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While the rewards are there, the hooks are few and far between, resulting in the kind of overly personal transitory album that can either lay the seeds for a full-blown masterpiece, or render the garden infertile.
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The Dears’ breakthrough was 2004’s "No Cities Left," a post-apocalyptic expedition through emotional and political wreckage, and they’re still mining that barren landscape, trying to rebuild.
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The Dears left Arts & Crafts and cut their least entertaining album yet, Missiles, deciding to release it through the more populist confines of Dangerbird.
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For every interesting and bold move involved in the writing and packaging of Missiles, however, the musical orchestration and production of the record is problematic.
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When they stay focused and sweet (as on the sparingly orchestral 'Berlin Heart'), they soar. But when Lightburn adds spoken-word bits and überwanky guitar solos ('Lights Off'), ending with an 11-minute, church-inspired requiem ('Saviour'), you may be ready to follow his former band members out the door.
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They've stripped back their epic indie in favour of ethereal rock, and the result is as complex and beautiful as you'd expect from Montreal's grand miserablists.
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Not every missile here reaches its target, but the older, wiser Dears will remain darlings of all who keep hearts affixed firmly to their sleeves.
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Under The RadarMissiles is the ultimate non-indie-rock album from the quintessential indie-rock band. [Fall 2008, p.74]
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On the Dears’ fourth album, the Montreal melancholics take simple melodies and spin them into seamless epics.
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Perversely enough, like a lot of transitional efforts Missiles works the best when it ranges the furthest from the band’s established sound without getting overly ambitious.
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These ill-advised lyrical moments can be perplexing and occasionally frustrating given the amount of care manifest in the Dears' music, but in a strange way they speak to the band's major non-musical strength: an earnestness decidedly lacking in today's indie landscape.
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MojoLightburn continues to enthral though, his heartfelt, inventive arrangements testament to many questing hours in the studio. [Dec 2008, p.112]
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UncutThere are epic power ballads, which just manage to avoid faling into Keane/Coldplay territory; there are terriffic, drone-laden stomp-rockers....The use of saxophone, however, is ill-advised, and Lightburn's voice can get a little ponderous. [Dec 2008, p.88]
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Q MagazineIts triumph is in its intimacy and honesty. [Dec 2008, p.134]
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Alternative PressLightburn's musings are best met with equal grandeur--such as the low-key but effective sort Missiles usually provides. [Dec 2008, p.138]
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UrbMissiles is a true testament to meticulous sonic invention. [Nov/Dec 2008, p.85]