★★★★★
With its last album, 2011's Degeneration Street, The Dears returned to its roots, at least lineup-wise. Past members Patrick Krief (guitars/vocals), Robert Benvie (guitars/keyboards/vocals), and Robert Arquilla (bass/vocals) returned to the fold after a period away from the band, and a new member, drummer Jeff Luciani, rounded out the group that had since its formation been anchored by married couple Murray A. Lightburn and Natalia Yanchak...
- www.undertheradarmag.com
2015-10-21
★★★★★
?????????? Much ballyhooed by insiders claiming to know the next hip thing, The Dears have gained a certain ascendency over the past several years thanks to a reputation for procuring stunning and sweeping soundscapes that carry a decidedly dramatic edge. Nevertheless, for that reason alone, they've also acquired a reputation for being on an elevated plain, one that puts them beyond the grasp of your average pop purist...
- www.glidemagazine.com
2015-09-26
★★★★★
On , the Dears' songs vary in terms of depth and intricacy, but each is a fully realized narrative, layered with wild intricacy. Murray Lightburn's guitar lines bloom in measured expanses and unspool in frenzied bursts; Natalia Yanchak's fingers dance across the keys like stones skipping across a pond; lyrics burst with secret revelations and wry truths. Not every track is trying to shatter salt-lick hearts...
- exclaim.ca
2015-09-24
★★★★★
The guys (and gal) in The Dears must be especially good with names, because after going through so many lineup changes over the years things would have to get a little confusing. Despite so many shifts in the band's genetic make-up, Degeneration Street, the Montreal rock band's fifth record, sounds like it was made by a band who'd played together their entire lives...
- www.americansongwriter.com
2013-04-25
★★★★★
Goto commentsLeave a commentShare Cherry-Picking on Degeneration Street On their fifth studio album Degeneration Street, Canadian indie rockers The Dears strive for a well-rounded mix of the intimate and grandiose. For the most part, they are successful. With a foundation of guitar, drum and bass, early songs are accented with such Baroque details as a harpsichord around the edges, while others are built over an electronic beat...
- www.mxdwn.com
2011-06-06
★★★★★
"We are finished. We are ready. We are coming." Nine words that signalled the completion of a labour of love and also beautifully stark statement of intent. Degeneration Street has been a long time coming, or so it seems. When The Dears went their separate ways in 2008 after finishing touring Missiles, their most sombre, minimalist album to date, even they didn't know if they were finished or not. Missiles, a thoughtful but cold work, narrowed the group's appeal...
- www.themusicfix.co.uk
2011-05-11
★★★★★
Steve Lamacq once said of Pulp's 'Common People' that its success was partly owed to "everyone desperately wanting them to have a hit". He could dust off those words again when describing Canada's long-toiling, merry-go-round band of blusterous alternative rockers, The Dears. In many ways the group's circumstances echo large parts of Pulp's; perennially lauded by few others beyond hardened devotees, they survive on their frontman's insatiable desire to succeed...
- nme.com
2011-03-21
★★★★★
As the great American songstress Joni Mitchell said, "don't it always seem to go, that you don't know what you've got 'till it's gone". Canada's The Dears have in recent times exemplified this sentiment, overcoming a musical near-death experience to bring a fresh new body of work, Degeneration Street...
- www.musicomh.com
2011-03-14
★★★★★
Such is the intensity of producing a Dears album, that the band reaches breakpoint at every conclusion. 2008's 'Missiles' collapsed the band, yet the result was a vastly underscored masterpiece of tension, trauma and artistic detonation. Shatteringly beautiful yet painful, it was impossible to see how the band could ever rise to greater heights. Three years on and Murray Lightburn has rekindled former compatriots and infused a degree of restrained bliss...
- www.clashmusic.com
2011-03-14
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