The Dears have rescheduled their UK tour for late in 2021, which gives everyone plenty of time to fall in love with their new album before seeing it live! Lovers Rock came out in May of this year and it’s just in time. The Dears have been around since they formed in Monteal in 1995, and they are husband and wife duo Murray Lightburn and Natalia Yanchak, Jeff Luciani, Steve Raegele and Rémi-Jean LeBlanc. They describe their sound as “apocalyptic love songs for an existential crisis.”
To tide fans over, this announcement comes with an acoustic version of the final track on the album, ‘We’ll Go Into Hiding’. This is definitely one of the highlights of Loves Rock, with its optimism that is simultaneously urgent and cautious; The Dears make you believe that the stakes are high as the album experience comes to an end. It’s a difficult tone to get right but as they’ve got it right, it makes a fantastic conclusion to Lovers Rock (in fact, it’s the song that the album takes its title from).
The acoustic video is a stripped back affair with just Lightburn and Yanchak in the studio. It starts out slow and soulful with Lightburn as the only one singing, and then Yanchak comes in on the piano and everything crescendos through to the end – it’s thrilling. An acoustic video is not quite a UK tour, but it’s a great gift from the band.
The rest of Lovers Rock shares the same vibe, but every song tries something new. Blues, grunge and folk were all words that came to mind during its wide-ranging ten tracks. The first few songs feel like rock, and there’s a distinctive guitar sound and poetry in the lyrics. Hearing Lightburn sing “I know what you’re thinking and it’s awful” is chillingly perceptive. Then track four, ‘Is This Really What You Want?’ starts to slow the pace a little.
A little later, the piano moment half way through ‘The Worst of Us’ is unlike anything else that’s come before it. The album cover of Lovers Rock gives a sense of space that doesn’t necessarily inform the lyrics, but it is always present. ‘The Worst of Us’ feels like sci-fi.
You could name any number of artists that Lovers Rock seems to be a bit reminiscent of, but only in fleeting moments – it’s a bit Radiohead for ten seconds, a bit Leonard Cohen for just a minute. Really, it’s not like anything I’ve ever heard before. Despite the vast range of musical styles that you can trace throughout the ten tracks, it’s completely consistent and by the last, urgent lines of ‘We’ll Go Into Hiding’ you feel like you completely get it.
It’ll be a little while before we can see these remarkable songs played live, but the 2021 tour dates are below for you to get excited about! Just by chance, it feels like an album that’s completely relevant. They themselves promise that “the Dears will look to take to the road again, and bring solace to heal our collective wounds.”
06/04/2021 – The Garage – London
23/11 – Exchange – Bristol
24/11 – Clwb Ifor Bach – Cardiff
25/11 – Leaf – Liverpool
26/11 – Drygate Theatre – Glasgow
27/11 – Deaf Institute – Manchester
28/11 – Portland Arms – Cambridge
