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Jul 27, 2020 Doves By Christopher Roberts

British trio Doves are releasing a new album, The Universal Want, on September 11 via IMPERIAL. Now the band has shared a remix of the album’s first single, “Carousels,” done by The Comet Is Coming, the London based Nu Jazz trio. They radically change up the original, burring Jimi Goodwin’s vocals (instead isolating Jez Williams’ vocals) and adding in free jazz horns. At one point it almost sounds like the soundtrack to an early ’80s sci-fi film. Listen below. The band have also announced some new 2021 UK tour dates and they are below too.

The Universal Want is Doves’ first album in 11 years. 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. When the album was announced they shared its second single, “Prisoners,” via a music video for it. “Prisoners” was #2 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 previous 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.

Doves 2021 Tour Dates:

3/21: Cardiff, UK @ University Great Hall
3/22: Bournemouth, UK @ O2 Academy
3/23: Norwich, UK @ UEA
3/25: Brighton, UK @ Brighton Dome
3/26: London, UK @ O2 Brixton Academy
3/29: Bristol, UK @ O2 Academy
3/30: Birmingham, UK @ O2 Academy
4/1: Manchester, UK @ O2 Apollo
4/2: Nottingham, UK @ Rock City
4/3: Newcastle, UK @ O2 Academy
4/5: Liverpool, UK @ Eventim Olympia
4/9: Sheffield, UK @ O2 Academy
4/10: Glasgow, UK @ Barrowland

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