Doves The Places Between: The Best Of (EMI)
4/5
By: Tom Hocknell
Doves’ literal rising from the ashes of dance group Sub Sub after a studio fire burned their tapes is well documented, and forced multi-instrumentalists Jez Williams, Jimi Goodwin and Andy Williams to start from scratch, which in an illogical leap involved picking up guitars and books on how to brood. In fact, the leap from Radio 1 (with Sub Sub’s ‘Ain’t No Love’), to the dense Radio 2 guitar epics of the Doves can be traced via one of Sub Sub’s final singles, 1995’s brooding ‘Southern Trees’ (which is well worth a dig). Electronics have always lurked, sometimes too deeply, in the background of the Doves’ four albums since 2000.
Strangely, for a quintessential albums band, their career is staked out by huge singles. Obliagtory ‘best of’ new track, ‘Andalucía’, continues this trend, set to stand effortlessly alongside its predecessors at festivals. The quality of this new song is teasing fans, in light of a promised hiatus from the band. Otherwise, the well known songs are as strong as ever: the defiant, post-ecstasy refrain of ‘think of me when you’re coming down’ from ‘Here Comes The Fear’ stands tall as ever, while the Northern soul, piano stomp of ‘Black and White Town’ remains one of the best singles of the past 10 years.
However, they are sometimes so busy looking at the festival field, they lose sight of the room, such as on the latter-period Oasis drawl of ‘Words’, which despite a charming guitar line, is 5 minutes, 44 seconds too long. That is not to imply the band are closed-minded, they are not, as this collection includes several different mixes, such as Rich Costey’s take on ‘Snowden’, and these are presumably being deemed as the definitive versions. However, the ‘Summer Mix’ of ‘The Man Who Told Everything’ is so miserable that the mind boggles at what the ‘Winter Mix’ must sound like.
This collection affords a good opportunity for reappraisal, such as the heartache of the majestic ‘Cedar Room’ (Heavenly Records are one of few record labels considering its epic despondency as single material), while ‘Jetstream’ has a still-deft, light touch, but if this is your first introduction to the band, be aware, many of these songs develop with each listen; this is a Best Of made up of ‘growers’, and unlike their peers, Travis, etc, they appear to have a strong future; once they get back from holiday.
Artists in this article: Doves
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