Customer Reviews

Missiles

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

There have been some mixed reviews going around in regards to The Dears' fourth LP, "Missiles". I say "some" because truly there aren't many reviews of it at all. In fact, I am only the third review on Amazon.com about the album and it has been out now for a week (or probably more by the time the review is published). That is not to say that The Dears are not a worthy or awe-inspiring musical experience by any means, but are perhaps simply underrated.

That being said, I must say that this album is simply heart-wrenching. I had been anticipating it since 2006, when the band released "Gang of Losers", which left much to be desired on my end. However, I feel that "Gang of Losers" was absolutely necessary to achieve "Missiles'" intriguing sound.

I would move through the track listing and systematically describe each one, but I feel that would be a waste of your time. Rather, I truly, truly recommend that you give it your own listen. It is quite a diverse album. The songs range from the strange intimacy of "Missiles" to the orchestral, mellotron-laden "Lights Off" (which, by the way, contains one of the most soulful guitar solos I've heard in years). "Crisis 1 & 2" is under 4 minutes, but is very catchy and driving. Natalia Yamchek sings sans-Lightburn for the first half of the song, then delivers up the second half to him, literally splitting it into parts 1 and 2. The album finishes with two overwhelmingly beautiful pieces, "Meltdown in A Major" and "Saviour." The first stands out as a shining, moving masterpiece from which I took the title of my review. I find it hard to choke back tears at every listen. The latter is a full-bodied and epic confession, with Murray Lightburn pleading, "I am a sinner / Ain't no beginner / But I'm paid up in full." The song builds to warm, hopeful heights as a chorus of children assure us, "We'll make it right."

Natalia sings in "Crisis 1 & 2": "Don't let me down", and truly this was my very thought when I bought the album and slipped it into my car's stereo, thinking I would skip around and hear only a few tracks. Instead, I ended up driving around for an hour because I couldn't stop listening. It is still in my car's stereo. I would even venture out to say that this is my favorite album of 2008 so far.

5/5 stars.

Murray Lightburn and Natalia Yanchak are the only two members of The Dears to continue carrrying the flag of the band on this album by the Canadian indie outfit. And somehow it feels that they are in transition: though Lightburn's passion shines through every single track, though it's the same Dears we learned to get addicted to in No Cities Left and Gang of Losers, their two best albums, it's still not quite at the same point as these two albums.

If I take tracks like "Disclaimer," "Savior" and "Meltdown in A Major," I can totally say it's still there: The Dears are alive and well. It's just some of the power of their previous work that needs to come back... or maybe this is just their way into their new sound. Because of this, I cannot give them five stars.

Having said that, this is SO FAR BETTER than most of the music you can listen to these days that four stars sounds like an accurate assessment of "Missiles." Oddly enough, though not their best album to date, it makes me feel happy... they are still with us.

Since The Dears first released No Cities Left in 2003, I've consistently had the band filed under "Favorite Bands" in my mind. Murray Lightburn and the musicians that surround him have been a reliable source of quality music for as long as I can remember. Whether it was "22: Death of All the Romance" or "Ballad of Humankindness" (my #1 song of 2006), The Dears have always managed to strike a chord with me (no pun intended), tugging on my emotions and forcing me to ask myself difficult questions about life, society, and the nature of people.

Missiles - an album marked by tensions within the group that ultimately found all but two of their members departing - continues to examine these deep themes rarely poked at in today's music. However, while the music continues to traverse this path, it rarely packs the punch of the band's earlier work. The band's previous two album have been marked by slow-building movements that eventually erupt with emotion. On Missiles, songs die with a whimper, often ending unemphatically or even worse, fading out entirely.

Missiles is also plagued with songs that go on for entirely too long. Album-opener, "Disclaimer," takes nearly 7 minutes off of the clock before finally deciding to call it quits. During that time, the listener is forced to listen to a completely uninteresting and possibly juvenile vocal melody and harmonies that sound just a little bit off. By the time it's all over, most will find themselves asking what the point of it all was. The album doesn't end any better either, with the 11-minute "Saviour" being more of a lesson in tedium rather than an actual attempt at making emotionally gratifying art. It seems to me that Lightburn is too focused on tearing apart the structure and style of The Dears' previous work that he forgot about what made it such a joy to listen to. The lyrics were always the band's crowning achievement, but if that's all that's required, I would have taken up poetry-reading a long time ago. Great music couples brilliant lyricism with musical compositions that elicit excitement and emotion. That, for the most part, goes entirely forgotten on Missiles.

