I bought The Last Broadcast soon after release on the strength of watching them play after the last match at Maine Road v Southampton. They played the gig to those who stayed behind for free along with Badly Drawn Boy(Damon Gough) who's also an avid blue, and i think another local artist played too ?
Last Broadcast had 3 standout tracks i think. Pounding, There Goes The Fear and my favourite - Caught By The River. I think the album is generally good but i haven't listened to it properly for at least 10 years, and even though I'm somewhat familiar with the rest of the album tracks i need to give it another listen to give my mark out of 10.
Thinking back to 2002 it was a busy year for me as i started a new job in May that year in which i was working away 90% of the time, so apart from radio 2 in the work van i rarely listened to any of my favourite music.
Doves are one of those bands that are better than i can give them credit for as I've only heard one album of theirs, even though I've heard the chart tracks from a couple of their other albums. And after listening to The Last Broadcast I'll listen to their other albums as there's a good chance I'll like them...
*Edit
Having just listened to the album again i can understand why i haven't played it for at least 10 years. Going off the songs on the Last Broadcast i find Jimi Goodwin's voice muffled dreary and too melancholy for me, apart from the 3 standout (aforementioned) tracks where he sings in a more charismatic way. I find most of the other song lyrics hard to picks out, some i just couldn't pick out so i read the lyrics to the tracks i didn't know the lyrics to.
Musically i think Doves are pretty good, very good in parts, but the main reason i feel they mostly stayed under the general public music radar is because of Jimi Goodwin not being a good enough strong voiced front man to make the band stand out.
But hey, music is very much a subjective topic. One man's meat is another man's poison, and all that. Doves are decent, it's just that they don't grab me anywhere near like they did with
@Black&White&BlueMoon Town. Excellent review btw.
For me I'm giving the album a generous 6/10. And that's mainly on liking the 3 singles tracks.