Audio Obsession
Doves’ Kingdom of Rust (Astralwerks)
Doves first blew me away nine years ago with their debut album Lost Souls and their hit single, “Catch The Sun”. This Brit-pop “trio” took the melodic shoe-gazing baton from its predecessors and hit the ground running with their own take on creating ethereal bleeding-heart soundscapes. In 2005, English jazz artist Jamie Cullum would cover “Catch The Sun” on 2005’s Catching Tales.
With Doves’ second record two years later in 2002, The Last Broadcast, they showed they could pull their heads out of the cloudy atmosphere they created and make something that was, God forbid, a bit poppier and more focused then their debut. Ironically, it’s my least favorite Doves record. They split the difference on their third record in 2005, Some Cities, which gave us such gems as “One Of These Days” and my favorite, “Black And White Town”.
Four years floats on by and we are met by the article’s focus, Doves’ latest release Kingdom Of Rust. The album kicks off with my favorite track “Jetstream”, gradually building upon itself with sonic textures leading us into an ideal headspace to listen to the rest of the album. Like Alice’s tumble down the rabbit hole into Wonderland, or Peter Pan’s first trip with the Lost Boys into Neverland, we adventure on to see what the story holds for us. The restless dream continues with the beautiful lead single “Kingdom Of Rust” painting a picture of the yearning for the faint feeling of love again. When the heart seems to be encrusted with rust because of years of love’s absence, it takes “an ocean of trust” to think we’ll feel that wince in our heart again. Luckily the next track “The Outsiders” kicks it up a notch and starts to bring us back into the sunlight to continue our journey on the beautifully textured, sonically and emotionally, landscape.
I don’t care how many blogs compare “Compulsion” to Blondie’s “Rapture”, just stop it. It’s a great song on its own and if push comes to shove, every song out there today could be traced back to a Beatles song if we smoked enough hash.
If you’re daring enough, follow the white rabbit and run over to the iTunes store and purchase Kingdom Of Rust. Buonasera!
