Needle Time

  Jimi Goodwin - Odludek [HVNLP 104 UK 2014 24-Bit FLAC] Odludek is an interesting choice of name for the first solo album by Jimi Goodwin - the unmistakable voice from Mancunian heroes, Doves. In Polish it means recluse , in Slovenian it translates as decision . Before anybody asks, I am no multilinguistic genius, Google was my friend. After their 2009 album, Kingdom Of Rust , Doves ceased to exist as a musical unit - perhaps they had used up all their creative juices as a band - I'm not sure of the exact reasons for their hiatus except that the final album lacked the quality of their previous work. What is evident from Odludek is that Jimi was full of ideas - what is remarkable is that he plays all instruments on this excellent record. You could be mistaken that Goodwin's mix of styles - indie rock, folk, psychedelia, electronics, lounge etc makes this album a confusing mishmash, however you would be wrong. This is Jimi blending & assembling all his influences & in...

  Doves - The Universal Want [V3248 UK 2020 24-Bit FLAC] It has been quite some time since the last Doves album, they have been one of my favourite bands of the past twenty years, ever since their debut in year 2000 and I honestly thought we would never get a new Doves album.  By default, as part of the Heavenly Recordings roster, they became part of the Virgin Records repertoire and consequently ended up on Universal. The CD and download versions of this release are painfully loud, so need to be avoided (despite all the cheerleading on fan forums). The label disappointingly chose to use those over-compressed and badly limited digital masters for the vinyl album, however here your ears are saved by using a reduced recording level and a little extra special sauce during my transfer. A1 Carousels A2 I Will Not Hide A3 Broken Eyes A4 For Tomorrow A5 Cathedrals Of The Mind B1 Prisoners B2 Cycle Of Hurt B3 Mother Silverlake B4 Universal Want B5 ...