Review Summary: An amazing album with upbeat melodies that encase sometimes depressing subjects. An album that should not be passed up.
Doves have been a favorite band of mine since I was very young. I remember first listening to 'The Last Broadcast', which to this day is still one of my favorite albums of all time, the album just caught onto me so well and I absolutely loved it. I then remember hearing that they were going to release a new album and I got so excited, to be able to hear those catchy choruses, the experimental sound designs, and the slightly melancholy lyrics on another album. And I'll tell you now, I was not disappointed.
The album starts out extremely strong with tracks such as 'Some Cities', 'Black and White Town', and 'Snowden'. These tracks made me feel exactly the way 'The Last Broadcast' did with the instrumentation and of course, the experimentation on each of the tracks. 'Some Cities' starts out less conventionally than the last two Doves albums did, both of their earlier albums had an opening track that was always completely instrumental and it was normally their most experimental track on their entire album. 'Some Cities' just starts out right away rather than having a whole dedicated opening, which I'm totally fine with, it doesn't detract from the sound at all. We then move onto 'Black and White Town' which is my favorite track on the album since I feel it's the catchiest and it for some reason, makes me extremely nostalgic. Not only does the nostalgia of listening to track makes me happy, but the track altogether makes me happy for some reason, even though I feel the track has a bit of a emotional undertone even though it's a upbeat sounding song. Then 'Snowden' another song that I get nostalgic over is also another one of my favorite tracks on the album. The melodies on the track are absolutely amazing and get me really excited and happy even thought the track is about death.
After those starter tracks, we start to head into the more obviously emotional territory, which I actually love the fact that Doves make these happy sounding songs that are actually about pretty depressing things, but when they make them obviously unhappy it sort takes away from the experience. Tracks such as 'The Storm' and 'Shadows of Salford' (despite me loving both of those tracks) make it obviously depressing. But, between these two tracks, there are still a couple of tracks like 'Walk in Fire' that still hid these depressing subjects under these upbeat and really catchy melodies.
We then have my least favorite track on the album 'Someday Sooner' which is a love song that has an extremely mellow and reduced sound. Even though the track isn't bad, there's just something about it that kind of pushes me away from it. I don't know if it's either the subject of the lyrics, or the overall sound, but there's just something there drawing me away from absolutely loving this track. After 'Someday Sooner' and 'Shadows of Salford' we have the last two tracks, 'Sky Starts Falling' and 'Ambition'. I mostly like 'Sky Starts Falling' because it's upbeat but it doesn't have a depressing undertone (not that I'm aware of anyway). And then the last track 'Ambition' which is another one of those obviously depressing tracks, which, again, I have absolutely nothing wrong with that sort of thing, but it's just not what Doves do. 'Ambition' itself is extremely quiet which adds onto the sad subject of the lyrics.
Overall, 'Some Cities' is an extremely strong album with upbeat melodies and sad subjects, it's not perfect, but it's extremely good. The sound design (especially in 'Ambition') is extremely ethereal and it does have moments where it is pretty experimental with the sound in the background. I urge you to listen to it, I would not pass up the opportunity to do so, if you ever need an album that is happy but is still sad, pick this one up and give it a good listen. You won't regret it.
