Thanks to both John Mc & Robert Griffiths for sending in today’s feature spread from the Daily Mirror. 🙏

7 days until the album drops. It looks as if the US version is behind a couple weeks – out Sept 25th though should still be available digitally on the 11th.

Tickets on sale now at https://Doves.lnk.to/TicketBundle

From the good folks at NBHAP, who caught up with Jez to talk about the new album. Here’s a wee soundbite:

“We haven’t spoken to the label in eight years and the entire personal changed. All the people we knew were gone.”  

There was less to give a crap about,”  he says while laughing.  “You just do what moves you. It’s all about trying to entertain yourself and try to enjoy the process.”  

Read the whole shabang here. Recommended reading!

XS Noise spoke with Andy. Here’s maybe a hint at whats to come next year:

Andy: I’m looking forward to ‘Saint Teresa’ coming out next year –its one of my favourites. I don’t know if it will be part of an EP although we will have to write the rest of the EP. We didn’t want too many songs on the record. We are quite an old school band, and we wanted to tempt the listening experience from start to finish, and we feel if we put too many songs on there, it is asking too much of people.

To read the full interview, click here.

Another print review, this time from Classic Pop. Again a big thanks to John Mc for this! ✊

Catch up with the live session on the Jo Whiley show here. Starts 37 minutes in, You’ll hear live versions of the new tracks Carousels & Prisoners. Also played is an acoustic version of The Fear – some have suggested this may have been an older live cut (Remnants?) but who cares, it sounds great.

Doves have revealed the next single from the forthcoming new album The Universal Want via Rolling Stone. You can now listen to Cathedrals Of The Mind at https://doves.lnk.to/CathedralsOfTheMind

Jez said of the track: “The song stems from a single hook, which developed to evoke this expansive internal monologue, this never-ending chasm of thought. Subconsciously, through words thrown against it and made to fit, it came to be about someone always being on your mind. The listener can form their own ideas. For me, it was about the loss of Bowie.”

“It’s a prayer to sonics,” reveals Jimi Goodwin. “We still love production and sonic detail. The album more than meets our expectations and, for once, we were unanimous in the track listing. We’re ready to let the whole world in and then gently close the doors. We’ll leave the listener to work out what we meant by it all.”

The Universal Want is released on Friday September 11th via EMI in the UK & Imperial in the USA. Pre-order the album now at https://doves.lnk.to/TUWWE

Doves are scheduled to appear on Jo Whiley’s BBC Radio 2 show tomorrow, Aug 27th. The show starts at 7PM BST. The blurb says Jimi will be chatting with Jo, and also the band will be doing a “sofa session” !

Further chat with Andy about the album at gigslutz.co.uk

Also some good stuff over at At The Barrier

Are there any songs from the older songs from Doves albums that you’re really looking forward to playing again?

I think we might dig out some songs that we haven’t done in years. I’ll certainly be pushing for that. There is lots of chat in forums about songs we never play so it would be nice to spring a surprise with songs that haven’t been in the set before. We can’t get away with not playing The Cedar Room though! People have such a strong connection with it that we don’t want to let people down. We’re there to connect with people and songs like that make that connection.

Read the Full At The Barrier interview here.

The last time the band tried to omit The Cedar Room from the live set was back in 2009, it caused quite the stir among the fan base, so much so one fan even set up a petition to get the song back in the set! Thankfully the petition wasn’t needed as the song did get put back into the set.

I’ll throw in Walk in Fire for future inclusion on the live setlist, a fan favourite that’s never been played live surprisingly.

Another good review of the album, this time by Backseat Mafia. The reviewer also spoke to Jez, who confirmed the band hope to do a live stream gig from their studio:

Are you planning anything in the meantime?

We are hopefully going to do an album live streaming thing from our HQ. We’ve got the Doves studio in a place called Warrington and we are hoping to do a live stream there, but at the moment we have the gigs in March and that’s the third time we’ve had to reschedule the whole tour. No-one knows what will happen, but here’s hoping!

Read the full interview here.