and Jos Mendoza (Bass/BVs). Together they have delivered a 10-track album, steeped in what I would call ‘elegant’ blues.

“4” takes the swampy, dirty southern-fried blues-groove, slips it into the engine room, polishes up the edges and envelops it all in Brit-rock aplomb. It’s that same ‘elegance’ that allowed bands like Pink Floyd, Fleetwood Mac and Dire Straits, to dominate and transform blues-based music into something sweeter, smoother and more harmonious and melodic for big city ears…without losing any of its soul!

“4” is exactly what we have come to expect of David Sinclair and clan; clean and sonically perfect arrangements with stellar musicianship, clever lyrics, and music that keeps sounding better with each listen. There are several gems that I am apt to skip to, the most of which being, “The Illness & The Cure”, which features what I believe to be Sinclair’s catchiest vocal harmony in any chorus, among the last two albums. “Life Gone Gold” is another tight little tune that features an irresistible guitar tone and solo by Geoff Peel. There’s also the reggae influenced “Down By The Canal”, featuring Maxi Priest.

And just in case you need to get a little swampy and closer to your roots, there’s “World Turns Around”, with harmonica-man Paul Jones and Geoff Peel on slide guitar to boot. But if there is one track that is worth the sum of the entire album, it has got to be “Coming off the Rails”. From its arrangement down to the instrumentation, performance and production, this track simply rocks: serving as a calling card for every individual musician playing on it, as well the David Sinclair Four as a collective project. It is powerful, assured and perfectly fits the framework of what the experience in this band stands for today.

The David Sinclair Four have absolutely done it again with a very mature sounding album, where David Sinclair has reproduced slices of life in his slightly-off-centered world, inhabited by losers, lovers, legends, has-beens and assorted purveyors of ecstatic sadness and resigned joy. Sinclair paints lyrical pictures which are both ordinary and extremely extraordinary, sounding really inspired throughout the whole album.


The David Sinclair Four together with producer Livingstone Brown, have crafted “4” into music giving us blues-rock based stories that are stylized, polished and well thought-out. Maybe it comes second nature to them, but it is remarkable musicianship, songwriting and production all the same, a quality all but absent from pop music today, with its emphasis on sampled, spoken, garbled, screamed and trivialized affectation.

Besides grabbing the album, don’t forget to go and see the band performing live all around England, Scotland and Wales during July-August. Check out the band’s website for dates and details. The David Sinclair Four are also dropping the single “Coming Out Of The Rain”, featuring singer and co-songwriter Lorna Reid, with the launch taking place in Edinburgh at The Voodoo Rooms on 29 July. - jamsphere.com