Unsurprisingly AndalucÃa didn’t trouble the UK singles chart despite the best efforts of teps. With no physical release and all promotion focused on the album I don’t think anything other was expected. Here’s what the iTunes UK singles chart (where something like 95% of all single/song sales now come from) looks like..
241. There Goes the Fear – Doves 256. AndalucÃa – Doves 339. Black and White Town – Doves 576. Pounding – Doves
Not quite as exciting as the Bruno Brooks chart countdown I used to enjoy back in the day. What may be even more surprising, is that Radio 1 didn’t see fit to put AndalucÃa on any of its playlists. It seems like Doves are no longer cool for school..
Edit: To be fair, I don’t listen to Radio 1, so maybe R1 audience has changed somewhat? 6 Music has played lots of Doves of late, of course that wont be the case if the big wigs at the BBC get their way..
Doves forum regular teps has been campaigning all week to get Andalicua high up on the UK singles chart. It currently sits just inside the top 200, so if you want to help move the track further up the singles chart…
The second collection of media reviews for the album. To start things off, the first review for the single Andalucia.
Doves show that heaven knows they’re not miserable now
Since Joy Division and the Smiths, critics have married the words “Mancunian” and “miserablist”. From Elbow to I Am Kloot, it seems a northern soul is always a sad one, right? Wrong. Doves have always demonstrated that they can pen sky-reaching anthems, as their forthcoming Best Of album shows. New track Andalucia is no exception. “The world that we see, belongs to you and me,” sings Jimi Goodwin in a voice that soars higher than the clouds. It seems even heaven knows they’re not miserable now.
Debut Lost Souls remains an enduringly consistent piece of shadowy, orchestral rock, and it could’ve been well represented here by any of its tracks. Despite being posed as the darkness before The Last Broadcast‘s light, Lost Souls gets cherrypicked for its most emphatic numbers. “Catch the Sun” remains the strongest melody Jimi Goodwin has ever written, while the harmonica and guitar peals of the misty “Sea Song” exude a low-key ecstacy. Even the stately, string-led waltz “Man Who Told Everything” is included as a truncated “summer” version.
The songs on the album have not been ordered in chronological order of release and the band have taken painstaking care to arrange the tracks specifically in the way that they wanted their fans to experience the album. This really works as their four albums varied quite significantly in terms of influences and sound. For example, The Last Broadcast had strong psychedelic rock influences such as King Crimson while Kingdom of Rust was a bold album with snatches of disco, spaghetti western themes, and electronic beats.
The second disc begins with another new recording, “Blue Water” which reminds me of Karl Wallinger’s World Party. It is a fabulous song and one that I’d like to see released as a single. The rest of the disc is a rather laid back cross section of solid and mostly unknown songs. The disc has a serious, downbeat sound and should have a great appeal to fans and new listeners alike.
I’d always liked Doves but it took this collection to make me love them. Hearing so many great songs in one collection made me realize just how much great material they have released over their career and I do believe the second disc will keep me going until they come back with more. I would certainly recommend the three disc set of The Places Between: The Best of Doves (even if you already have all the albums) because of the new materials, the b-sides and rarities and of course, the videos.
If you are going to start with anything Doves at this point, you may as well start with The Places Between, because 4 albums of catch up might be too much in terms of epic rock. There is over 40 songs here, which may seem like a lot, but captures all the best parts of the band . . . the booming bass, haunting vocals, epic soundscapes, and triumphant, tribal drum patterns. They truly are a treasured band, and although The Places Between feels like closure on the band, with 14 previously unavailable tracks on here as well, this is a good place to put Doves in context
You can get high quality 320 kbps mp3s from play.com (UK) digital store here for £1.95 each set. If you prefer itunes the two sets will cost you £2.49 each.
A 7″ vinyl in a gatefold sleeve is also available, which features the exclusive new track Brazil. You can order the vinyl online for £1.99 here. You can hear a sample of Brazil at Juno here.
The single will be available in North America at all good digital stores on Tuesday.
The single will be available digitally in the UK on Monday. You can pre-order the 7″ single here, which features the exclusive track Brazil. The single will also be available digitally in North America on Tuesday.
You can pre-order the special remix 12″ releases at Piccadilly Records. These special 12″ vinyls should cost you around £5.49 each. Only 500 copies of these are being pressed, so get them before they go.
If you have landed here via doves.net, you will have noticed the site looks a bit different. Due to unforeseen circumstances, doves have been left without a website. A new site is in the process of being put together. We are delighted and honoured to have been asked to help out until the new site goes live.
So if this is your first time on doves music blog, welcome! Those of you who have followed the blog, its business as usual.
On Sunday doves will be appearing at the Hop Farm festival in Kent. If you are attending and you fancy writing a review for the blog, we would love to hear from you. You can email us your review here. Enjoy the festival!
Here are the track listings for Amazon.co.uk digital downloads for Winter Hill. To be released July 20th. These should also be available in North America.
As previously reported. Winter Hill will also be released on 7″ vinyl. It seems as if there will not be a CD single released. If this is the case, Winter Hill would be doves first single/EP not to be released on CD since the Cedar EP back in 1998.
DOVES Winter Hill 2009 UK limited edition 2-track 7″ vinyl single – Known locally, ‘Winter Hill’ is a beauty spot between Chorley and Bolton in the West Pennine Moors. It’s famed for its UFO sightings, mining activity, aeroplane disasters and murders but to Doves it clearly means something altogether more magical and ethereal. Already a fan’s favourite, ‘Winter Hill’ ushers the listener in via a pop Reich repetition, all looped effects and soaring synths before morphing into what canonly be described as a love song. Furthermore, on the b-side, there’s a totally different change of pace with the Dylanesque ‘Brazil’, a new track that adds yet another dimension to Doves repertoire!.
Winter Hill is released July 20th. It is expected the download single will feature a host of Jetstream remixes.
Here’s a picture of the new promo that’s now doing the rounds on ebay. Its expected some of these remixes, if not all will be featured on the Winter Hill single, released July 20th.
You can check out the jackbeadle remix of Jetstream at his myspace page here. We like it!
Doves official site doves.net have confirmed that the release date for Winter Hill is to be July 6th. No more details have been released as yet. They also state Kingdom Of Rust has gone platinum. The album currently sits at number 99 on the album chart.
Edit: doves.net has since changed the date, to July 20th.
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