By some weird chance, the first time I heard Rene­gade, I was step­ping off the tram and cross­ing the sad waste­land of Pic­cadil­ly Gar­dens to meet a friend in the North­ern Quar­ter. Omi­nous, thun­dery synths and an echoey piano note fade to Jim­i’s famil­iar vocals describ­ing a bleak and tor­tured land­scape, both emo­tion­al­ly and phys­i­cal­ly. Oh and there’s that men­tion of Pic­cadil­ly Gardens.

As wide­ly report­ed, Doves have faced a dif­fi­cult few years, first with a can­celled tour, fol­lowed by Jimi Good­win tak­ing time away due to men­tal health strug­gles as they set about mak­ing new album Con­stel­la­tions For The Lone­ly. His dis­tinc­tive bari­tone is an inte­gral part of Doves’ sound, but for this album, vocals have been more even­ly shared than usu­al between the band members.

The stun­ning sec­ond track Cold Dream­ing is one that fea­tures the Williams broth­ers on vocals. It took me a cou­ple of lis­tens to assuage a feel­ing of doubt before it all clicked into place and now it feels absolute­ly right that they car­ry this song. Cold Dream­ing is dra­mat­ic and pow­er­ful­ly visu­al, sweep­ing you up and car­ry­ing you along a jour­ney where every few min­utes anoth­er door opens to reveal a new land­scape of scin­til­lat­ing, rich­ly emo­tive instru­men­ta­tion – and moments of pure euphoria.

Saint Tere­sa, which was unveiled on the cusp of the album’s release, is anoth­er catchy, anthemic track. The song cap­tures the feel­ing of loss of enti­ty and the soul in a state of frag­men­ta­tion, like Saint Tere­sa with her bones as holy relics rest­ing in dif­fer­ent places. The lyrics are a con­fes­sion­al search for answers on the inter­net – ten times a day. And from that tur­moil has emerged this sub­lime­ly beau­ti­ful song.

The record­ing process for Con­stel­la­tions For The Lone­ly was report­ed­ly a frag­ment­ed affair, with the trio work­ing apart from each oth­er for much of the time. Yet it’s a tes­ta­ment to the deep, long-term close­ness of Andy, Jez and Jimi that they man­age to pull off this lat­est work.

On each spin of the album, a dif­fer­ent track bobs to the sur­face and over­whelms me with its emo­tion and mas­tery of com­po­si­tion and lyri­cal depth. Doves have pro­duced ten songs, each so dif­fer­ent, as they con­front and work through trou­bled emo­tions and expe­ri­ences. And we are with them all the way.

If we are to count mes­sages in the songs, final track South­ern Bell is replete with them. A con­tem­pla­tive open­ing with a folk vibe and gen­tly strum­ming gui­tar sud­den­ly shifts; despon­den­cy is shrugged off and a new phase begins, replete with promise. With a dra­mat­ic flour­ish, Jimi takes over the vocals for an uplift­ing, some­what play­ful and rous­ing finale. “Come on, let’s take this chance. And you’ll nev­er be alone again’.

Doves Con­stel­la­tions For The Lonely 

Doves at Beard­ed The­o­ry ©oliviarosen