Doves: Some Cities : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

A chart-topper in their native England, Doves' latest record brightens up the widescreen gloom of their 2000 debut, Lost Souls, dishing out hopeful, multitracked choruses and liquid guitars. Some Cities is less self-consciously arty than Souls, though the murky atmospherics and nondistinct Brit voices here will likely confine the album to the nether regions of America's Top 100. But delicately rocking tunes such as "Black and White Town" and "Sky Starts Falling" reach a happy compromise between romantic beauty and groundedness, the sound of young urbanites having fun with music without forgetting about the real world. "Snowden" makes room for breezy, chiming verses, a Flaming Lips-esque synth choir and a crunchy guitar break, and if the odd mix of balladry and disco on "Walk in Fire" suggests they're slightly confused, it also suggests these guys are willing to follow their whims rather than try too damn hard.