Doves

Some Cities

Released 01-MAR-2005

#08

Five years after their exceptional debut, Lost Souls, and three years after their equally wonderful, The Last Broadcast, Manchester England’s Doves return with Some Cities. The album continues the wall of sound flourishes established in their predecessors, but makes a giant shift in tone and message. Where the first two releases entertained with their lush wanderings through humanistic naval contemplating that revolved around empty rooms, empty fields, the stars, and the sea, Some Cities is built like a concept album. This time out, Doves focus on the homogenization of urban society completely smashing to bits the notion that rock bands must be uncerebral party machines more responsible for decay than inquiry. It is an interesting topic and one that I am surprised hasn’t seen much more attention with today’s socially conscious music scene. But then again, with so much notice these days going toward politicians, oil, and war, perhaps the subtle changes in one’s home town are not as apparent as one might think and not sexy enough a topic for bands to delve into. Doves have no such fear, tackling the subject with insight and creativity as they deliver yet another excellent effort.

Doves have always been subdued in their musical approach, avoiding the three-minute pop cliché for broader, more intricate machinations that allow each song they craft to grow and build as needed. A handful or more of their past songs have even tipped the scales at over five minutes with a tune or two stretching past seven. At times, those songs felt as though they meandered as they searched for their next step. That was most apparent on first blush where our pop conditioned ears perk anytime a song stretches itself rather than cuts off in a flurry as it hurries for the paycheck. With Doves, further inspection of the band’s taking their time approach eventually proved their high point and it was easy to recognize the effort as part of a deliberate method rather than an undisciplined misstep. What at first was misconstrued as rambling became instead a breath of dreamy fresh air and a hallmark fitting the theme of the songs to a tee. Even singer Jimi Williams, whose breathy moans make you think perhaps anyone can be a singer, likewise managed to capture the spirit of the tunes by stretching syllables for their fullest instrument-like effect. Breathless was a word that often categorized the Doves experience.

Some Cities is a more straight forward affair. The wall of sound is still present, but the scale has been toned back to better fit the message. The songs this time are less epic more specific as the dream gives way to the reality. Only Walk on Fire, smack dab in the middle of the album, revisits the epic lushness of their past, creating a brief moment of fantasy that skirts the harsh decay that surrounds the other songs. It is a great tune for sure, swirling dreamily until its heavily percussed denouement, but also the one which most sounds like part of their past rather than their present.

Some Cities, which opens the record, in contrast explodes rather than sways. Washing the listener in pure and simple guitar, it comes like a bullet signaling that Doves can do pop as well as they can shoegaze. We had an inkling of that with last time’s Pounding, but now we understand that that was indeed no fluke.

Black and White Town, which follows and is joined to its predecessor in theme and sound, opens with a brisk drum cadence and echoing piano. It carries on the message of rediscovering one’s home as the broadest of strokes, the most plain of places, and a starting point for a journey to other, more colorful locales. Its eventual conclusion is another perfectly joined song, Almost Forgot Myself, the best on the album. With an instantly memorable guitar riff and a multi-layered texture, it is Doves at their best.

The hits keep coming throughout the album with other standouts Snowden, One of These Days, and Sky Starts Falling being the best of the rest. They alternate between indie-rock and dream-pop offering a taste of both in a way few bands these days can. And like any Doves’ proper release, there are no low points throughout.

Possessing an abundance of mix-tape fodder but also working as a great Sunday afternoon lie in bed album, Some Cities is the work of a great band with a sound befitting the current music scene. There is something for just about anyone in their work and in Some Cities, perhaps more than in any other album they have released.