"Do your life justice." Those are the words at the end of the song "Nation," the cornerstone of Radio 4's third album, Stealing Of A Nation. Whether you consider the lyric a demand of our leaders or a reminder to ourselves, the point is this:

Radio 4 feel a sense of purpose, and they want to share it with you. With Stealing Of A Nation, the follow-up to 2002's highly-acclaimed Gotham!, that's precisely what they do.

Produced by Max Heyes (Doves, Primal Scream) and recorded in Radio 4's hometown, New York City, Stealing Of A Nation is an aural attack of widely varied ingredients that comes together with pinpoint precision. Futuristic dance beats mate with traditional punk values; dub bass lines bed down with techno keyboards and funk guitar riffs; polyrhythmic percussion breaks get busy with acoustic guitars. And it all sounds like the most natural thing in the world. From the dark propellant groove of lead single "Party Crashers" to the drum-less humid atmospherics of the finale, "Coming Up Empty," Stealing Of A Nation is the album Radio 4 have been building towards since first coming together five years ago. Their influences are now implied rather than worn on their sleeves like badges. Radio 4 sound like...Radio 4.

The title, Stealing Of A Nation, is a powerful statement, one which Roman admits could be applied to the theft of the 2000 Election, the invasion of Iraq, and the current Administration's denial of core, positive American values. But it's also a word play on a revered 1979 reggae song, Jacob Miller's "Healing Of The Nation."

For Stealing Of A Nation, the group secured a 24-7 deal in a new Brooklyn studio, several feet underground in a converted urban warehouse, so they could record when the muse took them without having to watch the clock.

"That's how we like it," says Roman, "A bunch of people sitting round drinking beer and throwing ideas around. That's how we work." Because for all their sense of purpose, Radio 4 are primarily about enjoying themselves. "We're not a high pressure band. We don't ever force ourselves to write or record. If we were gonna operate like that we would have just got regular jobs." It all comes back to the central premise: Do your life justice.