By Pete Donahue

The Dears‘ fourth studio full-length offering, Missiles, is a little gem you might want to keep your ears on for the next few months. Sure, upon its initial listen, the album may have pulled you in a few more directions than you were ready for. But like the Montreal outfit’s other studio albums, this one’s a “grower.” It’ll creep up on you note by note, song by song and then it’s one of your favorite albums of the year. But wait, how did that happen?

Missiles is a record born out of despair. Despite being shortlisted for Canada’s Polaris Music Prize with their 2006 album Gang of Losers, Murray Lightburn and gang found themselves without a North American record label in 2008. Ah, and the dreaded creative differences and other musical obligations among members caused the once six-strong band to dwindle back down to its original members, singer/songwriter Lightburn and his wife, keyboardist Natalia Yanhack. But as Gang of Losers depicts, having their backs against the wall isn’t anything new for the Dears. Their response? Lightburn writes the Dears’ best album to date in Missiles.

The album starts off with the six-minute plus “Disclaimer,” a dreamy, jazzy number that sounds like atmospheric late-1960′s guitar pop. Given what the band had gone through, what better way to start off the record then Lightburn declaring “See I’ve come back/From almost dead.” Afterwords, you’re introduced to “Dream Job,” lead by a rather haunting backbone of organ and piano with the opening statement: “Here come another heartbeat/Beating like a drum/Falling down a stairway/To hell.” But later in the song, it unfolds into a David Bowie-like “Space Oddity” jam with string synthesizers (a Dears stable), ambient keyboards, and….wait, do I hear banjo in the background?

“Money Babies,” with it’s obtuse lyrics (“Our money is elastic/Gotta get enough for the babies”) delivered by Lightburn and, through a vocorder, Yanchak, sounds like an orchestra backing a post-punk shuffle with a very uplifting outro. “Lights Off” is an echoey, quiter lament that comes off like a late-night phone call to a friend about not being able to sleep (“Maybe we will sleep with the lights off?”). In keeping up with Dears fashion, the song then completely changes course, here ending as a choir-ladden down-tempo classic rock epic, with Lightburn channeling Eric Clapton on The Beatles’ “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.” “Demons” surrounds you with an analog synth lead reminiscent of 70′s prog rock, backed by more string synths and horns, only to explode into quick cacophonous crescendos, layered briefly with Lightburn’s beautiful vocals.

But the highlight of Missiles is “Meltdown in A Major,” the second-to-last track of this 10-song epic. Starting off with a bare, thick, bass-heavy piano riff and the question “Is this a cry for help?/Are you gonna die?,” the song slowly blossoms into a rather optimistic number with a blast of plush strings, reverb-loaded choral backing vocals, and a hazy smearing of ambient keyboards that harks to the finest days of Spiritualized, Radiohead, and maybe even a little Sigur Ros. Basically, it’s the kind of music you’d expect to hear when you die and your soul slowly leaves your physical form and fades to someplace where bliss and serenity are intertwined forever. Quite possibly the Dears’ best song to date.

With Missiles, that’s how it happens. Unpredictable yet atmospheric arrangements eliciting an uplifting feeling of elation, utter melancholy, or just plain breezy pop worthy of a dance floor sway. Lightburn’s vocal delivery and words have escaped the Morrissey comparisons and now rightfully stand on their own. But most importantly, the songs still swirl into new places for the listener. Hence, the Dears take multiple listens because I bet you’ll hear new sounds upon your first several listens. Maybe this whole back-against-the-wall, outcast-thing is actually paying off for the band? At least we get some great songs out of it.

The Dears are opening for the Secret Machines at Madison’s Majestic Theatre on Saturday, October 25th.

Myspace: The Dears
MP3: The Dears – “Meltdown in A Major”

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