The Dears
The Dears is an indie rock band which formed in 1995 in Montreal, Quebec, C… Read Full Bio ↴The Dears is an indie rock band which formed in 1995 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The band currently consists of Murray Lightburn (vocals, guitar, bass), Natalia Yanchak (keyboards, vocals) and Jeff Luciani (drums). Lightburn and Yanchak, who have been married since 2005, are the only consistent members of the band. The Dears' most recent album, "Times Infinity Volume Two", was released in 2017.
Without even seeing a performance by The Dears it was easy to recognize the group in Montreal's haunts in the late nineties. Dressed in black suits and white shirts, they would descend on bars like the minor legends they were. At that time, The Dears were like an unconfirmed rumour of ardour; they were full of possibility, and propelled by passion, alienation, and alcohol. Their precious name and the crooning vocals of charismatic front man Murray Lightburn, defined their clean, symphonic pop style. Yet the band’s onstage intensity and quiet defiance defied easy categorization. Already, at that early stage, their sophisticated content and attitude set them at odds with the music scene of the day.
End of a Hollywood Bedtime Story, their 2000 debut album, immediately established The Dears as a unique and powerful presence. With a stylized and cinematic scope, the record fused narratives, orchestral arrangements and pop in a way that was praised for ambitious grandiosity. The Dears, now Lightburn with keyboardist Natalia Yanchak and joined by drummer George Donoso III and bassist Martin Pelland, exhausted themselves on a seemingly endless schedule of grueling tours. Kids from Sudbury to Vancouver bought tickets and T-shirts and came out from winter’s shadow to experience the band live. They toured more. Band members quit and replacements were found. They endured their initiation into the divided and limited realities of national critical success and kept to themselves.
By 2001 The Dears ceased to be a rumour; they were real and dark -- almost too real and too dark for a Canadian music scene that banked on fluffy love songs and slick indie hits. The 2001 EP, Orchestral Pop Noir Romantique, seamlessly melded Lightburn’s neoromantic songwriting to an imaginary film noir soundtrack. And in the EP’s ironically titled “Autotomy,” a bleak lover’s dirge that describes Montreal’s decrepit physical, economic and political landscape, The Dears fashioned the greatest love song to the city ever written.
The second EP, Summer of Protest, released in 2002, expanded the apocryphal vision seeded on Orchestral Pop Noir Romantique. Lightburn’s white shirt and black suit were long gone, replaced for a military helmet and loudspeaker. Music writer Stuart Berman’s synopsis of SOP as “a harrowing mini-concept album that rolled operatic hysteria, ominous post-punk rumbling and cosmic Christmas music into a soundtrack to the end of the world” could not be more accurate. Little can be added to Berman’s description, except that while the 2001 Quebec G8 summit protests and the events of 9/11 had barely registered thematically in indie-rock, The Dears, it appeared, were not content with catchy love songs.
The Dears’ performances evolved into part nihilistic Charlie Brown special and part Brechtian theatre. The drama of their live shows forced audiences to examine the dark forces at work in their nations and hearts. Bizarre, hopeless, entropic and devastating were the only words one could use to describe hearing and seeing The Dears onstage in 2002. You didn’t watch or listen so much as get assaulted by music. You had to be in the right headspace: you had to be either completely inebriated or sickeningly sober. It was uncomfortable and simultaneously beautiful in its plain and painful truth. In 2002, with Lightburn barking revolutionary orders into a megaphone, it was easy to believe that The Dears were the most artful, revolutionary pop band in Canada. It was becoming a challenge to see the future path of their commercial success.
With the 2003 release of No Cities Left, The Dears gained the success that End of a Hollywood Bedtime Story had promised. The album was rife with The Dears’ dystopic world view, but was also curiously luxuriant, poppy and brimming with hope: “Our love, don’t mess with our love,” the male and female warn, playfully, in the album’s single, “Lost in the Plot.” The doom and gloom that pervaded their earlier work was traded for optimism evident in songs like the ironically lighthearted “Don’t Lose the Faith” and “Never Destroy Us.” No Cities Left brought Lightburn’s finely crafted songwriting to the forefront and was exulted for both its commercial and artistic appeal.
The Dears were nominated for Best New Group at the 2004 Canadian Juno Awards, acclaim followed by New Musical Express’ naming The Dears as “Probably the Best New Band in the World.” Soon after, NME cited NCL as the 10th best album and the band found itself on several Best New Band features in music magazines from Rolling Stone to Stuff to Spin. After invitations to open for Morrissey in Toronto and Los Angeles, The Dears played Glastonbury (UK) in 2005, and British fans and critics welcomed the band’s mercurial implosion into their music scene with open arms.