Still, there are a few tracks that manage to satisfy, if only on a minimal level. On any other album, "Dream Job" wouldn't have even been noteworthy. On Missiles, it's the album's best track. Lightburn's declaration of "You got dreams of taking someone else's dreams away," is sort of brilliant. And the song, while never really reaching the heights that it could, manages to get be somewhat catchy especially when they add in a synthesizer towards the end. Unfortunately, the song fades out far too early and you're left wanting more than you actually receive. In reality, the only song that could possibly be considered a contender when put up against any older Dears song is "Crisis 1 & 2" which finds Natalia Yanchak taking over the majority of the vocal work and doing an absolutely fantastic job at it as well. It's always good to hear her and Murray harmonizing together, and this song is no different. Murray eventually adds in his own vocals to great effect. It's the kind of song that makes me remember why I love this band. However, rather than finding some sort of satisfying conclusion, the song simply fades out - leaving the listener hanging.

Missiles may not be the album that I was expecting or wanting when I first heard that The Dears were recording a follow-up to one of 2006's best records, but even at its worst it is far from bottom-rung. Though it fails to satisfy on an emotional level, many of Lightburn's arrangements contain the same grace and consistency that we've come to expect from the band. What the album lacks is the emotional tension, discipline, and enthusiasm of their past records. Missiles is a record that can be quite enchanting at times, but more often just downright disappointing. Most bands have at least one sub-solid, however, and if there was ever a band who could overcome such a downfall it would be The Dears. Even if it's not the same band it was 2 years ago.

Key Tracks:
1. "Dream Job"
2. "Crisis 1 & 2"
3. "Demons"
4. "Missiles"

6 out of 10 Stars

My introduction to The Dears was 2006's "Gang of Losers", a tremendous work of angst and sorrow and passion. While "Missiles" is certainly still the same band, the passion and verve or "Whites Only Party" is nowhere to be found. Instead, "Missiles" is a deliberate album marked more by emotional restraint and tight arrangement spread out over lengthy tracks. This isn't the same punchy group of songs the band brought forward before. Lightburn repeats lyrics more, there is less singing overall, and the music does much more of the heavy lifting on its own. "Lights Off", with its repeated refrain of "through the back of the head", drives home the single-minded focus of what Lightburn does choose to say, and what he doesn't is brought forward in the spastic, sorrowful guitar solo that anchors the song's second half.

This isn't an album that grabs you immediately, but rather one that slowly but surely digs its claws in. And like so few albums anymore, it asks to be listened to straight through, from front to back. This is how it delivers its message of paranoia and stress and mania, how the repeated regrains and patient melodies and structure.

It works, and it serves as a fitting coda to an album that, via "Crisis 1 & 2", asks one simple question as it takes measured paces through the audio landscape that Lightburn creates: "I'm dying to know how much you care."

There isn't much to not like about a Dears album. Except that they all tend to sound the same. That isn't to say they're not all great, but there's no significant evolution -- at least none that I can hear -- from album to album. This isn't a bad thing but, considering the numerous changes in personel over the last ten years, it is rather odd.

Missiles is no exception: some great songs, some okay songs. If you liked the other albums, you'll like this one -- probably just as much.

I loved it!

I love walking into a record store and hearing something totally refreshing and that's what happened with this record. It's my first one for The Dears and every track is great. The night that I got the cd they were also playing in Allston, MA, so sadly I missed them and I go to their site from time to time in hopes that they playing around town.

I'm looking forward to more material!

I shelved this album after the first two listens. I tried so hard to get into it, and I just couldn't. I was expecting Gang of Losers, and I would have settled for another No Cities Left. But this one disappointed me.

At first...

As with Gang of Losers, it wasn't until I went back recently and gave it one more chance that the layers of the album really start to stand out. Whether this is their last album or not, this is most definitely their "White Album."

Lightburn has always had a very haunting and beautiful voice, but I think on Missiles in particular, it has an even deeper darkness to it.

I won't go on and on about why -I- like the album. Suffice it to say, if you liked Gang of Losers, you will most definitely like Missiles. Just...don't be so quick to undercut its depth or quality.

At the beginning I had some doubts about this album, so I decided to let the music flow, so It hooked me!, awesome album, i love it!; Money Babies, Crisis 1 & 2, Lights Off, I've recently watch them in Mexico City, they are suberb.

Great choice