The Doves hope to match Elbow's success with new album Kingdom of Rust
Spawn of the Hacienda, Doves forth studio album is released this month, could this be the album that finally bags them the Mercury Music Prize?
Since the band formed in 1998, they have been twice nominated for the prestigious Mercury Music Prize for albums Lost Souls and The Last Broadcast. Now ten years on, the band is true to form with the release of Kingdom of Rust on April 6.
Opening with a majestically experimental track Jetstream, which is the epitome of ambient and chill-out. Don’t let thoughts of Ministry of Sound Ibiza Chill-Out Anthems put you off; this is beautiful track paying homage to the Vangelis musical score to Bladerunner.
If you haven’t heard title track Kingdom of Rust, where have you been?! Heavily played on Radio 1, the track is typical Doves and wouldn’t be out of place on one of their other albums. It’s the perfect festival track, as it transports you to a field, drinking beer with grass in it and getting high (on legal substances, ahem) as the sun sets behind the stage…anyway, back to the review…
One of the stand-out tracks for me is the almost Bjork proportioned The Outsiders; dirty guitar with melancholic vocals. This track wouldn’t be out of place on an early Radiohead album. Also a track that impressed me was House of Mirrors, seventies psychedelia, possibly stolen from Last Shadow Puppets. Birds Flew Backwards was also a beautiful, almost a cappella track with exquisite strings – ghostly, haunting and very powerful.
Haunting is something that Doves are good at, it can be seen in nearly every track, particularly Winter Hill and Greatest Denier. Winter Hill is a track that starts off in a very mod or The Who way before turning into a bog standard indie track. Greatest Denier is more the sort of track you listen to when you need solace and headspace, simple, melancholic with fantastic reverb.
A track that went against the grain, but fitted perfectly was ska-funk influenced Compulsion, flowing vocals and I swear a bit of slap bass making it a track to be remembered and truly innovative. The album quite rightly ends with the typically Northern anthem Lifeline, full of gritty realism and punchy guitars.
The album has been clearly influenced by producers John Leckie (Radiohead, Stone Roses and The Fall) and Dan Austin (The Cooper Temple Clause), but never loses sight of the Doves and their sheer talent for making music that speaks to your soul. It flows from track to track in perfect harmony, echoing the heartbreak and the sadness felt by all at some point in their lives. A perfect body of work that must see them finally winning the damn award that they are so worthy of.
www.doves.net
4 out of 5
3 choices of for fans of Elbow, British Sea Power and Gomez
First published 14.04.2009
Since the band formed in 1998, they have been twice nominated for the prestigious Mercury Music Prize for albums Lost Souls and The Last Broadcast. Now ten years on, the band is true to form with the release of Kingdom of Rust on April 6.
Opening with a majestically experimental track Jetstream, which is the epitome of ambient and chill-out. Don’t let thoughts of Ministry of Sound Ibiza Chill-Out Anthems put you off; this is beautiful track paying homage to the Vangelis musical score to Bladerunner.
If you haven’t heard title track Kingdom of Rust, where have you been?! Heavily played on Radio 1, the track is typical Doves and wouldn’t be out of place on one of their other albums. It’s the perfect festival track, as it transports you to a field, drinking beer with grass in it and getting high (on legal substances, ahem) as the sun sets behind the stage…anyway, back to the review…
One of the stand-out tracks for me is the almost Bjork proportioned The Outsiders; dirty guitar with melancholic vocals. This track wouldn’t be out of place on an early Radiohead album. Also a track that impressed me was House of Mirrors, seventies psychedelia, possibly stolen from Last Shadow Puppets. Birds Flew Backwards was also a beautiful, almost a cappella track with exquisite strings – ghostly, haunting and very powerful.
Haunting is something that Doves are good at, it can be seen in nearly every track, particularly Winter Hill and Greatest Denier. Winter Hill is a track that starts off in a very mod or The Who way before turning into a bog standard indie track. Greatest Denier is more the sort of track you listen to when you need solace and headspace, simple, melancholic with fantastic reverb.
A track that went against the grain, but fitted perfectly was ska-funk influenced Compulsion, flowing vocals and I swear a bit of slap bass making it a track to be remembered and truly innovative. The album quite rightly ends with the typically Northern anthem Lifeline, full of gritty realism and punchy guitars.
The album has been clearly influenced by producers John Leckie (Radiohead, Stone Roses and The Fall) and Dan Austin (The Cooper Temple Clause), but never loses sight of the Doves and their sheer talent for making music that speaks to your soul. It flows from track to track in perfect harmony, echoing the heartbreak and the sadness felt by all at some point in their lives. A perfect body of work that must see them finally winning the damn award that they are so worthy of.
www.doves.net
4 out of 5
3 choices of for fans of Elbow, British Sea Power and Gomez
First published 14.04.2009
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