Reviewed by Sal Solo

At Greenbelt Runrig told me this offering is to keep their fans happy whilst awaiting the next album, and judging by it's leap straight into the Top 50, that's exactly what it's doing! If you enjoyed 'Searchlight' then you will almost certainly be pleased with this collection of four reasonably varied songs, although conspicuous by their absence are any of the slower, more melodic songs like 'Precious Years' or 'World Appeal' on their last album. Rousing Gaelic choruses, and those distinctive bagpipe guitar sounds are pretty much the order of the day, although somehow the power of Donnie Munro's vocals create a more personal effect than Big Country's Scottie rock of old. Keyboard player Peter Wishart, who was with Big Country before agrees as he told me he's "in a better band now!" The four songs on this EP are written by brothers Rory and Calum MacDonald, who play bass and percussion respectively. It's not clear which band members are the committed Christians, but all the lyrics tend to sound fairly positive anyway, and there are some interesting lines such as in "The Apple Must Fall" a song about the current direction of the world with a touch of humour: "Direct inject pleasure when the going gets tough/Don't believe in God and all that stuff." At the start of that song, Donny actually sounds a bit like Bob Geldof! As with 'World Appeal' on their first album, "Satellite Flood" seems another ecological song, talking about nuclear pollution and acid rain, although the sound of the song is again humorous, with the mandolin and beat a bit reminiscent of Mungo Jerry (show's how old I am!) and there's even a touch of Yellow Submarine in there. Possibly the song to be most remembered from this EP will be the high energy opener 'Stepping Down The Glory Road' and considering their last album went silver, and their next is bound to do even better, I wonder if the title is a little prophetic?