Lost Souls

Performer: Doves
Engineer: Steve Osborne
Producer: Doves
Distributor: Caroline Distribution

Notes: Doves: Jimi Goodwin (vocals, acoustic guitar, samples); Jez Williams (acoustic & electric guitars, programming, backgrounnd vocals); Andy Williams (harmonica, drums, samples, background vocals). Additional personnel: Kate Evans, Jane Coyle, Barbara Grunthal, Wendy Edison (strings); Stuart Warburton (harmonica); Richard Wheatley (piano, Fender Rhodes piano); Martin Rebelski (piano). While some rock groups have been known to lean heavily on electronic elements (Radiohead, the Flaming Lips), it's rare for an electronica act to morph into a rock band. But that's exactly what the Manchester, England dance trio Sub Sub did when they reinvented themselves as Doves. Surprisingly enough, the Britpop group's bold 2000 debut, LOST SOULS, arrived fully formed, revealing airy shoegazer atmospherics anchored by a muscular, stadium-ready sound. The album opens with the dream-like "Firesuite," which gives way to the surging, soul-tinged "Here It Comes." Throughout the record, the band--consisting of Jimi Goodwin and brothers Jez and Andy Williams, who all share vocal and instrumental duties--maintains a hypnotically dark tone that's best showcased on the haunting "Sea Song" and the echo-laden "Rise." And unlike many front-loaded rock discs, LOST SOULS saves its most energetic, guitar-heavy tracks until later in the album, with the driving "Catch the Sun" and "The Cedar Room" (one of Doves' most soaringly anthemic songs) pushing things along. Hailed at the time by many UK publications as one of the strongest British rock debuts in years, LOST SOULS more than lives up to its lauded reputation and lays down a solid foundation for Doves' subsequent outings.

Q (1/01, p.90) - Included in Q's "50 Best Albums of 2000" - "...Heavy, sombre and lugubrious, it makes for seriously claustrophobic listening, until it takes a great gulp of euphoria..." Magnet (1-2/01, p.87) - "...The group tries outdated post-disco...flange-smothered art pop...piano-key-mashing Britpop blues, Bragg-ish Labour folk and Ecstasy-riddled comedown drone with high-drama production..." CMJ (12/00, p.54) - "...The earthy instrumental elements and complex, layered arrangements in aching epics...provide the winning shots....balancing the heady, psychedelic leanings with a couple sublime and somewhat stripped-down guitar-driven numbers..." NME (Magazine) (12/30/00, p.77) - Ranked #8 in NME's "Top 50 Albums Of The Year". NME (Magazine) (4/1/00, p.34) - 9 out of 10 - "...A serious and intense record....the first great album to come from Manchester since DEFINITELY MAYBE....they make being sad after drugs sound great."

The members of the early-2000s Britpop sensations Doves started out playing Manchester-inspired dance music in the '90s under the name Sub Sub (and had a smash dance hit, "Ain't No Love (Ain't No Use)") before reinventing themselves as shoegazer-influenced rockers with their 2000 debut album LOST SOULS, which was widely embraced in the U.K. The followup, 2002's THE LAST BROADCAST, and its ultra-hooky opening single and British smash "There Goes the Fear," saw Doves breaking through to the rest of the world.

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