After the worldwide success of Doves' second album
The Last Broadcast,
Jez Williams recalled, in a 2010 interview with
Under the Radar following the release of the band's compilation album
The Places Between: The Best of Doves, that the band decided to take a more "stripped-down" approach to recording
Some Cities, which included decamping to rural locations in
England,
Scotland, and
Wales. "With [
Some Cities] we were also wanting to make a few social comments about the area we lived in. There's a lot of subject matter on that album dealing with change. Buildings get ripped down and replaced by more generic ones. It kind of gave ourselves a bit of purpose to write about it. We also listened to a lot of
Motown and
Northern soul, and I think that came out in that album. It was a definite change. Our albums do tend to change character and personality with every release." Initially, the band set out to record their third album with producer
William Orbit. In a February 2005 interview with
The Irish Times, vocalist/bassist
Jimi Goodwin said, "Jeff Barrett from our label,
Heavenly, suggested we work with William and we were fine with that, we're always up for trying new stuff. But I think we expected too much from him. He was happy just to be in the studio with us because he hadn't worked with a band since
Blur. His point was he was just recording what he was hearing. He wasn't doing anything that we wouldn't do ourselves normally and we put a lot of pressure on him almost to subvert us. He's a top guy, but it just didn't work." The band subsequently co-produced
Some Cities with
Ben Hillier, who also mixed the album (except for "Some Cities" and "Walk in Fire", which were mixed by
Rich Costey). Much of the recording occurred at a farmhouse in the English countryside over the course of 2004, except for closing track "Ambition", which was recorded in an empty Benedictine
monastery in Scotland, which the band had found while doing a photo shoot for the album. The huge reverb effect was achieved using the acoustics of the main hall. The recording process is shown in the mini-documentary
Cities Under Construction, featured on the bonus DVD included with the special edition of the album. In a 2010 interview with
Spinner.com,
Jimi Goodwin stated, "I look back fondly at the
Some Cities period, going to this old schoolhouse in Scotland with
Ben Nevis out the window. I spent six weeks up there and didn't want to come home; my mum had just died and I just wanted to be away." ==Release==