more than a few critics have latched on to the animosity among the dears during the recording of their latest album, missiles, which led to murray lightburn dissolving the band save for himself and his wife and keyboardist, natalia yanchak. although i will maintain that conflicts within bands often result in excellent albums, i think it is essential to make clear that this album still sounds very much like a dears record, despite the lack of dears involved. through the band’s history, members have come and gone, making lightburn the most consistent aspect of the band, but also a person who is fairly used to change at this point. these songs are much more experimental than prior dears releases, mainly because there’s a freedom that comes with cleaning house that allows for songwriters to take more creative chances with their work. missiles is a deeply intimate record, one that could be argued to be the closest to lightburn’s own vision for the band yet. this level of intimacy that the dears achieve (it almost sounds like they recorded it in their bedroom) is suggested by lightburn and yanchak’s voices being much higher in the mix as well as their choices in instrumentation. not only are they been stripped-down in terms of band members, but the baroque leanings the dears have dabbled with on prior albums are absent here as well. these songs are not the racuous anthems you might have heard on gang of losers— nevertheless, the dears have successfully translated the intense, dynamic quality of their songs to a more stripped-down level.
Filed under: Album Review , 2008, missiles, murray lightburn, natalia yanchak, the dears
I look forward to hearing it!