The Official "Doves" Thread

[nihcoldplay]

I've been listening to The Last Broadcast album these days and I have to say that they're awesome! :)

[Space Cadet]

Been on a big Doves kick this week. I love Kingdom of Rust so much- the video almost made me cry (and I don't cry for things) and I just keep listening to Jestream over and over. Hope the rest of the album can live up to it. :dance:

 

Jen doesn't know :embarassed: she can't think of any songs off the top of her head to answer the question.

 

They seem to have that effect I've found... A lot of their music can really move me while I'm listening to it but then it mysteriously slips away the moment it's finished. It isn't until later when I listen to it again that I go, "oh right they wrote that song. I love that song". Kind of cool, really. :cool:

[Corkus]

I'm just now discovering this band, and their sound is the most amazing I've discovered in some time. A new album looming soon means that I discovered them at a good time, but I'm gonna sink my teeth into some of their earlier stuff for a bit beforehand. Any suggestions for the best starting point? I've heard the new songs plus some songs from "Some Cities" on YouTube.

[Comster]

The new album is incredible....very eclectic.

Probably their masterpiece.

[Comster]

The Doves - Kingdom Of Rust. The First Review Of The New Album

 

John Doran, March 12th, 2009 08:35

John Doran travelled up to the Doves' rehearsal rooms at the foot of the Peak District to listen to their new album. His verdict: easily the best yet.

 

 

 

'Jetstream'

 

Skittering post punk hi-hats run through the spine of the opening track to Doves fourth album. Melancholy (a word you are perhaps expecting) and epic (yet another) strings then give way to a very techno (aha! Caught you out!) influenced, staccato bass line which in turn marshals the drums into very tight patterns. Laser-flashes of piano refrains and organ trills propel you through a stop start motion film of a city at night, it is unsurprising to learn that they’ve been listening to a lot of techno given Jimi Goodwin (bass, vocals), Andy Williams (drums) and Jez Williams (guitar) past in Hacienda house sorts Sub Sub. A stunning opener.

 

'Kingdom Of Rust'

 

Already abundantly familiar to the good listeners of Radios 1,2 and 6 no doubt. This is more recognizably Doves-y than most of the other tracks on an album that makes an asset of its eclecticism. This re-imagines US folk rock as something peculiarly English, and North Western English at that. Mancana rather than Americana perhaps.

 

'The Outsiders'

 

A bracingly stern intro. And if the title refers to the band suffering from existential angst while recording this album, the first since Some Cities in 2005, then the music is suitably angst ridden and tempestuous. Jez and Jimi have coaxed a fearsomely fat and aqueous (almost fecal) guitar n’bass squelch out of their overdriven instruments. Of course the song could just be about getting locked out of The Barn, their new studio which is deep in the Cheshire countryside under the shadow of Jodrell Bank and the nearby Peak District.

 

'Winter Hill'

 

Super producer John Leckie has a fearsome track record that includes The Verve’s Storm In Heaven, the Stone Roses debut, Radiohead’s The Bends and This Nation’s Saving Grace by The Fall. He was drafted in to work on two of the songs here including this one; one of the best tracks which summons up the mighty spirit of imperial Spiritualized during their acid house played on guitars, Electric Mainline phase.

 

'10.03'

 

Another effort with John Leckie, this has a plaintive and emotion saturated ballad that calls to mind the sumptuous pomp of Elbow. Perhaps there is a particularly epic, cagoule wearing ghost haunting the warehouse that Moolah Rouge, the studio the band practise in and where Guy Garvey’s troupe record, wandering down corridors with its head under its arm making sure that all the charges produce suitably windswept tunes. That would make it a Ca-ghoul, I guess. I’m here all week, etc. Then it transforms into a rocker than has big, super simian, destructive King Kong balls. Or possibly even big insectile furry Mothra balls.

 

'The Great Denier' This album is a lot more schizoid obviously because the band want it to be given that they demoed 40 songs this time instead of whittling it down from 14 or so. The inclusion of people like Dan Austen as co-producer obviously helps, given that he’s part of the Massive Attack team. This isn’t, it should be said a cover or an interpolation, of ‘The Great Pretender’ as en-fame-orized by the late great Freddie Mercury.

