All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

The Guardian

The Dears have never sounded so comfortable in their own skin.

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100

The Onion (A.V. Club)

For the first time, the cantankerous Lightburn matches his lyrics--from rapture to self-exploration to joy both lived and missed--perfectly with the music, which nods to Britpop but never succumbs to any genre trappings.

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Uncut

This... is still very much a Dears record: confused and unfocused, a messy kind of masterpiece. [Sep 2006, p.90]

Austin Chronicle

A haunting disc that lingers long after the laser dies.

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Alternative Press

Here's the thing about originality... You don't really need it when you play this proficiently. [Dec 2006, p.188]

Hartford Courant

The real difference between this album and past Dears efforts, though, is not so much musical directness as Lightburn's lyrical attempts to become the spokesman for the dispossessed.

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Under The Radar

Lightburn’s tendency toward over-the-top melodrama has evolved into straightforward and heartfelt lyrics of love and loss. [Summer 2006]

Vibe

Excellent. [Oct 2006, p.142]

Dot Music

The Dears stamp enough of their own personality to make this one of the best and most vital alternative US albums of 2006.

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Observer Music Monthly

The Dears sound like a band who have finessed their vision and are ready, finally, to take on the world.

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PopMatters

In the end, what makes the Dears a cut above, a band that deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as its Canadian indie compatriots the New Pornographers or Broken Social Scene, is the voice of Lightburn.

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Mojo

Inventive, shape-shifting arrangements always go the extra mile. [Oct 2006, p.112]

Spin

Gang of Losers leaves behind the preciousness of 2003's delicate No Cities Left. [Oct 2006, p.105]

All Music Guide

They're a little less baroque, they're a little less depressing... but they're just as emotional and affecting, which makes Gang of Losers very good indeed.

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Urb

Expect to see this album on 2006 Top 10 lists. [Oct 2006, p.118]

Slant Magazine

One of the year's more understated and beautifully paranoid gems.

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Filter

When the band shines, it reaches stunning heights. [#22, p.102]

Billboard

The overall tone of the album isn't entirely dark and hopeless, although Lightburn fails to leave us with any specific resolve, instead content for some questions to remain unanswered.

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Village Voice

Strangely, what the sloppier approach really does is highlight bandleader Murray Lightburn's wondrous voice.

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Pitchfork

The band is, if anything, more confident than ever, but the sound's grandiosity too easily verges on melodrama, a too-bold-to-be-believable misery.

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Stylus Magazine

The Dears are now less idiosyncratic but have successfully made the kind of straightforwardly satisfying album that you'd expect from a band on their second decade.

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Prefix Magazine

The Dears really do sound a lot like late-'90s Blur.

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Paste Magazine

It's the band's fussiest, most elaborately conceived work to date. [Nov 2006, p.83]

NOW Magazine

The Dears' biggest coup with Gang Of Losers, though, is Lightburn's newfound ability to express his own sturm und drang through varied delivery rather than just a bloodcurdling caterwaul.

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Tiny Mix Tapes

So, no, this isn't the sound of The Dears taking it to the next level, but the level they're on is still pretty solid.

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Q Magazine

Precisely assembled, melodic songs that shiver with emotion. [Sep 2006, p.107]

Blender

Though less indebted to the Smiths... these tidally anthemic doom-ditties still manage to sound more dire. [Oct 2006, p.135]

cokemachineglow

A much more mediocre, boring, phoned-in, lyrically tripe-y batch of tip-toeing Brit-pop snooze-o-rama-fests.

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BBC collective

Shorn of the orchestral lushness that distinguished their previous effort, The Dears now have little to recommend them.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this album is 8.5 (out of 10) based on 19 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Cat gave it a10:
Truly emotional and powerful stuff from this talented band. This was the best album of 06.

Blake L gave it a10:
Great, great album.

Yannick W gave it a9:
a ultra melodic record, smooth yet crunchy at times with beautiful vocals and rich sounds. different from their previous release but still fully fullfilling. a great record by a great band

Chris M gave it a10:
A full, satisfying listen. Haven't gotten so deep into an LP in quite a long time. The negative reviews leave me a little confused - mainly because the substantive claims these reviewers make don't seem to match up at all.

Otto Z gave it a9:
A great album. Spare yet lush, smart yet compulsive. Lightburn's vocal style is truly impressive. This is an album (and now a band) that sounds like nothing you've heard before.

Fran G gave it a7:
There is something in the sound quality, it sounds as if it were produced on one track....I think that they were going for an effect there - but, comes off in a bit of a fuzz...

matt a gave it a9:
This is such a good album, definitely a step above No Cities Left and in my top twenty of the year so far. Some of the negative reviews are just lazy, and the Pitchfork one is especially maddening because it is pretty obvious that the writer is just someone at Pitchfork's girlfriend or sister (come on, she compares Lightburn's voice to Ben Folds). There are several stand-out tracks, especially Ticket To Immortality, Hate Then Love, and You And I Are A Gang Of Losers. Sure, it's been done before, but when it sounds this good, who cares?

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