Doves on day release

Picture: Ceri Levi

A flurry of gigs last year - including one at the Royal Albert Hall in April that I was at - gave hope of new material from the mighty Doves, after a 11-year break since their 2009 album Kingdom Of Rust. During that absence, brothers Andy and Jez Williams formed Black Rivers, while bassist and singer Jimi Goodwin released a solo album. But last year's live reformation seemed to galvanise the Oldham trio into getting back together on record, and thus it seemed to be the case in January when a tweet from a studio mixing desk appeared to confirm that new material would be in the offing.

Last month saw the release of the single Carousels, serving a taste of today's announcement of a new album, The Universal Want, to be released on 11 September, which will include the sprightly second single, Prisoners, issued today. "Everything on the album is an echo," Williams, J. said today. "It’s an echo of what we were going through at the time. Getting back together, the Royal Albert Hall and everything else."

Elbow's Guy Garvey - who, along with Doves and I Am Kloot - forms part of a north-west English clique responsible for some of the richest indie rock of the last decade or so - recently gave Q an insight into what he'd heard coming out of the Doves studio: "You don't hear records like they're about to make very often any more," he said, making clear he'd been sworn to secrecy. "The necessary economy of making music means it can be sparse and there's fewer signals per tune and that forced minimalism is turning out some amazing stuff," adding, "but sometimes you want something with the kitchen sink being swung around the head. It's gonna be massive."

Picture: Doves/Jon Shard

Back in June, when the first single was released, Goodwin told the NME of the new direction: "We’re still really excited about trying stuff that we’ve never done and going to places that we as a band have never been to." Carousels, he said, was "a good harbinger of the album and just a great mission statement. Without having any agenda or a backstory as to what the record is, it just shows off our love of sonic weirdness, atmosphere and energy. We unanimously knew that this would be great as the first thing that people hear of us coming out of the gate after all this time. It’s a mission statement."

As for returning after such a long break, Goodwin added: "We find ourselves in the middle of such strange world events. It’s still exciting to be releasing music, because I’m dead proud of what we’ve managed to pull together after 11 years." Speaking about the new album, Goodwin said: "I just know that we’ve made a really good Doves record that represents where we are and where we’ve been for the past 11 years. It’s probably the most organically-made Doves record," adding that it came out of the trio chatting via e-mail. "I was meant to be doing my next solo record and they were supposed to be doing a new Black Rivers album. We started pooling all our material and the material that we couldn’t work into shape on the last record Kingdom Of Rust."

As for the hiatus, Goodwin told the NME: "Time really does fly and I can’t believe it’s been 11 years. We’re friends at the end of the day, and we just clicked back into place like it was yesterday. It’s nice to have had that space between the records. It was starting to feel like punching the clock a little bit before we took a break."

The Universal Want tracklisting:
Carousels
I Will Not Hide
Broken Eyes
For Tomorrow
Cathedrals Of The Mind
Prisoners
Cycle Of Hurt
Mother Silver Lake
Universal Want
Forest House