The Dears
Missiles
Rating: 3.0
Label: Dangerbird
The Dears are back… sort of.
A new label, a band “re-casting” and a new stripped-down sound and you’ve got the 2008 model of Montreal’s favorite sad-sack band. A lot of changes have been made since we last saw them on Gang of Losers (2006). Gone is the lavish instrumentation, celebratory lyrics, and the sense of urgency that gripped listeners before. Here, all of that has been replaced with atmospheric echoes, slightly more predictable song progression and more repeated lyrics than you could shake a stick at.
Missiles doesn’t offer the fevered melancholy that No Cities Left (2003) so brilliantly emanated. Instead the tone is just like the album cover: blue. The eight-minute lo-fi epic, “Lights Off” is built beautifully, beginning simply with frontman Murray Lightburn, an acoustic guitar and a single synthesizer note. This starts to linger on before the drums come in with strong echoes and some heavier guitars. It all grinds to a halt and the song almost starts over; then a verse plays and Lightburn begins speaking French under a drum beat that seems to have been hanging on for dear life. After a wonderfully placed guitar solo, the drums end and he asks “Sleep through the night, could you / With me?” At first listen, anyone would probably refuse. But any educated ear would have to give this downhearted balladeer an enthused “Yes.”
This album began as a solo project for Lightburn, but it apparently made its way through the murky waters of a harsh band break-up and surfaced as a Dears record. There are still traces of the fallout left on the album as made evident in the racially-fueled title track; this one struck me with its use of the “n” word and led me to theorize that maybe the bad blood from before has some racial connotations, but then again, I’m no Sherlock Holmes. Other than this and the strong guitar solo on “Lights Off,” standout moments include Natalia Yanchak’s almost-perfect vocals on “Crisis 1&2″ (the song that sounds closest to any memory of the old band) and the use of a children’s choir and organ on “Saviour.”
For a longtime Dears fan, this highly-anticipated album comes out a little less abrasive and urgent than previous releases. It also does not help that the album does not get going until the midway point, pretty long for an hour-long disc. Though the journey may be rough, solid Dears fans will enjoy this one. For the rest of us, it might be a miss.
by Cameon Mason