When they came home, to Montreal, in the summer of 2005, Natalia Yanchak and Murray Lightburn were married, a gesture that formalized their decade-long partnership. Despite the stresses and upheavals of the music industry the tight-knit band -- whose lineup of Murray Lightburn, Natalia Yanchak, George Donoso III, Martin Pelland with flautist and keyboardist Valerie Jodoin-Keaton and guitarist Patrick Krief -- had always been close. Now it was official: The Dears were family.
Moving from grinding guitar solos to ethereal vocals, there is no other way to describe Gang of Losers than as a celebration of beautiful losers. The theme of ostracization, at all levels of society, dominates this eclectic yet thematically cohesive album. It’s impossible to miss Lightburn’s slick references to white-liberal guilt. Barely disguised in the song “Whites Only Party,” with its cabaret casualness, the thorny subject of race resurfaces, full-blown, in the jazzy, rootsy, epic finale, “Find Our Way to Freedom.”
Social class and indie rock cool are also a pre-occupation in Gang of Losers: “I hang out with all the pariahs,” Lightburn drawls in the jumpy “Ticket to Immortality.” Bluesy and ballad-laden, with rolling pianos and horns, the album features the seductive fusion of Lightburn’s onstage vocal range and studio precision. Recorded without punch-ins or edits, the band played every song from beginning to end in order to capture the technical unity of their live shows.
Gang of Losers is a classic Dears album in terms of its complex musical and thematic range, veering from instant pop hits to oppressive ballads to lullaby show tunes. But what’s most remarkable about Gang of Losers is that within the complicated lyrical and musical scheme, Lightburn’s humour and humanity shine through the heavy-handed themes. In the end, forgiveness, of the self and the other, wins. “I need this song,” Lightburn wails in “Find Our Way to Freedom,” relenting, as he exchanges hate for love and mercy. And we need these songs, this album, too: if only to counter the world’s indifference, and soothe the inner loser that thrives on all our worst fears.
Without even seeing a performance by The Dears it was easy to recognize the group in Montreal's haunts in the late nineties. Dressed in black suits and white shirts, they would descend on bars like the minor legends they were. At that time, The Dears were like an unconfirmed rumour of ardour; they were full of possibility, and propelled by passion, alienation, and alcohol. Their precious name and the crooning vocals of charismatic front man Murray Lightburn, defined their clean, symphonic pop style. Yet the band’s onstage intensity and quiet defiance defied easy categorization. Already, at that early stage, their sophisticated content and attitude set them at odds with the music scene of the day.
End of a Hollywood Bedtime Story, their 2000 debut album, immediately established The Dears as a unique and powerful presence. With a stylized and cinematic scope, the record fused narratives, orchestral arrangements and pop in a way that was praised for ambitious grandiosity. The Dears, now Lightburn with keyboardist Natalia Yanchak and joined by drummer George Donoso III and bassist Martin Pelland, exhausted themselves on a seemingly endless schedule of grueling tours. Kids from Sudbury to Vancouver bought tickets and T-shirts and came out from winter’s shadow to experience the band live. They toured more. Band members quit and replacements were found. They endured their initiation into the divided and limited realities of national critical success and kept to themselves.
By 2001 The Dears ceased to be a rumour; they were real and dark -- almost too real and too dark for a Canadian music scene that banked on fluffy love songs and slick indie hits. The 2001 EP, Orchestral Pop Noir Romantique, seamlessly melded Lightburn’s neoromantic songwriting to an imaginary film noir soundtrack. And in the EP’s ironically titled “Autotomy,” a bleak lover’s dirge that describes Montreal’s decrepit physical, economic and political landscape, The Dears fashioned the greatest love song to the city ever written.
The second EP, Summer of Protest, released in 2002, expanded the apocryphal vision seeded on Orchestral Pop Noir Romantique. Lightburn’s white shirt and black suit were long gone, replaced for a military helmet and loudspeaker. Music writer Stuart Berman’s synopsis of SOP as “a harrowing mini-concept album that rolled operatic hysteria, ominous post-punk rumbling and cosmic Christmas music into a soundtrack to the end of the world” could not be more accurate. Little can be added to Berman’s description, except that while the 2001 Quebec G8 summit protests and the events of 9/11 had barely registered thematically in indie-rock, The Dears, it appeared, were not content with catchy love songs.
The Dears’ performances evolved into part nihilistic Charlie Brown special and part Brechtian theatre. The drama of their live shows forced audiences to examine the dark forces at work in their nations and hearts. Bizarre, hopeless, entropic and devastating were the only words one could use to describe hearing and seeing The Dears onstage in 2002. You didn’t watch or listen so much as get assaulted by music. You had to be in the right headspace: you had to be either completely inebriated or sickeningly sober. It was uncomfortable and simultaneously beautiful in its plain and painful truth. In 2002, with Lightburn barking revolutionary orders into a megaphone, it was easy to believe that The Dears were the most artful, revolutionary pop band in Canada. It was becoming a challenge to see the future path of their commercial success.
