2009年 Mar 27日 Friday, 1:05

It’s been four years since the Doves released Some Cities, their last full-length. Generally, such a long layover is cause for concern. Fortunately, the Manchester, England band have avoided a Second Coming and are back on top form. Kingdom of Rust picks up where Some Cities they left off, retaining some of the more electronic elements of that album. This is arguably Doves’ most inventive effort to date, yet it still retains the band’s classic sound.

The slow burning Jetstream opens the album and builds towards some interesting textural ideas, although it doesn’t quite seem to achieve much in the way of a climax. The pace is picked up by the lead single and title track Kingdom of Rust, which grooves along with an expansive sound of a determined band. The pace continues to build with the dirty basslines of the Outsiders and through to Winter Hill, a more conventional Doves number. What follows next though is the centerpiece, 10:03. What begins as a lush ballad about longing for familiarity, abruptly transforms into a gloomy bass-driven jam halfway through. Later on, the funky bassline of Compulsion is positively reminiscent of the bands’ earlier Sub Sub days. Compulsion really illustrates how Doves’ willingness to experiment separates the band from Elbow and its other contemporaries.

The finish though, is the real highlight of Kingdom of Rust. The stomping beat of House of Mirrors and its huge outro which features co-vocals from both of the bands’ brothers, is maybe the band’s best track since Pounding. The piano-led Lifelines then completes the album with a revived sense of passion for the trio. Unfortunately, the band does seem to run out of steam in the middle, as Birds Flew Backwards and Spellbound impede the flow a little bit too much and Kingdom of Rust doesn’t contain the band’s finest lyrics. Sill though, neither of these points can take anything away from this long-awaited success. Admittedly, I’m a sucker for almost any ambitious-sounding British band, but Doves’ Kingdom of Rust really does deserve to go down as one of 2009’s finest.

8/10