Doves, that rare blend of credible musicianship and longevity, are finally getting the recognition they deserve. With reserves of ideas and an understated, slow-burning success, the modern northern soul trio arrived at guitar music via the Hacienda – and are all the more prized for it.

But for all this wave of acclaim, one question comes to mind: where were you in 2002? Only now, when the times have caught up with Doves are the music press giving them any significant space, despite the band humbly chiselling away an outstanding back catalogue for over a decade.

An unholy mix of NME-led trends and digital downloads had conspired to make so much new music disposable and forgettable. Fashion loomed large over these rapidly short-lived scenes, injecting plenty of style but little substantive or long term. Then there was Doves, a fine, full-bodied antidote to such fickle fancies. Now, Elbow’s success at the Mercurys has given rise to the possibility that bands don't need to be young or brand-new or fashionable to be decent and successful.

Doves have soundtracked this commentator’s life in various formative stages of adolescence and young manhood, like worldly, wizened uncle-figures. In spite of this nostalgic soft-spot, their work is steeped in yearning and heartfelt sentiment. Lost Souls’ moody seascapes remain totally evocative of the summer of 2000, revelling in youthful freedom; The Last Broadcast is a collection of modern hymns, ethereal yet joyous, all wistful soul and progressive musicianship; and Some Cities was wrapped up in the post-industrial spaces all-but-forgotten until recently.

And so they return to an unlikely chorus of expectation with fourth LP Kingdom of Rust, described variously as a coming of age and their best work yet. Funny that they should be recognised only when their output fits into some journalist's contextual framework, as if all their past work were merely a back-story to the pinnacle Kingdom of Rust was meant to represent. Another fine album, no doubt, but let’s leave the narrative-making behind and celebrate a band with soul, principle, originality and a tireless ethic to making great music.

Posted In Comment, May 01 2009. Words - Finn