Wednesday Wadio: Doves ‘House of Mirrors’

Since I wrote my January piece on the first single, Jetstream, the Doves’ latest album, Kingdom of Rust, has enjoyed a long and glorious reign on my car stereo. I’ve had a huge soft spot for the band since their inception in the mid-nineties, and unlike many of their “Brit Pop” contemporaries they’ve managed both a longevity and musical evolution that has surprised many critics and fans. I doubt they’ll ever be able to write another song as special to me as 2002’s There Goes the Fear that’s not a bad thing because I doubt any band ever will (it’s my favorite song, evah). But I got’s to tell you – House of Mirrors comes pretty gosh darn close. Have a listen…

“If you don’t move to this song I would suggest seeing a doctor right away.” – YouTube Comment

Although KOR is their 4th album in 9 years, it’s been 48 long months since Some Cities and I have wondered more than once if it might be Doves‘ final output. I finally got to see them in Boston on that tour and watching them close with ‘Fear‘ mere feet from the stage was a crowning moment in my extensive concert-going history. Here are some photos from the evening which took place in 2005 at Avalon (now House of Blues) on Landsdowne Street. My worries were, thank goodness, unfounded as the boys from Manchester have quietly returned to surprise us all.

Vagrant-stomping drums, a Spectoresque wall of sound, rockabilly guitar riffs and a chorus that makes me want to roll down my windows at a red light in a busy intersection and embarass myself. How’s that for a testimonial? In skimming reviews of the record as a whole last night I discovered quite a few others.

“House Of Mirrors effortlessly puts one over on the Last Of The Shadow Puppets’ 60s throwbacks with a crashing burst of Ennio Morricone-influenced fingersnaps and Goodwin bellowing like Scott Walker over the top – it’s one of the finest songs they’ve ever recorded.” – MusicOMH.com

“House Of Mirrors shatters along like some unearthed gem from Joe Meek’s record box.” – BBC

D’ya like our new beards, geezer?”

“… the more euphoric the music gets; the more miserable everyone in the songs becomes. “Home feels like a place I’ve never been,” protests Goodwin as a preposterously uplifting psychedelic soul stomp called House of Mirrors achieves vertical takeoff.” – Guardian

“Perhaps this restlessness is indicative of certain frustration on Doves’ part in seeing their efforts eclipsed by less imaginative, more mawkish Britpop bands, and in turn, a desire to distance themselves from the sad-sack pack; it’s hard to imagine the likes of Elbow turning in something quite as fierce and paranoid as “House of Mirrors”, a fuzz-soaked stomper punctuated by jarring, bump-in-the-night sound effects.” – Pitchfork

See? I told you it was good. I told ya! Placing these quotes in my own personal testament isn’t as much an effort to back up my own opinion – which I was tremendously confident in the very first time I heard the tune while zipping along the Mass Pike – as they are a desire to point out the way in which the fickle industry is welcoming the band back with open arms. This is a very difficult feat to accomplish (ask Travis, for example), and restores my faith in music being able to get along on its merits alone. For the record, I thought the last Travis record was really good, Pitchfork. You guys vivisected it.

Although there is no shortage of stand-out tracks on Kingdom Of Rust – ‘Winter Hill’ and ‘Birds Flying Backwards’ in particular – House of Mirrors is the one that really grabbed me by the short and curlies. You can grab the record by clicking the album cover above or even just the one song when you get there. This is one to own, kids.