The first great indie rock guitar album of the twenty-first century was created by a trio of Manchester, England-based musicians who, almost a decade earlier, had been synonymous with the city's then vibrant club culture. Doves original incarnation Sub Sub had been conceived when a trio of former school friends became re-acquainted on the dancefloor of Manchester's Haçienda club. Jimi Goodwin (bass/vocals), Jez Williams (guitar/vocals) and twin Andy Williams (drums) began recording as Sub Sub. By autumn 1993, their strident house track "Ain't No Love (Ain't No Use)" was omnipresent in clubs and on the radio, but when fire destroyed everything they owned, Sub Sub ceased to exist. Remarkably, the band now describe this blaze as "a good cut-off point. It kept things interesting."
Re-inventing themselves as Doves, eschewing the sequencers and samplers that they had previously utilized and name-checking Mark Hollis of Talk Talk, Scott Walker, Morrissey and Terry Hall as reference points, the trio ensconced themselves in a studio in north Manchester to record their inaugural Cedar EP and their 2000 debut album. Described by guitarist Johnny Marr as "a vast 3am melancholic beauty brought to life", Lost Souls was saturated with beauty, intimacy and poignancy. Proof that the band was no fluke came in the shape of the glorious The Last Broadcast in 2002, which gave freer rein to the trio's pop instincts, most notably on the sublime single "There Goes The Fear".
The commercial momentum gaining force behind the Doves heightened awareness for their third album, which was completed at the end of 2004 and released at the start of the following year. Premiered by the soul-influenced single "Black And White Town", Some Cities duly sped the Doves to the top of the UK charts for the first time in their career.
