| Doves |
| Some Cities |
| On Rolling Stone’s Web site, a listing for the band Doves’ latest album, Some Cities, classifies the sound as “Brit pop.” So they’re the ones.
If an American record store set up a new release section for such a classification, the Who’s greatest hits compilations would dwarf it. Oasis settled, Blur fragmented, Travis couldn’t figure out the next step and only rock critics with a thesaurus know what to call Radiohead. Here’s what the Doves do, though — the Manchester trio makes adventuresome, eminently hum-able rock songs about escaping the travails of modern life. What do we call it, then? Ah, shut up and just listen. After 2002’s Lost Souls and the peaks that were “There Goes the Fear” and “Pounding,” Some Cities features an even more consistent song cycle that drifts from uptempo anthems to slight, quiet breezes of songs. On the first single, “Black and White Town,” a can’t-stop-won’t-stop drumbeat helps turn lead singer Jimi Goodwin’s vocals into defiant recommendations against urban complacency. And, there’s a guitar solo … a good one at that. Instead of the distinctive vocals of a band like Keane, Doves songs treat lyrics like another layer of guitars, without reducing them to sound effects. “Walk With Fire” turns epic on accident, slowly gathering energy like adding logs to the bonfire pit. The downright pastoral “Someday Soon” makes the presence of such dirt devils of guitars on “Sky Starts Falling” all the more exciting. The only classification Some Cities deserves is “good,” a word that has no country of origin and thus no responsibilities for fading flames of yesteryear. |
| Originally published in Take ONE, as written by Hank Brockett |