The Last Broadcast (album)

The Last Broadcast is the second studio album by British indie rock band Doves. The album was released by Heavenly Recordings on 29 April 2002, and went straight to number 1 on the UK Albums Chart. The album's first single "There Goes the Fear" entered the UK Singles Chart at number 3, the band's highest-charting single to date, despite being released and deleted on the same day. Two further singles, "Pounding" and "Caught by the River", were also successful, charting in the Top 30. The Last Broadcast garnered critical acclaim upon its release, and was a shortlist nominee for the Mercury Prize in 2002.

Background and recording

Following the success of their debut album Lost Souls and subsequent tours of the United Kingdom and their first tour of North America, the band entered the studio in January 2001 to begin work on the follow-up album. "When we went back into the studio this time, we were determined to get rid of the perception that people had of us," said Jimi Goodwin in an interview with NME. Jez Williams told NME, "This time around, we had a lot more confidence."

The band moved away from the Cheetham Hill studio they had recorded Lost Souls in for Revolution Studios in Manchester, Parr Street Studios in Liverpool, Peter Gabriel's Real World Studios in Bath, The Dairy and 2 kHz Studios in London, and a cottage in Lancashire.

In a 2009 interview with QTheMusic.com, Jez said that the songs came quickly and effortlessly: "I had this little house in Northenden where my makeshift studio was. It took a couple of nights to get the backing track with the top line melody to 'There Goes the Fear'. Literally the next night I had 'Words' coming out of the speakers."

"Caught by the River" was the final song recorded for the album, which took form at a rehearsal room in Stockport called The Green Room. "Jimi, Andy and I just started to play these three chords. Jimi started to sing this great top line melody and there it was... very natural and easy. Andy started to write these very poignant lyrics about a friend of ours; everything started to click like at the start of the recording. That was the last piece of the jigsaw for the album," said Jez. The release of the first single "There Goes the Fear" on 15 April brought the band their highest-charting single to date, peaking at number 3 on the UK Singles Chart. The Last Broadcast sold 52,000 copies in its first week, and has since been certified platinum by the British Phonographic Industry. Their July performance at The Eden Sessions in Cornwall was filmed and featured on the band's full-length compilation DVD Where We're Calling From, released in September 2003. In addition to the live concert, the DVD prominently featured a documentary on the band, including previously unreleased footage of the recording of The Last Broadcast as well as previous album Lost Souls, along with all of the band's music videos to date and a myriad of special features.

A remixed version of "Words" entitled Live for City is played at the start of all Manchester City F.C. games at the City of Manchester Stadium, due to the band's support of the team. The intro to "Words" has also been used as the background music for both ITV Sport's FA Cup coverage and the NFL Network's commercials during the 2006-07 football season. "There Goes the Fear" was featured in the film and on the original motion picture soundtrack to (500) Days of Summer in 2009, while "Pounding" was used in the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics With Glowing Hearts/Des Plus Brilliants Exploits advertisement campaign and in pre-event intros.

Reception

The Last Broadcast was met with critical praise. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has received an average score of 85, based on 20 reviews. Blender called the album "utterly entrancing," while AllMusic praised it as a "musical daybreak."

Track listing

Release history

{|class="wikitable"

! width="150px"|Country

! width="130px"|Date

! width="120px" |Label

! Format

! Catalogue #

| rowspan="2"|United Kingdom

| rowspan="2"|29 April 2002

| rowspan="2"|Heavenly Recordings

| CD

| HVNLP35CD

| Double LP (heavyweight vinyl; gatefold sleeve)

| HVNLP35

| rowspan="2"|Japan

| 1 May 2002

| rowspan="2"|Toshiba-EMI

| CD (2 bonus tracks)

| TOCP-65975

| 22 January 2003

| CD (tour edition with purple-tinted artwork; 2 bonus tracks + enhanced video)

| TOCP-66129

| United States

| 4 June 2002

| Capitol Records

| CD (initial pressings include bonus disc)

| 724381223222

| Europe

| 31 May 2019

| rowspan="3"|Universal Strategic Marketing/Virgin EMI

| Double LP (limited/numbered edition on orange-coloured vinyl)

| 7748263

| United Kingdom

| 27 November 2020

| rowspan="2"|Double LP (black vinyl)

| rowspan="2"|857375

| United States

| 15 January 2021

Credits

Doves

Jimi Goodwin – lead vocals <small>(tracks 3, 6–12)</small>, bass, guitars, backing vocals on "Words" and "M62 Song", programming
Jez Williams – guitars, backing vocals, lead vocals on "Words", keyboards on "Last Broadcast"
Andy Williams – drums, percussion, backing vocals, lead vocals on "M62 Song", harmonica on "N.Y."

Production

Produced by Doves, except "Satellites" produced by Steve Osborne for 140 dB, and "Caught by the River" co-produced by Steve Osborne and Doves.
Additional production by Martin "Max" Heyes for Z Mint.
Recorded, programmed and mixed by Doves and Max Heyes.
Recorded and mixed between January 2001 and January 2002 at: Revolution, Manchester; Parr St., Liverpool; The Dairy and 2 kHz, London; Real World, Bath; under the M60 flyover, Northenden; Jez's house; Lynch Mob studio; and various country seats.
Mastered by Miles Showell at Metropolis.
Engineered by Max Heyes, Adrian Bushby, and Danton Supple.
Andrea Wright, Darren Nash, Marco Migliari, and Paul Grady – assistant engineering
Art direction and design by Rick Myers.
Photography by Rich Mulhearn.
Band photograph by Kevin Westenberg.

Additional musicians

Martin Rebelski – keyboards and glockenspiel on "Words," "N.Y.," "Satellites," and "The Sulphur Man"
Brian Madden – megaphone on "Words"
Jay Rofe-Turner – tambourine on "Satellites"
Marc Starr, Chris Davies, Billy Booth, and Richard Sliwa – percussion on "There Goes the Fear"
Rosie Lowdell – violin on "Words" and "The Sulphur Man"
Paulette Bailey and Celia Goodwin – violin on "N.Y."
Rob Shepley – viola on "N.Y."
Ian Bracken – cello on "N.Y."
Jackie Norrie and Sally Herbert – violin on "Friday's Dust" and "The Sulphur Man"
Brian Wright – violin and viola on "Friday's Dust" and "The Sulphur Man"
Marcus Holdaway – cello on "Friday's Dust" and "The Sulphur Man"
Sean O'Hagan and Marcus Holdaway – string, brass & woodwind arrangement on "Friday's Dust" and "The Sulphur Man"
Marcus Holdaway – string arrangement on "Friday's Dust" and "The Sulphur Man"
Andy Robinson – brass woodwind arrangement & trombone on "Friday's Dust" and "The Sulphur Man"
Marc Bassey – trombone on "Friday's Dust" and "The Sulphur Man"
Steve Waterman – trumpet and flugelhorn on "Friday's Dust" and "The Sulphur Man"
Colin Crawley – tenor sax and flute on "Friday's Dust" and "The Sulphur Man"
Duncan Ashby – clarinet on "Friday's Dust"
Barrington Stewart, Fyza, Lisa Saddoo, and Joanne Watson – backing vocals on "Satellites"

Charts

Weekly charts

{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"

! scope="col"| Chart (2002)

! scope="col"| Peak<br />position

Year-end charts

{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"

! scope="col"| Chart (2002)

! scope="col"| Position

!scope="row"|Canadian Alternative Albums (Nielsen SoundScan)

| 187

! scope="row"| UK Albums (OCC)

| 72