DJANGO DJANGO release new “Feel Alright” ft. Max Pope from Forthcoming Album Doveland
Doveland comes out November 6th
Django Django share “Feel Alright (ft. Max Pope)”, the third single from their forthcoming sixth studio album, Doveland, due for release on November 6 via Clouds Hill.
Featuring the Brighton-raised singer-songwriter, “Feel Alright” closes Doveland with Pope’s soulful and unhurried distinctive vocal, bringing a warmth and intimacy to Django Django’s expansive, road-worn psychedelia. It is the latest in the band’s long line of collaborations with similarly creative peers, elsewhere on Doveland Hak Baker features, whilst previous albums have included Self Esteem.
The song began life several years ago during a writing session in Devon between Django Django’sDave Maclean, Max Pope and musician Jack Kenworthy of Colouring. Recorded in an initial one-take session, the track remained unreleased for some time before the band recognised that they had already created the perfect closing statement for Doveland.
“It had been sitting under our noses the whole time,” they suggest. “We dusted it off and worked on it in the London studio but tried to keep the integrity of that initial one-take wonder rather than pull it apart and re-record it all. When Dave and Max sat in the Devon studio writing the lyrics, the idea was to conjure up the freedom of hitting the road and leaving it all behind… a simple rock n roll tale, as old as the great American dream!”
Max Pope suggests that “Feel Alright” came together quicker than most: “I remember us – Dave and Jack (Colouring) – writing it on the spot in the middle of a jam. When Dave and I listened back the next day, the energy felt like a freedom song. It made me think of driving a massive truck out into the middle of nowhere and getting away from it all. Carpe diem and all that.”
The combination of drum hits and that deep broooding bass line that commences the exploration immediately exudes this early Stone Roses era, there is an eccentric appeal emitting from the tonality from the get-go. When the cymbal hits, the vocal notes and the melodies play into focus; this bright warmth and addictive appeal shape this track and capture this vibrancy that feels like a completely different era, a timeless release from the complex creators Django Django. The track flows with such ease, and the vocal hooks and additional vocal harmonies move this track to immersive, cathartic territories.
It follows the album’s introspective first single “Cameos,” and second “Dirty Hotel Blues” the latter also influenced by Dave Maclean’s memories of early US tours and his own teenaged road trip across America.
Doveland was produced during extended sessions in the German countryside alongside Nick McCarthy (Franz Ferdinand) and composer-producer Polly Ester, Doveland marks Django Django’s most cohesive and emotionally resonant album to date.
The album takes its title from an online urban myth of a supposedly vanished midwest town called Doveland. Some believe they once lived there and even possess souvenirs as proof, yet Doveland appears on no maps. Explanations range from sinkholes to military experiments to collective amnesia. Most likely, the town never existed at all. While the mysterious settlement is not the direct subject of the album, the idea of searching for an impossible place became the catalyst for the record.
These 12 tracks are also grounded in the lives of those who wrote them, in some of their most challenging experiences. During the years working on Doveland, Maclean lost his older sister, and Dixon lost his father.
A band celebrated for their boundless invention and a curiosity that has defined them since their Mercury Prize-nominated debut, Django Django have spent more than a decade pushing their sound into unexpected territory. With Doveland, they channel that adventurousness into their most focused statement yet. Dave Mclean offers; “It’s taken me until the age of 46 for us to make a ‘grown-up’ record.
Django Django are: Dave Maclean, Jim Dixon, Vincent Neff, Tommy Grace
The album artwork is a collaboration with mother and daughter mudlarking team Northern Mudlarks (https://www.instagram.com/northernmudlarks/ ). It consists of historical artifacts found by the pair along river banks in the Scottish borders, then curated into collections.
Tracklisting
1. Meteorite
2. Cameos
3. Still Life
4. Little Me (ft. Hak Baker)
5. Year Of The Snake
6. Quicksand
7. Left Adrift
8. So Heavy
9. Bird Song
10. Indigo Road
11. Dirty Hotel Blues
12. Feel Alright (ft. Max Pope)
Live dates
18 September, Reeperbahn Festival Clouds Hill Showcase)
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