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Jul 09, 2020 By Christopher Roberts Photography by Jon Shard Doves

British trio Doves have announced a new album, The Universal Want, which is their first in 11 years, and shared another song from it, “Prisoners.” The Universal Want is due out September 11 via IMPERIAL. Jack Lightfoot directed the “Prisoners” video. Check out “Prisoners” below, followed by the album’s tracklist and cover art.

The lineup for Doves is Jimi Goodwin (vocals/bass), and brothers Andy Williams (drums/vocals) and Jez Williams (guitars/programming/vocals). The band co-produced the album with Dan Austin and it was recorded in their own Frank Bough Sound III studios in North West England.

In June the band shared the album’s first single, “Carousels,” which was their first new song in 11 years. “Carousels” made it to #1 on our Songs of the Week list.

Doves’ last album was 2009’s Kingdom of Rust, which was their fourth. The band went on an “indefinite pause” in 2010, but announced their reunion in 2018 and played their first reunion show in March 2019, to benefit Teenage Cancer Trust. Other live shows followed, along with promises of new music.

Andy Williams had this to say about “Prisoners” in a press release: “It’s about continually chasing something and not being satisfied when you eventually get it. You’ve got ‘that thing’ and you find you’re not any happier. Be careful what you wish for.”

Of the album as a whole, Jez Williams had this to say: “It’s definitely got the stamp of ‘the time’ all over it. Everything on the album is an echo. It’s an echo of what we were going through at the time. Getting back together, the Royal Albert Hall and everything else.

The album’s artwork is by London-based, Finnish photographer, Maria Lax. Goodwin was taken by her 2020 photobook, Some Kind of Heavenly Fire, and gifted a copy to each of his bandmates. The press release says the book “set evocative images alongside memorabilia relating to a moment in time when hardship, industrialization and UFO sightings disturbed the peace of her isolated hometown in Northern Finland.”

Doves have released four albums: 2000’s Lost Souls, 2002’s The Last Broadcast, 2005’s Some Cities, and 2009’s Kingdom of Rust. Since their hiatus, frontman Jimi Goodwin released a solo album, Odludek, in 2014. That same year, Doves’ other two members, brothers Jez and Andy Williams, formed the new band Black Rivers (they released their debut album in 2015). Doves were interviewed in our very first print issue, back in 2001, and we have interviewed them for each of their four albums, so the band has a special place in our hearts.

The Universal Want Tracklist:

1. Carousels
2. I Will Not Hide
3. Broken Eyes
4. For Tomorrow
5. Cathedrals of the Mind
6. Prisoners
7. Cycle of Hurt
8. Mother Silver Lake
9. Universal Want
10. Forest House

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