Standard Black Vinyl LP Edition

Turning the page onto the next chapter of a three-decade career, Manchester trio Doves' fifth long player The Universal Want follows the Mercury-nominated albums, Lost Souls (2000) and The Last Broadcast (2002), their second, successive UK No. 1 album, Some Cities (2005) and Kingdom Of Rust (2009). It's an equally poignant and celebratory document of both time passed and time recouped. "It's definitely got the stamp of ‘the time' all over it," says Jez Williams. "Everything on the album is an echo. It's an echo of what we were going through at the time. Getting back together, the Royal Albert Hall and everything else."

Buoyed by refreshed chemistry and restless studio creativity, the album's lead single "Prisoners" is a statuesque musical statement expressing unease with modern ills. Produced by Doves with Dan Austin and recorded at the band's own Frank Bough Sound III studios in North West England, the high heat of its Northern Soul beat is fanned by wiry guitar breaks and cuts of ethereal noise contorting beneath layers of stacked vocals.

Jimi Goodwin adds, "I just know that we've made a really good Doves record that represents where we are and where we've been for the past 11 years. It's probably the most organically-made Doves record. No one was second-guessing it...Time really does fly and I can't believe it's been 11 years. We're friends at the end of the day, and we just clicked back into place like it was yesterday. It's nice to have had that space between the records. It was starting to feel like punching the clock a little bit before we took a break."

Album artwork comes hand-picked by the band by London-based, Finnish photographer, Maria Lax. Her 2020 photobook, Some Kind Of Heavenly Fire, set evocative images alongside memorabilia relating to a moment in time when hardship, industrialization and UFO sightings disturbed the peace of her isolated hometown in Northern Finland. Struck by the power in her work, Goodwin acquired the book, then gifted his band mates a copy each.