With the 2003 release of No Cities Left, The Dears gained the success that End of a Hollywood Bedtime Story had promised. The album was rife with The Dears’ dystopic world view, but was also curiously luxuriant, poppy and brimming with hope: “Our love, don’t mess with our love,” the male and female warn, playfully, in the album’s single, “Lost in the Plot.” The doom and gloom that pervaded their earlier work was traded for optimism evident in songs like the ironically lighthearted “Don’t Lose the Faith” and “Never Destroy Us.” No Cities Left brought Lightburn’s finely crafted songwriting to the forefront and was exulted for both its commercial and artistic appeal.
The Dears were nominated for Best New Group at the 2004 Canadian Juno Awards, acclaim followed by New Musical Express’ naming The Dears as “Probably the Best New Band in the World.” Soon after, NME cited NCL as the 10th best album and the band found itself on several Best New Band features in music magazines from Rolling Stone to Stuff to Spin. After invitations to open for Morrissey in Toronto and Los Angeles, The Dears played Glastonbury (UK) in 2005, and British fans and critics welcomed the band’s mercurial implosion into their music scene with open arms.
When they came home, to Montreal, in the summer of 2005, Natalia Yanchak and Murray Lightburn were married, a gesture that formalized their decade-long partnership. Despite the stresses and upheavals of the music industry the tight-knit band -- whose lineup of Murray Lightburn, Natalia Yanchak, George Donoso III, Martin Pelland with flautist and keyboardist Valerie Jodoin-Keaton and guitarist Patrick Krief -- had always been close. Now it was official: The Dears were family.
Moving from grinding guitar solos to ethereal vocals, there is no other way to describe Gang of Losers than as a celebration of beautiful losers. The theme of ostracization, at all levels of society, dominates this eclectic yet thematically cohesive album. It’s impossible to miss Lightburn’s slick references to white-liberal guilt. Barely disguised in the song “Whites Only Party,” with its cabaret casualness, the thorny subject of race resurfaces, full-blown, in the jazzy, rootsy, epic finale, “Find Our Way to Freedom.”
Social class and indie rock cool are also a pre-occupation in Gang of Losers: “I hang out with all the pariahs,” Lightburn drawls in the jumpy “Ticket to Immortality.” Bluesy and ballad-laden, with rolling pianos and horns, the album features the seductive fusion of Lightburn’s onstage vocal range and studio precision. Recorded without punch-ins or edits, the band played every song from beginning to end in order to capture the technical unity of their live shows.
Gang of Losers is a classic Dears album in terms of its complex musical and thematic range, veering from instant pop hits to oppressive ballads to lullaby show tunes. But what’s most remarkable about Gang of Losers is that within the complicated lyrical and musical scheme, Lightburn’s humour and humanity shine through the heavy-handed themes. In the end, forgiveness, of the self and the other, wins. “I need this song,” Lightburn wails in “Find Our Way to Freedom,” relenting, as he exchanges hate for love and mercy. And we need these songs, this album, too: if only to counter the world’s indifference, and soothe the inner loser that thrives on all our worst fears.
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The Dears Lyrics
- You And I Are A Gang Of Losers Every single one of us is getting Massacred on a frozen…
11. Easy Suffering Closed my eyes And found you Pools of light Become you T…
1854 The worst may come the worst may go Not without our…
22 I have never cried in anybody's arms The way that I…
5 Chords Father, up in heaven On pins and needles We're waiting on a …
7. Pinned Together Falling Apart I Have Been terrified By the thought of losing you So ve…
All the Hail Marys I don't care to recall Those stories that you hold onto Ever…
Autonomy papier macheague; or crazy glue we stick together me and yo…
Autotomy papier mach or crazy glue we stick together me and you and…
Ballad of Humankindness well i thought that we all cared about peace and i thought…
Bandwagoneers this was our mistake yet another horrible mistake we've more…
Berlin Heart Head and shoulders above all the rest, you climb to…
Blood I am the unforgiving force of malice You are the call…
C'était Pour La Passion Have you ever hear of Gide? I won't advise, it's full…
Corduroy Boy He's got his corduroys on the only ones that he…
Crisis 1 & 2 Been looking at the roadwork, I can't work like this.…
Death Or Life We Want You I want your body. I want your brains. I want your soul,…
Degeneration Street This was the child of the millennium A switchblade hangin' …
Demons There are demons. There are demons around here. I ain't th…
Disclaimer See I've come back from almost death And I've got to…
Don Feeling Self-conscious It's the only way to save us And f…
Don't Lose the Faith Feeling Self-conscious It's the only way to save us And forg…
Dont Lose The Faith Feeling Self-conscious It's the only way to save us And f…
