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100Confirms Doves as the country's most innovative rock group. [Mar 2005, p.94]
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100Some Cities brims with confidence, as the band delivers a mix of Motown rhythms and windswept melodies with unblinking force.
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There's an almost antiquated quality to this wondrously exhilarating, shimmering pop masterpiece. [4 Mar 2005, p.73]
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A crowning achievement. [#9]
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Some of the radio-friendly oompa of 'The Last Broadcast' has been cut back, and the new record bears more resemblance to their debut 'Lost Souls' in its ashen-faced detachment and bloodied-yet-unbowed pride.
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Some Cities builds on the band's propensity for melodic grandeur and achieves pure sonic bliss in the bargain.
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Some Cities is easily their best since Lost Souls, and while repeated listens won't likely reveal it better than their debut, it's often equally as hypnotizing.
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80Whilst "Some Cities" has less radio-friendly singles than "The Last Broadcast", it is perhaps a more cohesive piece of work.
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80They throw light on their shadowy melancholia, resulting in positively euphoric tunes. [Mar 2005, p.111]
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Doves' best yet.
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80It is only after about the fifth listen that the true wonder of Some Cities slowly starts revealing itself. [Mar 2005, p.97]
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80"Some Cities" is less epic, but no less important, than its predecessors.
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80The album has a mood that runs throughout, unfolding from nothing into something extraordinary.
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78In the three years since Last Broadcast, Doves have cultivated a better understanding of their strengths and limitations, and Some Cities beams with a revivified looseness.
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75Like Coldplay killing time with the Happy Mondays at Manchester's Hacienda club. [Mar 2005, p.92]
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74Floating where they once soared... Doves safely straddle anthemic familiarity and hipster erudition. [#15, p.104]
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70Doves' best songs are full of life and genuinely moving, like an older, wiser Coldplay. [Apr 2005, p.113]
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70Anthemic, challenging pop.
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70Suggests a progression and a retreat at the same time.
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70Some Cities is not as strong as its two predecessors, but it does continue the band's run of consistently pleasing albums.
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As has always been the case with Doves, aural environment-building sometimes seems to be all the band has going for it, like on "Someday Soon," which uses sudden dramatic hushes and angelic choirs to pump life into a ballad that's practically melody-free. But at least the practice helps Doves make its few great songs count.
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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.
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There's generally more of the same here, but Doves' alternate influences this time around... don't exactly add up to a great band "stretching out." It's more like they're grabbing at straws. [May 2005, p.134]
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60While there are plenty of MTV2-ready tunes, the record doesn't bear much repetition.
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50Sadly, the songs are less noticeable than the urge to strangle the drummer. [Mar 2005, p.101]
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Doves' strength lies in their careful sculpting of the sonic and the emotional, and here they've restrained their palette and scope so much that the result is grey.
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Bogged in reverb tanks, delays, and other swirly effects, Some Cities' production masks their slovenly musicianship.
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20Like most of the cities Doves sing about, these songs are grey, drizzly, often unpleasant, and more often than not... very, very dull.
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User score distribution:
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Positive: 45 out of 51
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Mixed: 2 out of 51
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Negative: 4 out of 51
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SeanH10Sing Jimmi..Sing! Blow your lungs out! Very nice piece of work!
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mol9