 

'Birds Flew Backwards'

 

This features, apparently, a delruba a close relative of the esraj, an Indian instrument that, in the broadest terms, is like a cross between a sitar and a cello. I was so awed by this information that I forgot to make any more notes about what the song sounded like but now would be a good point to say that this is almost certainly the best Doves album so far. Some bands don’t do ‘eclectic’ well but Jimi’s voice is so distinctive and the Doves’ aesthetic so strong that no matter what style they attempt it sounds like The Doves anyway.

 

'Spellbound'

 

This is not a cover of the excellent Siouxsie and the Banshees song (which always sounds better if you sing “eggbound” along to it). Instead this is the other song on the album which would sit comfortably on The Last Broadcast or Lost Souls. In its Doves-ishness, its Dovesiosity, its Dovesociousness it stil holds up a massive example to bands like Coldplay and U2. This is how stadium sized, atmospheric rock can still sound interesting and unifying without being over compressed or over produced.

 

'Compulsion'

 

DFA, ESG, LCD and other three letter acronyms spring to mind with this track’s dancefloor orientated punk funk/disco punk vibe. Mutant disco wins out over all the other influences here though and there are massive Arthur Russell echo chambers and squelchy Was Not Was bass work. Jez sings here and it has to be said that his register suits the sleek, lighter dancefloor vibe.

 

'House Of Mirrors'

 

This takes the last hurrah by the Rolling Stones, ‘Undercover Of The Night’ with a swampy blues rock vibe being pulled through a post punk process, as the jumping off point.

 

'Lifelines'

 

Doves are often (unfairly) lumped in with the lumpen, lachrymose and punchable likes of Snow Patrol and Coldplay and this is perhaps the closest in form and process to piano-led, IKEA furnished, mope rock but even here there is enough going on to render the comparison unfair even after only one listen.

[Saffire]

Sounds like it'll be great... I can't wait!

[RadioMad]

IT F***ING LEAKED!!!!

 

AAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!

[Eagle131]

I first heard about them from someone here! Sea Song has to be THE best Doves song, hands down!

[Saffire]

I'm downloading the leaked copy now, but it's going kinda slow. I'll give my detailed review when I get back... I've been a Doves fan since Last Broadcast, so I can't wait to hear it!

[Corkus]

The torrent can has been opened. :D

I'm running off now to a play that a friend is in, but I'll be listening as soon as I get back.

[mc_squared]

Heard the new single on the radio and it's great.

[Corkus]

Listened to half of it, but gone back to HW projects since. Favorites so far are Kingdom of Rust and Winter Hill.

Edit: Add House of Mirrors to that list. Only song I'm not too fond of is The Outsiders.

[Dejan]

i fuckin love this record

[colduser]

Amazing Doves album. Perhaps their most complete and consistent album to date. Absolutely epic,melodic, melancholic beautiful album. Great from start to finish with highlights including Jetstream, Kingdom of Rust, The Outsiders, Winter Hill, 10:03, and House of Mirrors(which has one of my most favorite hooks ever). A must for Doves fans and non-fans alike. Very impressed Doves..very impressed!!!

[MasoKnight]

Listened to KoR twice.... Might be their best.

[tauiwi]

Doves' New Album 'Kingdom Of Rust' – In Their Own Words

 

Source: http://www.nme.com/blog/index.php?blog=10&p=6106&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1#more6106

 

By Paul Stokes

Posted on 08/04/09 at 04:42:12 pm

 

Four years in the making, Doves finally released their fourth album 'Kingdom Of Rust' this week (April 6). With the Manchester trio exploring "every idea to its logical conclusion" during the recording it's a record that references Kraftwerk, Johnny Cash, ESG and even their old incarnation Sub Sub in a single breath.

 

"However no matter how schizo this album is, it's got our DNA all over it," declares guitarist Jez Williams as he gives NME a personal tour of 'Kingdom Of Rust'. You can also watch a track-by-track video interview, embedded below.

