Belly's back! The thread for DOVE, first new Belly album in 23 years

First single is out. It's good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YH14dKCsLxM

take your hat off, boys

Not immediately taken by this, but very curious for a new Belly album all the same.

Every single band from the 90s should reunite, and then we can just start over.

they did a few new songs on their recent tour and they were definitely better than this, or at least sounded better. I have a lot of love and goodwill for them but this is a bit directionless.

I like some of Tanya Donelly's solo stuff a lot, so I'm cautiously optimistic.

happy to take a chance buying this day one

Not immediately taken by this, but very curious for a new Belly album all the same.

Same here to both. This song is OK but didn't grab me, but I reckon I've played their 90s stuff enough to owe them a purchase of any new album no matter what it sounds like, and I'm still gently psyched for anything new, esp after boxedjoy's post!

(hooray, the Google and Amazon links from the preorder page now work in my country too, which they didn't when this thread started)

I like "Shiny One" as a bit of retro shoegaze, but I expect/hope it's not entirely representative of the album. Tanya said it's the most collaborative song -- Gail and Tom wrote most of the music -- so maybe putting it out first is a gesture of band solidarity.

NPR is hosting a stream of the new album here:

https://www.npr.org/2018/04/26/604404015/first-listen-belly-dove

It's... ok. I didn't expect much to be honest, and it's certainly not bad, I didn't hear anything that drew me in.

It's mostly terrific.

Every single band from the 90s should reunite, and then we can just start over.

― Josh in Chicago, Friday, February 23, 2018 8:03 AM (two months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

new board description I beg you

this is good but boring

you're good but boring

I think it's pretty great. More country than I was expecting.

it's like pop country except it doesn't make me want to murder people as much

I haven’t heard the new album yet, but I can totally hear Tanya Donelly as a country singer.

Unsurprisingly, I like this. Just post this about it elsewhere:

To be fair, it is only my third-favorite Belly album, but that’s no slight — Star and King are two of my favorite albums of the ‘90s by anyone. Dove is gauzy and tuneful, mostly midtempo slow-burners as befits an album by middle-aged people about middle-aged life. Tanya’s lyrics are less oblique than they used to be, as if she doesn’t have the patience for hiding her intentions anymore. There are songs about lovers and children and break-ups, still fueled by the starry-eyed animism that always made her the dreamy one next to prickly Kristin and nervy Kim. (The “hidden track” at the end of the album is literally called “StarryEyed.”) She’s from New England, of course she’s a transcendentalist. But her love of moonglow and daybreaks is tempered by inescapable mundanities. On “Suffer the Fools,” she tells a recent ex, “I’ll still come by/ I’ll bring that terrible wine you love/ I’ll cut your hair and deadhead your garden.” And on “Human Child,” she boils down parental guidance to a simple declaration: “I’m not here to save you, I’m just trying to get you outside.”

The occasional Americana flourishes fold in easily, a little alt-country with your alt-rock. Overall the album reminds me of Kate Bush’s Aerial, another midlife chronicle that poeticizes the quotidian. Bush was 47 when she recorded that one after her own long lay-off, and Donnelly is 51 now. Dove isn’t as grand in its ambitions or as fully realized in its execution as Aerial, but it stands just fine on its own. And maybe because I’ll be 50 myself next year, I find its joys in small things comforting.

just posted, I mean

I did not get much out of my first listen, but maybe it'll repay attention.

In the Pixies/Breeders/Muses/Belly axis, Belly was always my least favorite. Good news for Belly...Pixies have fallen to the bottom.

Looking forward to hearing the album.
Here's a great Baker's Dozen: http://thequietus.com/articles/24512-tanya-donelly-belly-interview-favourite-albums?page=1

They were one of my favorite bands back in the 90s and I thought they were really good on their reunion tour. However, "Shiny One" didn't do much for me, so my expectations for the new album were a bit tempered. Haven't listened to the new album yet, but they put out an ep for Record Store Day which I found really enjoyable (which, in turn, has raised my expectations for the album).

As an aside, their name is not well suited for the internet era. "Belly" is too vague a word for search engines and "Belly band" brings up a lot of pregnancy-related suggestions.

not to mention the rapper

Love your review on p4k, Alfred. It pins down the album for what it exactly is; a quite glorious and remarkable (don't call it a) comeback after all these years.

[7.2 a bollocks grade not matching the review tbf ;) ]

ha -- I had control over that score. Thanks.

Dang :D Your words say it best though. Grace in your review mirroring the grace on the record.

Getting a strong Sam Phillips / latter-day Bangles feeling from this. Liking it far more than I was expecting.

I wish it were hookier.

I think this is pretty decent, actually... only track that I found myself disliking was 'Artifact'... think I'm going to need a few more listens before I'm 100% sure how I feel about it, though.

i love "girl"

Me too. Maybe it's the loving tone in her voice that makes that one seem legitimately warm and ecstatic rather than just pie-eyed and gloopy.

This album's great. I already really liked it, and then overheard some rock dude at a Breeders show a while back calling it "terrible" and saying that the title "tells you everything you need to know." Should I have yelled at him? Either way, that tipped me toward righteous love of Dove and I never looked back :)

Yeah always sucks when someone says somethings not great you feel dear for irl. Heard someone say alien wasn’t a good movie today.

saw them touring this album a few weeks ago and it was so good, hard to believe they're the age they are

not to mention the rapper

I loaded my Belly albums onto my iPhone over the weekend and the Apple Music app still uses the picture of the rapper.

Still overwhelmed by this album. So glorious and rad.