This is a track from Doves vocalist Jimi Goodwin's first solo album, Odlukek. The song was first demoed in 2004 as a possible track for Doves' third album Some Cities.
Goodwin told NME: "There's this lyric, 'Watch out, you living now. Time to tear those posters down,' which is about a teenager realising that young adulthood might not be all it's cracked up to be, or a young gay person dealing with coming out. I see my teenage daughter now having her ups and downs, and it reminded me how tough those years can be."
Didsbury is a Manchester suburb frequented by Goodwin in his youth.
Jimi Goodwin wrote the song with Paul Weller sideman Simon Dine. He told Q magazine: "Simon is properly great. He's really into sample culture, finding mad bits in old '60s records."
Doves vocalist Jimi Goodwin told Q magazine about the writing of his first solo album, Odlukek. "I looked at sampling as co-writing," he said. "'Keep My Soul in Song' samples a track by (1960s US Avant-Pop band) Orpheus. I just used the left side. I thought, 'I'm having that.' The way I see it, I've collaborated with a few people... They just don't know it yet!"
Jimi Goodwin explained the song's lyrical content to Under The Radar magazine: "To me, the title and refrain felt like an old Irish proverb or maxim: 'Keep your soul in song, look after yourself, love yourself, love others, may ye have a song in your heart always.'"
Jimi Goodwin co-wrote the lyrics for this campfire folk tune with his friend, Elbow frontman Guy Garvey. Goodwin explained to Under The Radar magazine: "He was demoing some ideas in Real World Studios in Bath, England, and because I was in that part of the world recording as well we finally made good on our long-standing promise to collaborate. I had the backing track, the chorus refrain, and the first verse of 'Hope,' and together we just brainstormed."
"I nipped to the shop to buy some writing supplies - coffee and cigarettes, essential - and when I got back, Guy had written the second verse," Goodwin continued. "Sweet! A slice of dreamlike folk. A gaggle of good friends are on backing vocals."
Goodwin explained the song's meaning to Under The Radar magazine: "Inspired by real and imagined walks through Manchester City Centre over the years and of the streets and the shared family history of the streets my mum and dad and family grew up in. Memories."
