Who we've worked with
The Dears
The Dears… a brief history: If you want all the facts, then yes, the story of The Dears did begin in Montreal in the late 90s, spurred on by cigarettes, pints and too many nights of overanalyzing Smiths records. But that was so very long ago. Friends come and go and formative influences are outgrown.
If you want the real story, then we must start in April 2000, when the one original Dear, Murray Lightburn, hit the stage at Lee’s Palace in Toronto flanked by a band of new recruits and welcomed us into his world - a place that, like his native Montreal, is built on romance and timeless beauty but scarred with reminders of a golden age that is long gone. The band had just released its debut album, END OF A HOLLYWOOD BEDTIME STORY, and while few were on hand that night to heed the message, it still reverberates to this day: it’s time to get real, to cut to the heart of things by fearlessly addressing matters of the heart.
The next time The Dears played Lee’s Palace, in June 2001, the crowd of 20 had turned to a fire-code-defying throng of 700, with hundreds more turned away at the door; in the interim, The Dears had taken the gospel across Canada, stealing hearts and blowing minds, and racking up enough drool-drenched critical notices to firmly enshrine HOLLYWOOD as one of the most acclaimed debuts in Canadian indie lore. But even as the rest of the country began to take notice of the band’s cinematic pop symphonies, The Dears were already on a different program. Onstage, the band were premiering astonishing new songs that exploded into anarchic feedback, while Lightburn’s darkly romantic vision assumed increasingly apocalyptic intimations. The second Dears album promised to be a truly seismic event.
Some couldn’t stand the wait, and a couple of line-up changes have taken place along the way. But then The Dears have always survived and thrived by breaking apart and rebuilding. And it’s with that spirit you should approach NO CITIES LEFT, The Dears’ greatest and grandest work, the ultimate culmination of their unhinged onstage catharsis and studio sophistication. Yes, it’s a record about darkness, much of the record having being conceived in the shadow of 9/11, but the darkness is leavened by brilliant flashes of light (see: the rousing jangle-pop of “Don’t Lose the Faith,” the lush, string-swathed funk of “Never Destroy Us,” the title track’s defiant symphonic send-off). The overriding theme is that of hope in the face of horror, as evidenced by the album’s closing lyrics: “Let’s just keep fighting the end of the World. We will hold hands and we will make plans – for life.”
No Cities Left is one of the most ambitious and magnificent albums to be released this year. Combining lush, richly textured layers of orchestral grandeur, exquisite melody, languid grooves and cinematic depth, these dozen breathtaking tracks provide a majestic backdrop for Lightburn's Britrock influences and soulful, Bowiesque vocals. Truly an album that must be heard to be believed.
