"Walk In the Fire" appears to be the record's key song, the way Radiohead set up "Fake Plastic Trees" as the focal point for The Bends, and finds Doves creating one of the best songs of the past several years. In many ways, it reminds me of The Unforgettable Fire-era U2 (far and away my personal favorite of theirs) and specifically "Bad." It uses the same gradually building crescendo before climaxing during the last third. However, "Walk In the Fire" is more sophisticated and subtle (lacking both Bono's grandstanding vocals and Adam Clayton's rather wonky bass playing).

The song opens with about fifteen seconds of barely audible electronic noise before Jez Williams' guitar enters with Goodwin's vocals apparently directly addressing someone with a drinking problem: "It seems, it seems there's nothing that you couldn't do/With a drink inside of you/Is there nothing/You'd not do with a drink in you?" As the second verse begins, Goodwin begins with whole notes on his bass and Andy Williams' uses the hi-hat to build the tension. Goodwin continues to paint a stark picture of an anguished soul: "I've always known that you felt the pain/ And it had to start to show it'd had driven you insane/ I could lie, but I can't 'cause you know it's so." Then as the verse resolves, instead of returning to the root chord, it shifts to the minor chord-based chorus progression as the snare drum kicks in, and the song begins to take flight.

This pattern continues for another verse and chorus as more guitar overdubs and keyboard textures are layered on top to make it swell. Then the song retreats with the guitar riff accompanied by some bass and hi-hat and a melodica solo on top. But as the drums and guitar build back to the chorus progression, the song drops off, and it is in this moment that it's not hard to envision the band pushing the song to the edge of a steep cliff and then letting it go. It's an epic moment that lifts the song to a whole new emotional level, and Goodwin and Williams singing harmonies on the lines "On and on and day by day/We fool ourselves we ain't the same/Everyone who stayed away/Man I always felt your pain" is still exhilarating even after countless listens. And then wisely, they repeat the same lines as if to savor the feeling before it resolves with the chorus and ends. Moments when the hair rises on the back of my neck are rare, but the last 90 seconds of "Walk In the Fire" achieves that.

After this truly satisfying musical moment, the rest of the record is really gravy, but "One of These Days" provides the perfect counter-point to "Walk In the Fire." With another toe-tapping tempo and a darker tone, it sets itself up as another epic rocker and could be thought of as a possible single, though it is packed full of peaks and valleys which probably make the energy level rise and fall too much for FM radio's taste.

From there the record ends with four songs that seem again to be well-suited for each other. First come, two quiet songs, "Someday Soon" and "Shadows of Salford," which succeed in mellowing the mood out considerably, although they are probably Some Cities' weakest tracks. Neither is bad by any means, but they don't seem particularly essential when compared to the rest of the record. "Someday Soon" might have worked better with a more sparse arrangement and might have benefited from sparser production. "Shadows of Salford" again features Jez Williams' as vocalist and is a sort of piano ballad memoir of the Manchester-area borough referred to in the title, but it sounds as though the track was dropped into a tub of water.

But even if on their own, these two songs aren't anything special, they do provide a great set-up for "Sky Starts Falling," which gives the record its last burst of energy with a snappy tempo and a terrifically catchy chorus that shields its rather lovelorn lyrics which seem to be a tale of someone asking a friend about an encounter with his ex-lover. "Ambition" brings Some Cities to an end as sort of slow fading epilogue and works as the best of the record's more delicate songs as it evokes images of gray skies, overcoats, and Manchester city scenes of brick and steel. Take a visual snapshot of Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart" video and stick "Ambition" in it.

It is really a great time to be a music fan right now with so many exciting and varied bands bringing the vitality and excitement back that seemed to fade under the weight of rap-rock and boy bands, and Doves are quickly proving to be among the best of the best. With the band currently back on tour in the US, those of us latecomers will get our chance to see how the trio delivers these songs in a live setting. I'll certainly be right up front at their ACL Festival set. I can't wait.