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Doves
THE LAST BROADCAST
(CAPITOL RECORDS)

Stars graphics

When last we heard from this Manchester trio, the world was only recently post-millennium and the band who’d emerged in the early ’90s doing acid house as Sub Sub were born again with a bittersweet Mercury Prize–nominated album titled Lost Souls. Two years later, Badly Drawn Boy’s one-time backing group follow up with an album of buoyant melodies that opens with an uncharacteristic declaration of defiance. "Words, they mean nothing, so you can’t hurt me/You can’t stop me," sings guitarist Jez Williams on "Words" as his brother, drummer Andy Williams, and bassist Jimi Goodwin ably support the shimmering wash of guitar. Doves’ new confidence is also evident on "There Goes the Fear," a fevered seven-minute Stone Rosey jam bolstered by vigorous Latin percussion.

Elsewhere, the band employ strings, woodwinds, and brass to supplement those guitar washes and throbbing bass lines, breaking through the gloom that hung heavy over Lost Souls. The Last Broadcast doesn’t mark a complete change in mood — the subdued symphonics of "Friday’s Dust" and the idyllic folk number "Caught by the River" stay grounded in melancholy. But instead of sticking to the introspective vibe that colored Lost Souls, Doves embrace a wider range of moods, emotions, and influences, from the stark guitar pop of the Smiths to the taut throbbing of Hacienda-era New Order, from the contemplative, gospel-tinged "Satellites" to the euphoric pounding of "Pounding" to the psychedelic haze of "The Sulphur Man." The Last Broadcast may be music for coping with the end of summer, but Doves no longer sound as if they were bracing for the end of the world.

(Doves play Axis this Monday, June 17. Call 617-262-2437.)

BY TONY WARE

Issue Date: June 13 - 20, 2002
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