 

 

Jetstream

"We've always been mad into our film scores and this features that atmosphere. We always wanted to do a sci-fi feeling tune and this fits that bill. Lyrically we wanted it to be this 'Blade Runner'-ish thing and you can hear bits of Kraftwerk in there. We brought a machine from a factory in Russia that used to make bullets, which provided the metallic sound. We found it on eBay, it's a mad looking, it looks like military hardware."

 

continued...

 

Kingdom Of Rust

"Really early it started off as this really moody, Johnny Cash-esque idea, but now it's almost three different songs put together. There's the country vibe on the verse, which morphed into this '60s filmic thing for the chorus and there's a loud bit in the middle! The lyrics are about what's going on these days. Everything is crumbling apart but this is trying to keep a bit of faith."

 

The Outsiders

"We set up camp In this place in Derbyshire to do a bit of songwriting and that came out of there. It's got this Can-esque unstoppable drumbeat and we threw all these space invader noises at it. Lyrically it's us against them, a stay together and hang-tight song. It's our rock n roll number."

 

Winter Hill

"It's a place you can see in lots of part of Manchester, it's got a massive communication on it, so we set our story there. In fact the song has been hanging around since 'Lost Souls' but we've never worked on it before. It just kept knocking on our door. The story is about meeting someone from your past."

 

10.03

"Yes it's a train reference! There's a strong theme of travel on this album. It's wanting to get back having been away from somewhere for a long time. This starts off almost doo-wop before gathering pace. It's a ballad that turns into a runaway train! Where does the 10.03 go? Home."

 

The Greatest Denier

"We had the words Greatest Denier first and built a song around that, it's a bit of writing in character. It's someone who's ideas are now redundant, someone just trying to cling onto the past. We want it sound like there's a threat of violence in the air, so it's quite claustrophobic and menacing."

 

Birds Flew Backwards

"There's a lot of information and intensity on this album and we wanted this song to have a breather from that. It's just a snapshot of talking a walk through a forest. We realised our labelmate Ed Harcourt has a song with a similar title, but we're sure he won't mind."

 

Spellbound

"This one is really blissful, which is what we wanted for it. It's also spiralling and intense but fundamentally it's just a joyous song. It's pretty straightforward, just full of bliss."

 

Compulsion

"The groove on this had been knocking around for a bit, but then we morphed into more of a Doves sound. Jimi tried singing it and it didn't work so I had a go, we often try swapping vocals. I wanted the bass to sound like The Clash, it's really raw and dark. There's no slap bass though, I know people are saying that. We're from Manchester, it's just natural our groove has come out."

 

House Of Mirrors

"The way we got this to sound right was by mixing it through a 1970s East German tape recorder. We wanted to sound crunched. It's garage rock, and full of attitude about something in your past that’s haunting you. There's no messing about."

 

Lifelines

"We wanted to finish on an up note. It's quite a reflective song but it's really positive. People have picked up on the lyric "a place we’ve never been" and that's how it feels for us at the moment, it feels like we've turned a corner with this album. It took four years and it wasn't an easy four years so it's really good to end it on a positive. It's a perfect last song."

[Comster]

Great review from the hard to please pitchfork...

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

The story of Doves puts lie to the old adage that "it's all about the music, man." Because if it really were all about the music, Jez and Andy Williams would be the most famous brothers to come out of Manchester, Jimi Goodwin would be the go-to Britpop duet partner for Jay-Z and Kanye, and all those "Viva La Vida" ringtones you hear going off at Urban Outfitters would be replaced by a digitized symphony of Doves' "Black and White Town".

 

But as their back-story includes no tabloid-baiting tales of fraternal fisticuffs or marriages to Hollywood starlets, Doves could be the most unassuming, unsung band to have scored back-to-back UK No. 1 album debuts; on North American shores, their ascent has been somewhat hampered by the fact that their opening bands (the Strokes in 2001, the Rapture in 2002) have blown up bigger than the headliner. And unless one of the Doves starts dating Jennifer Aniston anytime soon, it's unlikely that Kingdom of Rust will radically change their stature. Rather, Doves' fourth album is another sterling example of why the Doves should be household names and why they probably won't ever be: their unwavering flair for producing mountainous, Wembley-worthy pop anthems that are nonetheless invested with a palpable degree of grace and humility.

