The Dears – Missiles

Missiles, as presented by The Dears, is a fifty-eight minute opus meant to be listened to entirely at once. Like any other avid enthusiast of the let's look at more pictures and read less words society we inhabit, the prospect of sitting through nearly an hour of miserable indie seemed daunting. And frankly, it was. There is much to love about Missiles, the capricious Dears' fourth studio effort to date, but little of presents itself if you sit through the whole album at once. As a whole, it's an exhaustive, almost impossible task. The second half of the record, from ‘Demons' through the title track and onto ‘Meltdown in A Major' overloads itself on so much 80s tinged melodrama that halfway through the triage it requires a pause. Yet, the eleven minute Church-choired up closer ‘Saviour' is just that, a true testament to the emotional veracity The Dears do embody when they point their tears in the right direction. It flutters through melodic bombast and dreary-eyed somnambulist pop beautifully, proving that when desired, The Dears know where to hurl their bleeding heart. But such is the case. It's impressive, but inconsistent. So which takes precedent here? Well, unlike the band in question, let's look more at the bright side.

Both single ‘Money Babies' and Baroque wailer ‘Berlin Heart' mirror the band's best overall output, so much so each would have been content on No Cities Left, an album far better than this. But given the collective's internal scenario turned turmoil, both tracks ought to be celebrated, if only for the fact they turned out so well. Murray Lightburn and Natalia Yanchak, the demure and morose miserablist couple who lead The Dears lost three-quarters of their band throughout the recording process, ultimately forcing them to abandon previous schedules and certain melodic arrangements throughout. Therefore, the result of two cogent, involving pop songs, dark as they may be, stamped within all this is a triumph, if only for a moment or two. Both songs are less obsessed with death than the rest, coming off slightly more positive and uplifting than the rest. It's still drenched in dearth, but 'Money Babies' exudes hopefulness, albeit bleakly, while much of the rest doesn't. And in this hopefulness The Dears find success, as if all their challenges are temporarily forgotten and put to rest. But as a whole, the ruinous day-to-day that seems to be their lives catches up with them, producing a product as dark and inaccessible as their collective personas; and it is much lengthier than it needs to be. The point is there, almost too much so.
60%

The Dears on MySpace