California Chronicle

California Chronicle Mercury Prize Article

The California Chronicle takes a wild stab at predicting the Mercury Music prize winner:

Mercury Win Will Fuel ‘Kingdom’ Sales If and When Doves Fly

Goodness, the bookies are already offering odds on who will be on this year’s Mercury Music Prize shortlist for the best British and Irish albums of the last 12 months. The list of the 12 nominated acts isn’t released until next Tuesday, but it’s safe to assume that this will be the year of the solo female artist. Expect Little Boots, La Roux, Bat for Lashes, Florence and The Machine and even Lily Allen to be there or thereabouts next week.

It seems odd to be predicting a winner even before the nominations have been announced, but I’m going for Doves and their Kingdom of Rust album. The Manchester band began as a dance act (Sub Sub), but when their studio burnt down they mutated into indie-prog under their current name.

Like Elbow, Doves are an unremarkably blokeish-looking band who don’t really chase media exposure. Both acts have been allowed to develop over a series of albums unburdened by a huge “hit” or label expectations. And both have that sort of wind- and rain-swept melancholia at their musical core.

What perhaps has held Doves back is their guilt-by-association with prog rock. Expect all that to change come Tuesday, when the music media (always easily led) will begin a sudden love affair with indie prog.

In Doves’ favour, Kingdom of Rustis, despite being a quality work from the first note to last, largely unheralded. It is still there to be “discovered” by music buyers, just like The Seldom Seen Kidlast year.

Like almost everything in the music industry, it’s all about perception. And the perception of Doves at the moment is of a band on the sidelines waiting for their “come on down” call into the spotlight.

Doves will begin their slow march next week. And if you haven’t already got Kingdom of Rust, best go out and get it this weekend before the bandwagon takes off at speed.

Only time will tell. I seem to remember doves all but had the award in the bag back in 2002 for the Last Broadcast. Of course it never quite turned out that way, with Miss Dynamite taking the award. We shall see, The prize this year is awarded September 8th.

Review Round-Up #10

Doves put their best feet forward by opening the album with what may quite possibly be their strongest song yet. Jetstream has a tangible push and pull which keeps the listener in a state of positive tension throughout. The subtle build of sounds, textures and dynamics, the clattering electronic drums, rolling fuzz bass and the tired, distant vocals come together to form a beautiful unifying whole. The explosive ending is a really gratifying pay-off too and really underlines the bands ear for an epic crescendo, they are firing on all cylinders here.

To read the full review, click here.

It’s been four years since Some Cities, Doves’ last release, but there’s been no sonic upheaval here, no dramatic change of pace or direction: Kingdom Of Rust is unmistakably Doves, and you feel comfortable in its presence, like the return of an easy-going friend.

To read the full review, click here.

***

This is the band’s fourth album, and its most glaring virtue is the manner in which it mixes all that has been charming about the first three records into a new song-based stew. There are elements of the Manchester druggy dance music scene of yore, touches of electronica — even a nod to Kraftwerk in the sterling album-opener “Jetstream” — and a dash of the flirting-with-the-avant–garde stylings of the noise-pop that informed the band’s debut effort.

To read the full review, click here.

Josh Hathaway’s Fanboy Pick: Doves – Kingdom of Rust

Stop me when you’ve heard this one before: two brothers from Manchester, UK form a band – no, not Oasis! I’m talking about Doves.

Kingdom of Rust is the fourth full length album from Manchester’s other brothers and the long-awaited follow up to the fantastic Some Cities. Jimi Goodwin, the non-Williams brother in the trio, said the band went through a lot while making this record and likened the process to “therapy.” That makes for a bad time for the artist but often makes for great listening. First single “Jetstream” was briefly offered as a free single. Whatever the band did during their extended recording process, it doesn’t sound like they spent too much time messing with a good thing.

It’s the startling new sounds Goodwin and the Williams brothers try on, as found on the hard-charging, sharp-elbowed opener Jetstream or the sprawling 10:03, that give the Dan Austin/John Leckie-produced Rust its irresistible energy. While the more familiar moments are — duh — the most immediately gratifying, the spikier, stranger tunes burrow under your skin on repeated listens, creating an utterly satisfying whole.

To read the full review, click here.

Daily Egyptian

“Kingdom of Rust” does not stray from the band’s sound on previous ventures but still remains fresh. The one thing holding the album back is the tracks begin to flow together with only a few really standing out.

“10:03″ is a beautiful movement of melancholy vocals, which swells into a heavy hitting garage rock ending.

To read the full review, click here.

LIVE SESSION LATER TODAY/WINTER HILL

If you are still holding out to hear the album on release day. Then you can head over to Stereogum to hear Winter Hill with the band’s blessing. This will be the next single. Out June I’m told.

Don’t forget later today doves will be performing a live session from Maida Vale in London on the Dermot O’Leary show BBC Radio 2 at 2PM.

Here is a review of the Kingdom Of Rust single as featured in the California Chronicle…

DOVES Kingdom Of Rust ***

With a futuristic glow and vintage rhythm, this sounds like far- flung folk music from a planet spinning off its axis. Four Doves- free years have whetted the appetite for the Manc trio’s return, and the title track from their imminent album is suitably grand, lustrous and melancholic. Not exactly a departure, but still a cut above mere mortals.