Kingdom of Rust

John Leckie was meant to co-produce the whole record but could not because of other commitments, so he produced only "Winter Hill" and "10:03". Dan Austin worked with the band on the other nine songs. Tom Rowlands of The Chemical Brothers arranged "10:03". The writing and recording were strained, and all three members had writer's block. They became obsessed with not repeating themselves, and Jez said the rule was that if something sounded familiar, they got rid of it.

The lead track "Jetstream" was a free download from January 2009, and the band said they wrote it as an imaginary song for the closing credits of Blade Runner. The album was dedicated to Goodwin's father, Francis James Goodwin, who died on 23 December 2008. It went in at number two, the title track reached 28 as a single, and "Winter Hill" peaked at 148. On 14 April 2009 the band played three songs on Later... with Jools Holland. Stuart Berman of Pitchfork wrote that it was built more for motion and acceleration than any previous Doves album. After touring it and the best-of that followed, the band announced an indefinite hiatus.