On the Shelf 212: The Dears
Jul. 10th, 2020 11:43 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bedsitter23Like many bands, one album looms heavily over the Dears discography.
After some initial attempts at trying to formulate their sound, in 2004, they released No Cities Left, a classic in an age of post-Y2K bounty.
They seemingly will always be chasing this.
Which may be unfair. I don't believe that they have truly made a bad album. Lovers Rock is the 6th album in fourteen years, which calculates to something like a record every two and a half years. (I will pick Degeneration Street if you are looking to drop the needle somewhere).
Lovers Rock is an unusual first album. The production and instrumentation does not seem obvious. That said, it seems to work in favor of repeated listening. In fact, in a matter of a month and a half, this has become has much loved to me as No Cities Left.
Reviews seemed a bit mixed, though generally bands 20 years and 8 albums in are usually met with a lukewarm reception. In this case, most criticism is around 'who wants to listen to a depressing set of songs with the world is like today, and how have Dears mainstays Murray Lightburn and Natalia Yanchak stayed together for two-decades-plus when every album sounds like the product of a disintegrating romance.
Also of note, a couple of reviews mention the similarity in voice to Damon Albarn, which might be a relief from twenty years of comparison to Morrissey.
In summary, this one didn't grab me on first listen, but I am so glad I stuck with it. It's some of the band's best work, and one of my favorite records of the year.
After some initial attempts at trying to formulate their sound, in 2004, they released No Cities Left, a classic in an age of post-Y2K bounty.
They seemingly will always be chasing this.
Which may be unfair. I don't believe that they have truly made a bad album. Lovers Rock is the 6th album in fourteen years, which calculates to something like a record every two and a half years. (I will pick Degeneration Street if you are looking to drop the needle somewhere).
Lovers Rock is an unusual first album. The production and instrumentation does not seem obvious. That said, it seems to work in favor of repeated listening. In fact, in a matter of a month and a half, this has become has much loved to me as No Cities Left.
Reviews seemed a bit mixed, though generally bands 20 years and 8 albums in are usually met with a lukewarm reception. In this case, most criticism is around 'who wants to listen to a depressing set of songs with the world is like today, and how have Dears mainstays Murray Lightburn and Natalia Yanchak stayed together for two-decades-plus when every album sounds like the product of a disintegrating romance.
Also of note, a couple of reviews mention the similarity in voice to Damon Albarn, which might be a relief from twenty years of comparison to Morrissey.
In summary, this one didn't grab me on first listen, but I am so glad I stuck with it. It's some of the band's best work, and one of my favorite records of the year.
