missiles
The release of the Dear’s fourth full-length album comes after a recent e-newsletter admitting that “This could have been a message saying that the Dears is over.” That statement isn’t too far from the truth.
Having lost most of their band during the making of this album – the follow up to 2006’s “Gang of Losers” – the husband and wife team of Murray Lightburn and Natalia Yanchak have just managed to pull through. The result could be seen as their most consistent release yet, seemingly creating a bridge between two previous styles – the early poppier material, and the more direct, almost aggressive sounds of “Gang of Losers.”
The overall sound of “Missiles” isn’t exactly straightforward, incorporating strings, harmonies and brass into simple melodies and repeat ad nauseum rythyms, giving an almost epic feeling to the new material. Since the early days, “cinematic” is a word that’s been used to classify their sound, and they continue to live up to that tag here.
The Dears have always been popular with the melancholy dramatist crowd, bringing to mind Echo and the Bunnymen and Morrissey. Radiohead could also be seen as an influence, sharing some faint similarities, although the vocal melody on “Berlin Heart” could be considered too similar to “No Surprises” for comfort.
While it’s not the huge comeback from the 2004 breakthrough “No Cities Left” people seem to have hoped for, it doesn’t seem to try to be that. It’s the sound of a band trying to find their feet after a major change, in this case, losing five members.
There are some minor flaws. The album lacks real choruses, instead drawing out songs gradually, with only one song being shorter than five minutes. Album closer “Savior” clocks in at just over eleven minutes, and states “there will be a next time.”
But even if this turns out to be the last Dears release, it seems like a fitting closing point.
last song i heard – “mercy” – plants and animals
