Montreal Gazette

The Dears releasing album made for tough times

‘There are a lot of themes of isolation and survival on this album,’ Natalia Yanchak says of the Montreal band’s Lovers Rock

- BRENDAN KELLY bkelly@postmedia.com Twitter.com/ brendansho­wbiz

I’ve been hearing it a lot from people that what we’ve made is incredibly relevant to what’s happening right now.

Like many of us, Murray Lightburn and Natalia Yanchak have spent the past several months mostly confined to their home. The difference is that the husband and wife front the revered Montreal indie band the Dears, and they’ve been busy in their #stayathome days putting the final touches on the preparatio­n for the release of the band’s eighth album, Lovers Rock. It will be released digitally Friday, with the physical release set for Aug. 21.

They are at their Park Ex home with their two children, 14-yearold daughter Neptune and sevenyear-old son Apollo. The latter endearingl­y kept popping up behind Lightburn and Yanchak during our Facetime interview.

“We’ve been in pretty good spirits, staying sane, and Natalia and I have been preoccupie­d with getting this album released,” said Lightburn, who formed the altrock band way back in 1995. “So that’s kept us quite busy. It’s making the days seem very short. Just not a lot of time to do anything else. We split the days in half where I’ll mostly look after the kids in the morning, then we swap in the afternoon and I can get things done. And then the next thing you know, it’s dinnertime.”

The biggest impact of the COVID-19 crisis for the Dears is that, like so many musicians around the globe, they’ve had to cancel all their touring plans. The band was supposed to play in Europe in April, then were to spend May in the U.S. and Mexico, and Canada in June.

“Now it’s just been moved to whenever,” said Lightburn.

“Whenever” is supposed to start in November at this point, but like everyone else in the music biz, Lightburn and Yanchak don’t really know when they’ll be back on stage.

They’re not devastated by the postponed touring plans.

“Honestly, it was kind of a relief for me,” said Lightburn, “only because last year I got pretty pummelled. I was working on this Dears album and touring my solo album (Hear Me Out). I’ve never toured and made a record the same year. It kind of destroyed me. Both things were incredibly arduous.”

The band and their Los Angeles-based label Dangerbird Records had discussion­s about delaying the launch of the album as a result of the coronaviru­s pandemic, but they finally decided to stick with the original release date.

“Frankly, I think people are going to really need this when it comes out,” said Lightburn.

Lovers Rock — powered by dense wall-of-sound guitar anthems — certainly feels of its time. We are all listening to music differentl­y in the COVID spring, and it’s impossible not to interpret lyrics through our new point of view coloured by confinemen­t, fears of a deadly virus and anxiety about the future. Recent albums like the Strokes’ The New Abnormal and Fiona Apple’s Fetch the Bolt Cutters also sounded tailor-made for life during a pandemic.

Lovers Rock is an album made for an anxious time and, though written and recorded before anyone knew about the coronaviru­s, it hits home hard right now. Take the lyrics in the lead single Heart of an Animal, an epic number that marries sparkling Beatles-esque guitar riffs with a feel reminiscen­t of ’90s Brit popsters Pulp:

“Something from the outside of this world / Is focused on the wrath / Mercy isn’t coming / Nor is mirth / Beholden to a past / We wanted this to last / It’s a cold way to die.”

Or the gorgeous Smashing Pumpkins-like power ballad No Place on Earth:

“I’m sure I told you baby / This day would finally come / It’s been so long forgotten / The place where we are from / Ashes to ashes / We are glorious dust to dust / There is no place on earth where a god will hold our trust again.”

If that’s not a COVID anthem ... Many are already comparing Lovers Rock to the Dears’ 2003

LP No Cities Left, which nailed the anxiety of a post-9/11 world scarred by wars, terrorism and economic uncertaint­y.

“We didn’t make a COVID album,” said Yanchak. “It’s just released in this moment, and I think it’s thematical­ly relevant to this moment. Maybe there was a pre-existing cultural moment that made us write an album like this. There are a lot of themes of isolation and survival on this album. When we released No Cities Left, which was our second album but arguably our most popular record, I think it just resonated with people. We hope this album also resonates with people in a timeless way, even though it’s very timely.”

Added Lightburn: “I’ve been hearing it a lot from people that what we’ve made is incredibly relevant to what’s happening right now. Looking back on the Dears, I think (we’ve always had) a kind of doomed-out big-picture view of things. When we started making this record, we talked about Lovers Rock being this fictional place that you’re either leaving or trying to get to . ... A lot of people go along thinking everything is hunky-dory all the time, and this is a time where things can really go off the rails and it literally makes you think. And we never stop thinking, and so it comes out on our records.”

Which leads to la question qui tue: Is this a hopeful record?

“Absolutely, are you kidding?” said Lightburn. “‘We’ll make it last forever on Lovers Rock’? You can’t get more optimistic than that.”

 ??  ??
 ?? RICHMOND LAM ?? The Dears contemplat­ed pushing back the launch of Lovers Rock because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but ultimately stuck with the original release date. “Frankly, I think people are going to really need this when it comes out,” says Murray Lightburn, centre.
RICHMOND LAM The Dears contemplat­ed pushing back the launch of Lovers Rock because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but ultimately stuck with the original release date. “Frankly, I think people are going to really need this when it comes out,” says Murray Lightburn, centre.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from Canada