4

4 is the fifth album, showing the Slash / Myles Kennedy / the Conspirators billing working at its most natural. Released in 2022; the title points to it being the fourth with this line-up. The guitar places riffs and songful solos precisely, and the band doesn't over-build — it pushes the songs with live-feeling momentum. Fair to call it an effortless update of the texture established over the previous two records. A settled bearing, the opposite pole from the debut's glittering guest cast, leaves the strongest impression. Bluesy nuance, American hard rock's boldness and memorable melody are bound together compactly — a straight-ahead rock album. The lightness typified by songs like “April Fool” sits alongside Slash's characteristically thick tone. The way they breathe together — Todd Kerns, Brent Fitz and Frank Sidoris, a line-up more than a decade old — shows in every corner of the playing. Running this band while carrying the demands of Guns N' Roses, and refusing to let it go: the meaning of that turned directly into sound. A record that holds you through accumulated depth rather than flash.