Don’t Lose The Faith Feeling Self-conscious It's the only way to save us And forg…
Dream Job Here comes another heartbeat, beating like a drum, falli…
Easy Suffering Closed my eyes And found you Pools of light Become you T…
End Of A Hollywood Bedtime Story It's so very sad that I prefer to sleep in…
Expect The Worst This town A likely down Well, my summer in Perth was nice …
Fear Made The World Go 'Round You're trying to pretend to love All those people that yo…
Find Our Way to Freedom This is the last breath I can spare and I don’t…
Galactic Tides Longing for love Hunting down souls We're running out of s…
Hate Then Love All the time is gone Along with everything you loved, foreve…
Heart Of An Animal I can finally feel The age coming up on us And how…
Heartless Romantic I've been a liar and I've been a thief But now…
Heaven Have Mercy On Us Heaven have mercy on us Heaven have mercy on us Heaven have…
Here's to the Death of All the Romance You are the only one that I can trust And all…
Hollywood It's so very sad that I prefer to sleep in…
Hollywood Bedtime Story It's so very sad that I prefer to sleep in…
I Fell Deep I fell deep, through the holes of your eyes and what…
I Know What You're Thinking And It's Awful A true crime It happened here Better lay low til the coast…
I Used to Pray for the Heavens to Fall Whose side are you on? Whose side are you on? Whose side…
Instant Nightmare! This is an instant nightmare And it's your cross to bear We…
Is This What You Really Want? Well nobody wants to die But does anyone want to live Anothe…
Lamentation Show me some mercy Show that you care Show you got something…
Lights Off Five in the morning, you know we couldn't sleep. Might…
Lost Take me for drive to the coastline Pull me to the…
Lost in the Plot Take me for a drive to the coastline Pull me to…
Meltdown In A Major Is this a cry for help? Are you gonna die? It's okay…
Missiles Cold blood flowing through the veins of me and all…
Money Babies Our money isn't lasting. Our money isn't lasting. Gotta …
My Dears 어떤 밤 보다 더 설레는 밤 세상 모두가 잠이 들면 그 언젠가…
Never Destroy Us Why do you say that we go down together And…
No Cities Left Let's just keep fighting the end We're holding hands We're m…
No Hope Before Destruction No hope. No love. No trust. No fun. No peace. No mirth.…
No Place On Earth I'm sure I told you baby This day would finally come It's…
Omega Dog It happened at the same time It happened just the one…
Onward and Downward It's been a while since I took time to simply…
Pinned Together I Have Been terrified By the thought of losing you So ve…
Pinned Together Falling Apart I Have Been terrified By the thought of losing you So very t…
Play Dead Do you have a place to stay Oh it's really not…
Postcard From Purgatory We have wasted Wasted all All of our lives Empty heads Empt…
Protest This is the summer of protest That they can never defuse For…
Protest Parallel This is the summer of protest That they can never diffuse Fo…
Saviour Once had a saviour from child to teenager. But now…
She's Well Aware Saw her on the street today and never thought she'd look…
Stick W/ Me Kid From the left To the right They reseed it Into the night …
Stick With Me Kid From the left to the right They receded into the night It'…
Summer of Protest this is the summer of protest that they can never defuse f…
The Second Part Two days have passed And all I want is to feel…
The Worst In Us Babe I'm here to help you To understand That I will defend…
There Goes My Outfit All right, all right already you got me Broke inside and…
There Is No Such Thing As Love There is no such thing as love And I know that's…
This Is A Broadcast i'm the one who's very fond of adventure tripping over feet…
Threre Goes My Outfit All right, all right already you got me Broke inside and…
Thrones Saw it disappear into the dark All the hope we put…
Ticket to Immorality Fists up in our faces How did we end up here? Standing…
Ticket to Immortality Fist up in our faces, how did we end up here? Standing…
Tiny Man Looking for somewhere safe A kind of home base Where our c…
To Hold and Have It was all or nothing or we couldn't have Found each…
Too Many Wrongs I'm here to say What has to be said I'm well aware…
Unsung Looking for fossils Lost from a battle won In a stroke of…
Warm And Sunny Days We've been surrounded For it was genius There was no other w…
We Can Have It Last night all the horrible Things in life Start through my …
We'll Go Into Hiding We're from another world A world that's getting so cold and…
Whites Only Party I wanna know how you did it You walzed right passed…
Who Are You Defenders of the Universe We need your information We will do what we must But not…
Who Are You Defenders of the Universe ? We need your information. We will do what we must. But not…
Yesteryear What the hell just happened here A falling out, falling out…
You & I Are A Gang Of Losers Every single one of us is getting Massacred on a frozen…
You and I Are a Gang of Losers Every single one of us is getting massacred On a frozen…
You Can't Get Born Again Ooh, ah Ooh, ah You can change some of your name And yet…