Lovers Rock is the latest effort from Montréal quintet The Dears, led by husband & wife duo Murray Lightburn and Natalia Yanchak. It packs 10 tracks of melodic drum-machine propelled alt-pop. There are dashes of indie, dashes of prog, but ‘Heart of an Animal’ takes it foundations from The Kinks’ ‘Sunny Afternoon’ before going Muse in the chorus.
It's an album that projects many facets: the mellow, piano-led, synth-orientated ballad ‘I Know What You’re thinking and it’s Awful’, while ‘Instant Nightmare!’ is a proper quite/loud grunge blaster in the vein of Smashing Pumpkins, with the added bonus of ‘woo-oo-hoo’ backing vocals, laser synth bleeps and a massive sweep of strings.
The Dears are a band who aren’t afraid to push the boundaries and to explore. Sometimes – often – it pays of, with some exciting dynamics and hook-filled choruses with no shortage of meat. But sometimes, not so much: ‘The Worst in Us’ is fittingly-titled, wet and insipid, although takes a darker turn from the mid-section, which is quite nice and a tad gothy. Or maybe a tad Mr Mister, I can’t quote decide, but either way, it’s not a criticism. The same is true of the limp jazz of ‘Play Dead’, and the Ben Folds-lite of ‘No Place on Earth’, which does unexpectedly erupt with a raging guitar near the end – unlike on the sappy ‘Too Many Wrongs’. Dark or introspective lyrics are no compensation for lame tunage.
|
‘Stille Lost’ goes dark art rock, lifting the percussion track and its general idea from Bauhaus’ ‘Bella Lugosi’s Dead’, although the sax break is more ‘Rio’. Yes, really.
Jotting down these impressions and references, ‘Lovers Rock’ looks like an awful mess of an album, and it’s certainly one that has very definite highs and lows, strengths and weaknesses, which more or less balance on another out to land somewhere near the middle.
|