 

While the past decade has seen the indie kids go dance and the dance kids go indie, Doves' 1998 formation was ironically predicated on an abrupt, 180-degree break from their former house-production guise as Sub Sub, absconding rhythmic propulsion for a space-rock sway. But more than any previous Doves album, Kingdom of Rust is built for motion and acceleration, leading its songs to unexpected and often exhilarating highs: Slow-percolating opener "Jetstream" counts down to lift-off with a hi-hat-triggered techno bed track that gradually intensifies into a tremorous, tribal clatter; "The Outsiders" blasts potholes into the Autobahn with a brawny Krautrock beat. Even when the band seemingly reverts to its familiar astral balladry on "10:03", the reprieve is short-lived-- Goodwin's sweet, moonlit serenade is eventually upended by a creepy chorus of ghostly voices, launching a psych-rock eruption that suddenly transforms the song from Kingdom of Rust's most elegiac moment into its most unsettling one.

 

Perhaps this restlessness is indicative of certain frustration on Doves' part in seeing their efforts eclipsed by less imaginative, more mawkish Britpop bands, and in turn, a desire to distance themselves from the sad-sack pack; it's hard to imagine the likes of Elbow turning in something quite as fierce and paranoid as "House of Mirrors", a fuzz-soaked stomper punctuated by jarring, bump-in-the-night sound effects. For a band whose Allmusic.com descriptor list includes the terms "earnest," "reflective," and "lush," Doves are just as effective at being aggressive, to the point where Kingdom of Rust's serene turns feel more listless than usual: the dark, orchestral manoeuvre "Birds Flew Backwards" exposes the limitations of Goodwin's haggard voice, while "Spellbound" feels like an echo of previous capsized lullabies like "Sea Song"..

 

But then some tricks are worth repeating: Doves' most enduring and admirable quality-- from 2000's "The Cedar Room" to 2002's "There Goes the Fear" to 2005's "Black and White Town"-- has been their ability to render everyday urbanity in joyful, fantastical form, and to this canon we can add Kingdom of Rust's "Winter Hill", a paean to innocent, hand-held romance sent skyward on a pillow of Spiritualized swirls. It's just the sort of song that should earn Doves a return appearance to the UK top 10, but such an accomplishment is ultimately a moot point for these guys: They don't need high chart placements to make them feel like they're on top of the world.

[R_Burns]

Glad I found a thread dedicated to Doves :)

Great past albums, the Last Broadcast being one of my favourites of all time

and the new album lives up to it, get out there and buy it! :)

[tauiwi]

FREAKING AWESOME

 

Just heard they are coming to Melb after 4 years away!!! July 28th.

 

Now my last week in July reads like this:

 

Tue 28th: Doves

Wed 29th: Friendly Fires

Thu 30th: White Lies

 

WTF!!!!!!

[deaths_friend]

i'll be sure to check them out when they hit sydney. not exactly a "fan" of the band but nothing else is impressing me in the city gig guide over the uni mid year break. you would think with the shear number of bands i love something would impress me.

 

tickets on sale June 4. only 1000 to go on sale in sydney

[tauiwi]

lol as if? There are heaps of Splendour sideshows!!

 

1000 sounds right, they're playing at Billboards in Melb, a tiny venue.

[deaths_friend]

the three bands i really wanted to see from the splendour line up were MGMT Bloc Party and Birds of Tokyo as well as the smaller ones like Leader Cheetah etc etc. but none of them are doing shows in sydney. and then theres the issue of going with someone but thats not for here.

 

mate can we take this conversation to an IM. we're flooding the boards radiohead-fan-style.

[tauiwi]

Fair enough! I am sure there are plenty of Doves fans in oz... REVEAL YOURSELVES!!

[nihcoldplay]

Where are Doves fans?

I love their new album Kingdom of Rust, it's brilliant. I'd love to see them live :D

[Spoon]

*raises hand*