The Sunday Times

Review Round-Up #5

More reviews of the album and single are still filtering through – and with the odd exceptions, they’re overwhelmingly positive…

Scotland On Sunday (via Scotsman.com), Album Review:

Scotsman.com

Thrillingly propelled by Jimi Goodwin’s turbine engine of a bass guitar, the three cool Cheshire cats float above the industrial grime of the English north-east sprinkling a little glamour on their customary grit. ‘House Of Mirrors’ dazzles with a driving beat decorated by spaghetti western instrumental flourishes, and a chorus that will lift the roof off arenas.

“North-East”?… :o)

To read the full review, click here.

Halesowen News, Single Review:

Halesowen News

Doves – Kingdom Of Rust: To soften the blow of leaving us in the lurch for four years, Doves have done the decent thing and returned with an absolute stormer. We’ve heard the album, and this isn’t even the best song on it.

The Independent On Sunday, Album Review:

The Independent

Doves –the band with added moisturiser –are looking to “do an Elbow” this year. In other words, a middle-ranking, fondly regarded but fundamentally unsexy band making an unexpected late-career leap into the big time.

But Jimi Goodwin is no Guy Garvey, vocally or lyrically, and if Kingdom of Rust –which alternates between freewheeling country rock and portentous indie prog –is the record that does it, that’s purely down to timing. (The Last Broadcast was a worthier candidate.)

Download this: ‘Compulsion’: OCD, as easy as 1-2-3

The Sunday Times (via Times Online.co.uk), Album Review:

Times Online.co.uk

Four years on from their most recent album, Some Cities, the Manchester trio return. Everything you expect from a Doves record is here; and that, in a sense, is the problem. Of signs of development and advance, there are frustratingly few. The sonic subtlety that has always vied for supremacy with the band’s big-picture, prog-like tendencies is present and correct: sections of tracks such as Jetstream, 10.03 and Birds Flew Backwards contain huge open spaces in which tiny interjections make a mighty impact. Compulsion, meanwhile, nods to both Blondie’s Rapture and the band’s own dance roots. More typical of a strangely moribund album, however, are Winter Hill and The Greatest Denier, where their defaults of heavy sound blankets and rhythmic doggedness begin to seem not only oppressive, but dull.

Review Round-Up #1

Here’s a few reviews of both the single and album, which you may have missed over the last few days…

The Sunday Times (via TimesOnline.com), Single Review:

TimesOnline.co.uk

Doves: Kingdom of Rust The title track of the trio’s long-awaited new album conjures up a spaghetti western set on the Manchester moors.

Gigwise.com, Album Review:

Gigwise.com

Doves have been made for the big-time ever since they started writing their second album, ‘The Last Broadcast’. But alas, the closest they’ve come to headlining any such setting has been on support slots with U2. So you can’t say they’ve had a hard life, but all the same, they deserve more. And the most annoying thing is, most people know it.

To read the full review, click here.

Drowned In Sound, Single Review:

Drowned In Sound

One can’t help but feel Doves have seen what happened to Elbow last year and fancied a piece of the grown up bloke action themselves. So here is album title track ‘Kingdom of Rust’ – an ambitious, chugga-chugga steam engine of a pop tune which has Misirlou dashes, 50s throwback guitars a la Richard Hawley, and quite a bit of the Neil Hannons in its arrangement and strings, before breaking down to a semi-bluesy workout.

To read the full review, click here.

top40-charts.com, Album Review:

top40-charts.com

Doves – Kingdom Of Rust: Recorded at a converted farmhouse up in North West England, Kingdom of Rust primarily features production work from Dan Austin (Massive Attack), with two additional tracks helmed by industry vet John Leckie (XTC, Stone Roses, Radiohead’s The Bends). The single ‘Kingdom of Rust’ sees Doves return with an utter epic album of eclectic tunes that takes you on a journey somehow perfectly painting a picture of the Northwest of England in a way that only Doves can do. I can hear so many influences in this single, the likes of Blondie, Bowie and the Clash to name but a few.