moving out... lock, stock and two streaming nostrils.
moving out... lock, stock and two streaming nostrils.
Member since:08.12.2001
Reviews:123
Members who trust:158
In a typically garbled and ridiculous attempt to make myself understood, in my last Doves review I said that The Last Broadcast was a better album than Lost Souls. It isn't, but I do think it's destined to be more popular, more mainstream and more accessible. So… I kinda retract. If you get what I mean. If you don't, well, makes no difference, you should listen to both anyway. :P
Aaron, another one just for you. :P
Lost Souls is, as debut albums go, a pretty classy offering. 10 full tracks and 2 instrumental mood-pauses (a regular Dovesian trick to keep the album flowing as a single musical offering rather than a collection of individual singles-fodder) join together to form a beautifully turbulent river of sound, or something equally lovely and pretentious. :)
There are certain trends in Doves music that have become more pronounced through Last Broadcast and Some Cities. Roughly speaking, the title track is always a bit vague, there is at least one bass
thumping indie chart-fodder track, and there is at least one piece of genuine musical genius.
Probably the best way to give you a flavour of how this album works is to embark on it track by track as if it's a big, hairy, beardy Mancunian rollercoaster.
Lost Souls kicks off with an atmospheric and slightly creepy instrumental intro track, and these as a rule have slight echoes of the band's Sub Sub past and their fondness for blending unusual sounds to make slightly melancholy and blurry music. All of Lost Souls is tinged by a minor key feeling, with delicate and precise guitar patterns over fuzzy keyboards and drums. And just as Where We're Calling From leads into the gut-kick of New York on Last Broadcast, this gentle introduction sweeps into Here It Comes, a pounding, jazzy, piano-led offering that mixes Jez Williams' nasal whine with Jimi Goodwin's throaty drone to create a kickass musical drama. A pacy showstopper, this is followed up by the gentle and haunting Break Me Gently, with its distorted, broken vocals and piercing lyrics. The opening riff of this is actually capable of making me cry but then I'm strange like that.
Kicking up a gear pushes us into Sea Song, a lyrical, slow, repetitive drift through musical meandering (this river analogy is getting old now, isn't it?), the only disappointment of which is the fact that it's slightly inferior to its B-side remix, Down To Sea, which features on Lost Sides.
From there we launch into the Alex patented Doves-Track-I'm-Perpetually-Ambivalent-About. Rise is actually good. It is. But from time to time, for no reason at all, this powerful, jungle-noise-mixing, sounds-like-the-guitar-bit-from-Through-The-Barricades number gets up my nose. But that's quite okay, because it leads straight into the melodic, slightly vague and very lovely Lost Souls.
Post-souls is a bit of a jangly indie nostalgia-fest in Melody Calls. A strong chorus and bouncy baseline makes this a likeable paint-by-numbers singalong fest, and for that reason it's particularly lovely that it leads into a markedly anthemic number, Catch The Sun. CTS may be pretty mediocre in terms of the genius Doves CAN produce, but it still knocks the socks off the competition. A bouncy Pounding-esque number, it wakes you up just in time to be mellowed out by one of my personal favourites, the droll and yet somehow also eerie The Man Who Told Everything. For some reason I think of TMWTE as the kind of thing Alice In Wonderland's Caterpillar would have as a theme song for his life… (am I being too odd in public again?)
And then there's the real showstopper. The Cedar Room mixes all the classic Doves principles: blending sounds, extending and playing with musical patterns, melancholy lyrics and a touch of inexplicable brilliance.
After that, the lovely instrumental Reprise and the odd and ever-so-slightly indie-sanctimonious A House kind of get forgotten as you come down from the thrill, but hey, who cares?
Hey, do you think if I keep treating English like it's German by gluing words together with hyphens I'll end up with a review one day that has absolutely NO spaces?
Oh, and speaking of language… please recognise that there is ABSOLUTELY NO "THE" BEFORE DOVES. It shouldn't annoy me, but it does. Unlike the album, which has been on repeat play in my car for so long that I've forgotten how to drive without it.
Stop listening to me, for heavens's sake, and go and listen to a heavenly album instead. Comes in a variety of prices (I got it for £7 in an HMV sale) but start with www.play.com
All hail, over and out.
xxx
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
The review wasn't contrived, it gave an in-depth story on each track and has convinced me to buy the cd. What more do I want? Nowt!
darkangelwing 29.08.2005 01:07
The doves were ace at leeds 2003 i have their second album the last broadcast which is lovely not listened to the debut but have heard catch the sun many a times it's a lovely song,great review well done
electricfrog5 10.08.2005 13:49
Great review I can almost hear the music playing. L xx
In an about-face that will infuriate technophiles, this group of dance revisionists ... more
celebrate guitars and "real instruments" in the face of processed music. The Williams brothers and their mate Jim Goodwin first had a hit with the disco-charged "Ain't ...
Postage & Packaging: £1.21 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
In an about-face that will infuriate technophiles, this group of dance revisionists ... more
celebrate guitars and "real instruments" in the face of processed music. The Williams brothers and their mate Jim Goodwin first had a hit with the disco-charged "Ain't ...
Postage & Packaging: Free! Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours...
Advantages: An album that gets better the more often you hear it. And you should hear it a lot. Disadvantages: The band your mum would probably like - which is never fun
everyplatewebreak 10.01.2001 ·
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Lost Souls - Doves
Advantages: An album that gets better the more often you hear it. And you should hear it a lot. Disadvantages: The band your mum would probably like - which is never fun
everyplatewebreak 10.01.2001 ·
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Lost Souls - Doves
Advantages: A comprehensive collection of b-sides from the first two albums. Disadvantages: I love Doves, but this is one for the fans and completists.
hogga22 24.08.2005 ·
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful
Review of Lost Sides - Doves
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