Doves sit on the top of the UK Album chart with their new album The Universal Want with 17,400 sales (14,922 physical copies sold).

Well done to the band, a fantastic achievement after almost a decade away. Well done to everyone who bought a copy to make it happen! How many of you bought multiple copies..? 👏

The OCC also released the sales totals for the following albums if anyone happens to care..

Lost Souls 311,131 copies sold
The Last Broadcast 408,824 copies

The Scottish arts & culture magazine gives The Universal Want a Wee Review..

The Universal Want is the sound of a band reinvigorated and, rather appropriately, leaves you wanting for where Doves will go from here. Whether a fan of the indie rock stalwarts or not, The Universal Want is an essential new release.     Read the full review here.

Jez spoke to Colin Murray of 5live last night. Quite an interesting chat between the two. Jez touches on the mental health aspect of the album, the things he didn’t enjoy first time around with Doves and how a fart ruined his first Top of the Pops appearance! Seriously.. Starts 1 hour 45 minutes in.. listen here

The official charts company have announced that Doves are currently outselling the rest top 5 albums combined as they are on course for their third number 1 album. Not bad going for a band that’s been out of the limelight for almost a decade.

As of Tuesday, the album has sold 14.9k copies! 👏

Doves have put all the entries for the Forest House #dovesleak competition on their website. They’ve asked for you all to vote on your favourite version.

Let the band know which one you like by commenting on any their social media channels or you can vote at the Doves facebook forum.

Sunday at 9pm | 🔊 https://t.co/yb9SyNsR4J@dovesmusicblog chat @EddyTM through their new album 'The Universal Want' in this Virgin Radio Album Special, and show off the dictaphone they used for new track 'Broken Eyes' as well as one of their classics…#ThereGoesTheFear pic.twitter.com/AGsZfzNAx1

— Virgin Radio UK (@VirginRadioUK) September 12, 2020

Virgin Radio have an hour long special show dedicated to The Universal Want tomorrow (Sunday) evening from 9pm!

The Independent have published a quite open interview they did with the band over Zoom..

“The last tune we did before the fire was with Tricky, on a track called ‘Smoking Beagles’. We always thought he must’ve left a joint on the back of the couch and set the whole studio on fire,” Jez jokes, and chases his train of thought into Manchester gentrification. “You couldn’t leave your car outside or it’d get torched. Now it’s one of the top five places to live in the UK, according to The Guardian.”

“My girlfriend’s car got torched by the local pyromaniac twice,” says Goodwin, “but it was an electrical fire that in essence burnt the studio down,” Jez butts in. “Tricky’s joint!” Goodwin guffaws. “The amount of weed I was smoking with him, blazing up like a f***in’ good ’un…”

They decided to release their latest track “Forest House” only as sheet music, obliging fans to play it if they want to hear it and prompting a flurry of versions in wildly differing styles. Was that an attempt to bypass the casual consumer and force people to engage? “I’d be a liar if I said that the idea came from the band,” Goodwin chuckles. “I’ve heard a couple that are alright. One of them sounds a bit like Teletext. I’ve not heard the panpipe one. [Jazz voice] Pan Pipe Moods with Doves.”

😂 🤣 Read the full interview here. Cheers to Anal Beard for the tip on this one! ✊

The brand new album ‘The Universal Want’ is out now. 🥳 Album streaming/downloads & physical copies can be bought from here. Enjoy, join in the discussion at the forum on Facebook.

The band have also debuted the video for the latest single ‘Broken Eyes’. You can watch that here.

Just another in a long line of fine reviews for the album. This one by Music Notion is especially well written.

– Music Notion

What is amazing about doves is how even decades later than their first music, they still possess genius level emotional intelligence in their music, making both soundscapes and lyrics resonate personally and collectively. Although this album will clearly have such an uplifting impact with long standing fans, it hopefully will transcend to those new to the band. An album brilliant either via its individual songs or in its entirety, ‘The Universal Want’ is a triumph. 10/10

Read the full thing here.

– The Independent

The Latin dance rhythms on “Mother Silverlake” are an intriguing glimpse at what might have been had they continued as their early band incarnation, Sub Sub (their studio burnt down in 1996 and they started from scratch as an indie-rock group). Single “Carousels”, a tribute to the late Afrobeat pioneer Tony Allen, samples the drummer’s rhythms amid themes of childhood memories. After 30-odd years, you could forgive a band for taking the easier path into complacency. But Doves have taken a different – better – road. ROC  4 stars Read the full review here.

– The Guardian

The songs are tightly written, setting the troubled lyrics to bright melodies (Cycle of Hurt, which overplays the fiftysomething sturm-und-drang at the expense of a tune, is the album’s only low point); the dance influences subtle, seamlessly integrated and occasionally surprising. The mournful, ballad-paced title track effectively stops midway through, before reappearing retooled with the kind of beat you’d find on an old Chicago house tune: eventually everything else dies away, leaving just the rhythm track and an acidic synth. 4 stars Full review here.

Finally, Spin spoke to Jimi, a brief interview about the reunion and the band’s use of social media and social justice issues. Read that here.