folder Doves
Kingdom of Rust
Astralwerks Records/EMI
Rating: 8.5/10

It’s been four years since Manchester, UK-based band Doves released their last album, Some Cities.  Cities was a delightful romp around the Mancunian landscape — the manufacturing, working-class town where Jimi Goodwin and Jez and Andy Williams hail from.  (Notice, the romp is deemed “delightful,” though not necessarily “whimsical.”) Despite this, Doves failed to break forth with the commercial successes of Coldplay and Oasis and the artistic successes of fellow Mancunians Elbow (2008 Mercury Prize winners for their The Seldom-Seen Kid).

By their fourth album, Kingdom of Rust, however, Doves are entitled to breakthrough with deserved success.  As a whole, the album is only mildly more innovative than Cities and sophomore album The Last Broadcast.  Where Rust shines, however, is in Doves’s continual ability to meld the Britpop sound with the darkness of Manchester and all the electronica history that Manchester evokes. In this respect, Doves surpass Elbow by leaps and bounds, making Rust at least a lock-in for a Mercury Prize nomination.

Rust opens with “Jetstream,” a soaring buildup of Chemical Brothers-like sonic electronica over Jez Williams’s vocals, before lapsing back into Jimi Goodwin’s take on the title track.  ”Kingdom of Rust” is a typical sounding Doves track, replete with piano-sounding overtones during the chorus.  The same can be said for “Birds Flew Backwards,” a slow ballad, reminiscient of Cities “Ambition.”  And “Spellbound” is Broadcast, via “N.Y.”

On “The Greatest Denier,” Doves borrow an arpeggiating melody, similar to that used in Coldplay’s X&Y opener, “Square One.”  Not for the first time Doves pulls a Coldplay-style melody on Rust; the instrumental on the waltz-cum-rocker, “10:03″ has an eerie feel to the instrumental of Viva la Vida‘s “42.”  The difference here is, while Coldplay tries to rock, they’re eerie; while Doves try to be eerie, they rock.

Even Doves’s accessible, pop songs have a hint of sorrow.  On “Winter Hill,” Goodwin sings “If comes the day/you meet someone new/you will be with him/but I’ll be thinking of you.”  More impressive though is the start-stop-start-stop swells of album closer “Lifelines,” an upbeat, peppy tune that serves as an excellent closer, particularly when contrasted with the album’s opener.

But perhaps one of the most disjoint, artistically beautiful songs on the album is “Compulsion,” another song vocalized by Jez Williams.  This song feels like what would have happened if Coldplay visited the Hacienda in the 1980s.  The beat and pounding bass smacks of New Order and fully synthesizes the britpop side of Doves with its electronic side.

Doves shine best because they not only accept their influences, but they work their surroundings into their music as well.  Jimi Goodwin has an unmistakable voice that presents itself well on both the sweet songs (“10:03″) and the punchy songs (“House of Mirrors”).  Combine that with the fact that Doves sing about reality, rather than abstracts, and Kingdom of Rust is further evidence that Doves are surely on their way to finally getting the credit they deserve.