The Dowling Poole
| The Dowling Poole | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Bristol/London |
| Genres | Pop, Power Pop, |
| Years active | 2014–present |
| Labels | 369Music (UK), |
| Associated acts | Cardiacs, Jackdaw4 |
| Website | The Dowling Poole |
| Members |
Jon Poole Willie Dowling |
The Dowling Poole are a British psychedelic Power Pop duo made up of multi instrumentalists Willie Dowling (formerly of Jackdaw4 and Honeycrack) and Jon Poole (formerly of Cardiacs).
The preorder for their debut album Bleak Strategies was announced on April 1, 2014 through the Pledgemusic platform.[1] The album saw commercial release on August 11, 2014 through 369Music.[2]
Initial album reviews were positive with Dom Lawson of Classic Rock Magazine stating that Bleak Strategies is "Flawless and exhilarating, this demands to be the soundtrack to all of our waking summer dreams[3]" and Powerpopaholic writing "This is an essential 'do-not-miss' album, that makes my top ten list for 2014".[4] The Sun said, “This awesome pairing results in glorious and slightly unhinged psychedelic pop rock”, and Mojo hailed, “A classic British rock album heavy on power pop smarts”.
The first single was entitled "The Sun Is Mine". The second single "A Kiss On the Ocean" is accompanied with three tracks not on the album; ‘The Straw Man’ is a wry comment on the frenzy of confusion and doubt created by the Jimmy Saville debacle, and there is also a live acoustic version of ‘Hey Stranger’, a song written as a celebration of the life of Tim Smith, Jon's friend and former band partner in Cardiacs, who has been seriously ill for a number of years. This was recorded live in Manchester on The Dowling Poole's September tour. The fourth track on the single is the brand new song 'Fuck You Goodbye'.