Doves

Jimi Goodwin and brothers Jez and Andy Williams had already worked together as Sub Sub before recording as Doves. The change brought guitars and more exposed songwriting to the foreground, without discarding their understanding of a groove. Lost Souls arrived in 2000 with The Cedar Room, Catch the Sun and a distinctly nocturnal sense of atmosphere.

Goodwin's singing often sounds weathered rather than theatrical. Around it, the band can let an instrumental passage establish the mood for a long time before the words begin. The Cedar Room is a particularly clear example: the scale of the arrangement makes the eventual vocal entrance feel earned. Even the more immediate singles leave pockets of air between the principal parts.

The Last Broadcast followed in 2002, bringing There Goes the Fear, Pounding and Caught by the River. The music opened outward, with more warmth and forward movement than the debut's most shadowy passages. Some Cities in 2005 drew a tighter outline around the songs; Black and White Town made the group's rhythm section especially difficult to overlook.

Doves' Manchester connection is audible less as a fixed style than as a meeting of traditions: dancefloor patience, guitar-band melancholy and a taste for expansive production. Their early albums move through those elements in different proportions. The percussion at the end of There Goes the Fear is a telling detail, letting a song that has already delivered its chorus continue as a collective, physical release.