positive reviews. In a 2009 review, BBC praised the album, and described the album as a rock record that kept the dance spirit alive, but could also appeal to a pop audience: "Lost Souls was a record that was widely discussed, and people wondered aloud whether its success marked the end of another era of dance music. In truth, it was a record about growing up; about giving up the drugs and the madness of The Haçienda, where the three Cheshire lads met. But because the simmering emotion on songs like 'The Cedar Room' was expressed through guitars rather than synths, in no way did that mean that Doves were taking dance music out the back and burying it in a shallow grave. But there was emotion, too – 'The Cedar Room' is a beautiful seven-minute break-up song that complains: 'I tried to sleep alone, but I couldn't do it.' This was a pop album that eventually appealed widely, and not just to the grown-up clubbers that could have been its sole audience." Q called the album "heavy, sombre and lugubrious ... it makes for seriously claustrophobic listening, until it takes a great gulp of euphoria." NME awarded the album 9 out of 10, and called the album "a serious and intense record ... the first great album to come from Manchester since Definitely Maybe... they make being sad after drugs sound great." In a mixed review, Pitchfork reviewer Sam Eccleston took a "straightforward" and "cynical" approach with the album and rated it 6.8 out of 10, saying, "Tonally, Lost Souls reflects the after-after-midnight hours, as if the boys felt the need to document the hung-over and blissed-out aftermath of the dancing-hours frenzy their Sub Sub days offered listeners years ago." The review goes on to say that, "The heart of the problem on Lost Souls is its overreaching ambition ... [but] ... despite its reach and ambition, works best in its most conventionally melodic moments." Lost Souls was nominated for the Mercury Prize in 2000, but lost out to Badly Drawn Boy's The Hour of Bewilderbeast, the album Doves had featured as a backing band on. The album was included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. Manchester icon and Doves influence Johnny Marr called the album "a vast 3am melancholic beauty brought to life." Artwork The sleeve design and artwork was done by frequent