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Aug 21, 2020 By Jennifer Irving Doves

Manchester-based trio Doves have (kinda) shared the closing track, “Forest House,” from their upcoming album, The Universal Want, out September 11 on Imperial. Rather than release the track itself, the band has decided to “leak” the lyrics and sheet music, wanting fans and other musicians alike to try and play the song and then post it online using #doveleaks.

In a press release, Doves said this: “It’s been 11 years since our last album, and we all know how hard the last few months have been, so let’s have a little fun where we can. Anyone can have a go, even if all they have is an old, beat-up guitar, so let’s see what people can cook up.”

The band says they will reward their favorite version with a signed box set of the album and Jimi Goodwin will record secondary vocals on top of their recording. The sheet music and lyrics can be accessed here.

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. Then they shared a remix of “Carousels” done by The Comet Is Coming, the London based Nu Jazz trio.

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.

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).

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