doves - lost souls c/d

which i would personally be happy with (were it the absolute truth) as i have no great desire for verse/bridge/chorus formulae much of the time and it's what sets them apart from the myriad of more pedestrian British guitar bands for me (plus that thing i mentioned on The Embrace Wars thread about aligning themselves with the Manchester continuum thing more eagerly).

the first half of this album is great for that atmospheric strain (despite the supposed lack of hook and chorus (there's an adeqaute degree of melodic elements, your harmonica solos etc.) i find 'Rise' and 'Sea Song' difficult to get out of my head) but the second half doesn't engage me as much (apart from the almost ridiculous gloom of The Man Who Told Everything - yet the actually positive lyrics save it from being an unappealing exercise in tedious bedwettery - give me this over Coldplay still). perhaps Lost Souls is better, and there are two other versions of Firesuite that outstrip the album version (i have them down as 'Suite Noise' and 'Firesuite (Noise version)' but not sure where the latter comes from - it's different from 'Suite Noise' tho as only one has the eerie 'sinking' intro

The first time I saw Doves, I think the Strokes were opening! But while my wife and I thought the Strokes were totally forgettable (go figure) we were both blown away by the Doves.

x-post That "Hit the Ground Running" song isn't a Zevon cover so much as it's a Doves song built around the chorus from "Werewolves of London." Kind of like how on the first (second?) Doves album, a song is built around the melody from a King Crimson track (it's even credited).

Albumvote.co.uk - also list it as February 2005
http://www.albumvote.co.uk/albums/prerel.htm

That's the 'M62 Song' and King Crimson's 'Moonchild'. I've noticed that Doves do that sort of creative filching a fair bit. Like 'There Goes The Fear' nicks the melody of 'Whiter Shade of Pale' in the build up to the chorus, then it pinches a chunk of 'Sound and Vision' for the do-do-do bit towards the end.

Anyhow, can't really say I'm a big fan, they sort of sound like a bunch of different mediocre bands that were around 15 years ago, and most of the time I'm thinking that we should have moved way on beyond that stuff by now...

According to Pause & Play's On The CD Front the forthcoming Doves album is titled: Some Cities that is scheduled for release in February. [US release is Feb 15th, so the UK release may be Feb 14th or even earlier?]

http://www.poptones.co.uk/interviews/qod_martin_rebelski.htm

this is a great record and i could basically listen to firesuite on repeat for the rest of my life

this is a tremendous album. incredibly solid all the way through. sadly they bombed with their second record and have been on the slide ever since.

always mean to get back to every doves album and always forget

I concur with Charlie, the second album really turned me off to them. Has there been no highlights in the subsequent releases on the same level as their debut?

(Oh, I see there was a best-of last year, and it's on Spotify)

i remember being really excited for 'the last broadcast' and it just left me cold, track after unremarkable track. from memory "the sulphur man" was ace -- a really moody, disconsolate piece, but the rest was languid and forgettable, a far cry from the spirited debut.

you guys are so wrong, The Last Broadcast has the much better singles. it really was with the third album that they started to lose it and i still never really heard their last album.

ha

i like Lost Souls a lot but don't think it has as many good songs as this album has.

― Bee OK, Saturday, September 19, 2009 10:40 PM (2 years ago) Bookmark

haha, my stance is exactly the same in that thread. but i guess it's only been two years.

i thought i was not that big a fan of doves.
then in '05 i rushed to see them perform on the pyramid stage @ glastonbury.
fuckin' immense.
was a seriously emotional experience ..
could have been the red wine of course, but still ..
and yes, i would agree that cedar tree is the best thing they ever did.
oh, and that lost sides collection is worthy for the soulsavers remix alone which just floors me every time.

First two albums plus Lost Sides are all great. Have trouble remembering anything from the third album or beyond, don't know what went wrong.