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May 01, 2020 By Christopher Roberts The Dears

Montréal’s The Dears are releasing a new album, Lovers Rock, on May 15 via Dangerbird. Now they have shared another song from the album, “I Know What You’re Thinking and It’s Awful,” via a video for the song. The video features frontman Murray Lightburn and his bandmate/wife Natalia Yanchak performing the song in a studio. Watch it below, followed by the band’s upcoming tour dates.

Lightburn had this to say about “I Know What You’re Thinking and It’s Awful” in a press release: “This is a song that came in rather suddenly. I woke up one morning and there it was, playing in my head. The news story of a manhunt for a couple of teenage kids who were charged with second degree murder played in the background. I finished the song as news broke that two male bodies found were believed to be them. I am not at all saying the song is about this story, only that I was totally obsessed with the story as I wrote this song.”

Yanchak adds: “This is our ‘The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get’—a dark, unsettling, and unlikely pop ballad.”

Previously The Dears shared the album’s first single, “The Worst of Us,” via a lyric video for the new song. “The Worst of Us” was #1 on our Songs of the Week list. Then they shared another song from the album, dramatic album opener “Heart of An Animal,” via a strange Sinbad Richardson-directed lyric video for the song. “Heart of An Animal” was one of our Songs of the Week.

Read our recent interview with Lightburn about what his COVID-19 quarantine experience has been like so far.

The Dears’ last album was 2017’s Times Infinity Volume Two, which was the follow-up to 2015’s Times Infinity Volume One. Since those two albums frontman Murray A. Lightburn also released a new solo album, Hear Me Out, in 2019 via Dangerbird.

The Dears are as ever led by Lightburn on vocals and guitar and his wife Yanchak on vocals and piano. For Lovers Rock they were joined by longtime drummer Jeff “Looch” Luciani (who’s been with them since 2011’s Degeneration Street) and two musicians who performed on Lightburn’s last solo album, Steve Raegele (guitar) and Rémi-Jean LeBlanc (bass). Sam Roberts also has a cameo and there’s saxophone from both Alex Francoeur and The E Street Band’s Jake Clemons (on “Stille Lost”).

In a previous press release Lightburn says that Lovers Rock has much in common with No Cities Left, their 2003-released sophomore album that probably remains their most beloved record.

“There’s a direct line between the sort of doominess of No Cities Left and this album,” said Lightburn. “You could go straight from Lovers Rock to No Cities Left and it’s like they’re interlocked. But it’s a different kind of doom. Around 2001, it felt like, ‘We have no control. We don’t know what’s going to happen next.’ Now it’s a doom that’s within our grasp. It’s in the air. It’s between us. But we do nothing about it.”

Lightburn and The Dears have been prolific of late, what with the band releasing two back-to-back albums in 2015 and 2017, Lightburn releasing a solo album in 2019, and now a new Dears album coming a little over a year later.

“For us, the tank is never empty,” Lightburn explained. “For me it’s like an onslaught of ideas and sounds, and then I can’t keep up half the time. It’s a feverish process. Every record that we make, there’s a ton of songs.”

Lightburn and Yanchak are parents and Lightburn also admitted in the previous press release that in this era where it’s harder for indie musicians to make a living, there’s a sense of urgency to their music making.

“The Dears aren’t fucking around,” he said. “We don’t have time to waste. We’ve got a job to do. And we’re going to do it. Twenty years ago, I knew I had a sound in my head, but I didn’t know how to get that down. Now I know how to get that sound.”

But for Lightburn it’s also very much about the art and connecting with listeners. “The question we’re asking in the music is, ‘how do we navigate so much bullshit in this world?’” he said. “We’re still playing this dumb rock music. But there’s always gonna be a little twist of the knife, cutting into something deep to make you feel like you’re alive. To say, ‘I know what you’re going through. And I’m hearing you, and I’m with you.’ That’s what the music is supposed to do.”

Under the Radar and The Dears go way back. We first discovered the band as they were preparing to release No Cities Left, which still remains one of our favorites and made the Top 20 in our Top 200 Albums of the Decade list in our Best of the Decade issue in 2009. We then put Lightburn on the cover of our print magazine in honor of The Dears’ 2006 album, Gang of Losers.

The Dears Tour Dates:

08/27 – San Francisco, CA @ Bottom of the Hill
08/28 – Los Angeles, CA @ Moroccan Lounge
08/30 – San Diego, CA @ Soda Bar
11/10 – Berlin, DE @ Privatclub
11/12 – Istanbul, TR @ Babylon Bomonti
11/13 – Paris, FR @ La Boule Noiree
11/15 – Brussels, BE @ Le Bontanique
11/17 – Amsterdam, NL @ Paradiso
11/18 – Rotterdam, NL @ Rotown
11/19 – Cambridge, UK @ Portland Arms
11/21 – Glasgow, UK @ Drygate Theatre
11/22 – Manchester, UK @ Deaf Institute
11/23 – Bristol, UK @ Exchange
11/24 – London, UK @ The Garage
11/25 – Cardiff, UK @ Clwb Ifor Bach
11/27 – Athens, GR @ The Temple
12/06 – Toronto, ON @ Horseshoe Tavern
12/07 – Hamilton, ON @ Mills Hardware
12/10 – Brooklyn, NY @ Rough Trade
12/12 – Washington DC @ DC9

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