In the current pantheon of famous British bands – Radiohead, Coldplay and Oasis, among others – Doves seems to be a mere footnote, never quite permeating the mainstream airwaves to the degree of its colleagues. While its brand of alternative guitar rock definitely draws from the supposed Brit overlords, the band has long attempted to forge a specific identity for its songs.
On the band’s fourth album, Kingdom of Rust, this identity proves to be more of a curse than a blessing.
It’s an issue carried over from past efforts: The band’s penchant for atmosphere and studio embellishment effectively neuters many of its songs. Guitars pop into the mix in unnatural bursts of static, and songs are coated in off-putting layers of reverb. The slickness softens the band’s otherwise great song construction.
Tracks such as “10:03” would have an intense, pulsing immediacy if not for being completely flattened by the album’s dull production. “Birds Flew Backwards” simply wallows in its own ambiance, refusing to solidify and, more importantly, capture the listener’s attention. The short cascading synth riff of “Jetstream” is distracting, as is the worthless intro to “The Outsiders.”
At first, it seems as though the successful tracks come more from luck of the draw than from anything else.
“Spellbound” perfectly melds The Bends-era Radiohead and the soaring atmospherics of Coldplay. An acoustic guitar in the background provides necessary grounding for the song to march along.
“House of Mirrors” combats its own polish with driving drum beats and heavily distorted guitars to become one of the few unabashed anthems of the album.
One other such anthem is “Winter Hill,” which goes against the grain of the album by getting absolutely everything right. The keyboard intro, for once, feels like it fits the mold of the song, and a hummable guitar riff in the chorus keeps the song from drifting off. All in all, the song is an extremely catchy rocker without any noticeable distractions.
As it turns out, the successful songs on Kingdom of Rust all seem to be fitted with a property keeping the track from falling into its own atmospheric abyss.
“Winter Hill” has its aforementioned guitar riff, and “Spellbound” has its acoustic guitar. The album’s eponymous first single contains a haunting organ line, and “Jetstream” has its titular lyrics called from the back of the mix.
Songs like those, ones that can effortlessly engage the listener, give Doves an opportunity to showcase its undeniable talent. When the guitar riffs aren’t toyed with to the point where they seem artificially created, the creativity of the lines shines through. When the songs are grittier, guitar and piano interplay can shoot to the forefront, and a definitive mood can be established.
Tracks without one of those grounding agents, without something to make the song memorable, notably suffer.
The final song, “Lifelines,” has all the setup to be an epic, crescendo-heavy finale. Lazily intoned vocals and piano intensify until the vocal speed builds, guitars, drums and a choir join … and then the song just climaxes and ends. There is no emotional response because the song never reaches a catharsis.
The problem is, for all of their competent song craft and instrumentation, Doves can’t quite reach past the speakers. Kingdom of Rust is split in half between songs that succeed and songs that unsuccessfully strive for way too much.
Doves’ songs don’t need to be stripped bare to succeed. They just need to be stripped of the layers upon layers of excess bogging them down.
jwolper@umd.edu
RATING: 2.5 out of 5 stars
