The Dears

When news broke that Missiles had been leaked into the blogosphere, The Dears responded not with a reprimand but with a plea for the downloaders: listen. And not just once–listen four times. In an era when ringtones are hotter than albums, chalk the Montreal group up as part of the rebellion. Missiles is indie-rock on an epic scale–but it's a slow burner.

Initially conceived as a solo album for Dears frontman Murray Lightburn, Missiles revealed itself to require the full band treatment. In the meanwhile, most of the band was ditching out, leaving Lightburn and his wife, keyboardist Natalia Yanchak, to shepherd The Dears through another rebirth. Indeed, rebirth seems to be on Lightburn's mind right up front on the opening "Disclaimer." After a couple minutes of a jangly guitar, swirling horns and organs open the album, his voice comes cleanly over the speakers, talking about coming back from the death. There is some fat that could have been trimmed from these Missiles, and "Disclaimer" meanders close to the seven-minute mark when it probably could have communicated the same message in five. It sets the tone, though, for an album that does feel long–not necessarily for better or worse. It's just a heavy, hefty sort of work.

Much has been made of the vocal similarity between Lightburn and Blur's Damon Albarn, and there are those echoes, but they seem to be fleeting. Amidst the hazy rock of "Money Babies"–one of the album's most accessible tracks, despite its rough edges–Lightburn and Yanchak sound more like Low's Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker as they sing in tandem. "Berlin Heart" and "Meltdown in A Major" are both low-key standouts with noisy conclusions. The pace of Missiles can be plodding, but the moods can also shift abruptly, as on "Crisis 1 & 2," which gets an adrenaline shot. The moody synth-rock dirge of "Demons" launches into a frantic climax with a squealing guitar solo in the background. Lightburn sings about running away from himself, but on most of Missiles, it sounds like he's still heading in the right direction. Wherever he's going, he's going to take his own time getting there.

—Adam McKibbin
10.29.08

2006's Gang of Losers found Montreal-based indie rock darlings the Dears stripping back some of the orchestral flourishes that peppered their acclaimed 2004 release No Cities Left, a move that did little to reduce the band's penchant for effective drama. Four years later, founding members Murray Lightburn and Natalia Yanchak decided to go it alone on Missiles, their first for the Dangerbird label. Recorded in a short period of time with numerous session players, Missiles is as rough and disjointed as it is arranged and majestic, balancing the apocalyptic artistry of No Cities Left with the emotional directness of Gang of Losers. That said, every Dears album requires multiple spins, but Missiles may warrant the most. With the average track clocking in at around five to six minutes, it feels exploratory in more ways than one. Beginning with an extended, saxophone-led intro and ending in a 12-minute, midtempo epic, Missiles has more in common with TV on the Radio and OK Computer-era Radiohead -- "Berlin Heart" is a dead ringer [musically] for "No Surprises") -- than it does the Smiths or Echo & the Bunnymen, two groups that have shadowed the band in the past, and while the rewards are there ("Money Babies," "Lights Off," and "Crisis 1&2" are three of the most engaging cuts the pair has ever written), the hooks are few and far between, resulting in the kind of overly personal transitory album that can either lay the seeds for a full-blown masterpiece, or render the garden infertile. ~ James Christopher Monger, All Music Guide