Sound Bites: Dove Ellis - 'Love Is'
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Do we need another Jeff Buckley or Radiohead? Surely the point of Jeff Buckley was that he was the one and only Jeff Buckley and the point of Radiohead was that they were the one and only Radiohead, no?
This is the problem with comparing new artists to old ones, and yet what are we to do? Especially, when they do sound like their forebears. I'm writing this on the day Dove Ellis has just been nominated for the Mercury Music Prize 2026 for his debut album Blizzard and these comparisons have already been made. From the songs I've listened to so far there is a fair mix of Buckley and Radiohead, but to hail Ellis as the new Buckley or new Radiohead is too much of a stretch to me.
There are borrowed elements of both these artists in his writing, and there seems to be, musically at least, some strong compositional potential (I've yet to be impressed by his lyrics). I think the fact, though, that music journalists are keen to announce debutants as 'the new...' whoever says more about these journalists' own reactionary ways than it does about the artist they confer such monikers upon. So, do I think Dove Ellis is the new Jeff Buckley or Radiohead? Well, I hope for Dove Ellis's sake that he's neither of these things, and that he becomes Dove Ellis, singularly and distinctively, as that would be the highest sign of praise for his originality.
Having listened to a few of his songs, I've got to say I found them fairly downbeat and like most, in fact an annoyingly large proportion or music made today, really quite predictable, and monotonous. I see Sam Fender as the apotheosis of this problem in modern music, i.e. songs that just start in one gear and stick in it for the next however many minutes. Fundamentally it's boring and most depressingly such a backward step from some of the excellent songwriting that has gone on before (see my post on Thomas Tallis in the sixteenth century). And this is the thing I seem to be on the lookout for more and more: a well composed song, that surprises me with movements and dynamics and lyrics and silences. And I'm struggling to find it. Have I found it, then, in Dove Ellis? Well, sort of, kind of, maybe a tiny glimpse in this song of his 'Love is' but not totally.
As I say there is a bit Radiohead and Buckley in there, particularly in the semi-slurred vocals. I've got to say for someone born and bred in Galway he sounds pretty American to me. In fact, at the start of this song he even reminded me of Rufus Wainwright. Why is this matter of accent important, you might ask? Well, I think a little bit of regional accent goes a long way and makes the sound more distinctive (think of Van Morrison who could go between an American one and his Belfast twang). As I mentioned earlier, so much of modern indie rock is a homogenous lump and the American accent is definitely a strong feature of this lump. However, I like the earnestness of the song, the repeated lyric 'love is not the antidote to all your problems' is a bit gloomy but kind of original and I like the plain speaking nature of it. I like the call and response section where the singer's own voice is woven through the backing vocals (you'll know the bit I mean when you listen to the track). I like the guitar riffs too and effects and echoes and reverberations. It veers into shouty Thom Yorke Radiohead territory at times, but what carries the track is the triumphantness of the chorus. This brightness of it is in stark contrast to some of his other more downbeat songs on the album such as 'Pale Song'. If he's able to harness the best bits of 'Love Is' his may well be an interesting musical career to watch, but I don't think he's there yet.
Despite all of the excitement and hype, a debut album, like a debut book, is just a starting out, a pushing out from the dock, but I'll keep an ear out to see if Ellis evolves and I suspect the answer to that will be coming up with answers to the question: how do we write a good rock song these days, that's original, surprising and intrigues? It's a question the wider music industry should be asking. But if 'Love Is' is anything to go by, he may well, at some stage, be able to solve it. Let's wait and hear.
