4 keepers
keeper avg .400
Released in the year of COVID, and eleven years after their previous album "Kingdom of Rust," Doves finally returned from their hiatus with a long-awaited follow-up. Maybe a little less experimental than its predecessor, Doves nonetheless make rhythm or groove the focus on the opening tracks. Trippy drums drive "Carousels"****, and each verse ending with an infectious "Oh I'm gonna take you down" refrain sounds appropriately celebratory. A highly syncopated rhythm drives every part of the soulful "I Will Not Hide"****. "Cycle of Hurt," which has a similar but more atmospheric feel, on paper is laughable collection of British rock clichés: Simple U2-Edge mega-delayed guitar lines, "Everybody Hurts" level earnestness, and repetitive chords (save for a couple interesting detours). Except it's fantastic****; in place of pathos Jimi Goodwin rails in frustration and resolve, finally chanting "it's a trap" over the orchestral outro.
The middle of the album is generally conventional 90's Brit-pop, the general melancholy punctuated by the classic rock breaks in "Broken Eyes," the pounding piano of "For Tomorrow," the spacey "Cathedrals of the Mind" (inspired by the loss of David Bowie), and the aggressive Radiohead guitar leads in the relatively speedy "Prisoners" (with memorable lines "If you've got to believe in someone Don't make that person me, If you've got to let go of something Then let go of me"). After the pleasant dance-pop "Mother Silverlake," the title song**** is your standard dramatic piano ballad, but concluded by driving disco-soul coda, reminding me of "We Are Family" (Sister Sledge , 1979). Finally, the pensive, atmospheric (via Flaming Lips or Radiohead) "Forest House" seems more like a transitional interlude than an album ender, but there it is.
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