They're from Canada, Montreal to be precise, but right off the bat I'd say The Dears are most heavily influenced by The Smiths and Blur. That's no great insight, though, because any fool can spot it. And in fact, any (and every) fool has. In review after review those two influences are cited.
In short, if you like Britpop, then chances are, you'll like this.
As it turns out, I rather like it, too. I don't love it, or anything. I just like it. There's the odd excellent song, Who Are You, Defenders Of The Universe (that's one song) and The Death Of All The Romance, for instance. But too often, just as it looks as though a song is about to take off, it pulls itself back so as to remain remorselessly "on message". The message being Britpop.
That's not a bad thing of itself, mind you. It's just that on No Cities Left the determination to stick to the script means you are continually left with moments in songs that promise much, but suddenly don't deliver. They seem less than fully fleshed out. "Let down" would be too harsh a phrase, but it would indicate the essence.
In the main, though, I'm not about to bag it because it sounds like something else. Because, let's face it, going down that path means were just about fucked with popular music.
I'll leave that to someone else.
So that's what you're up against: the peculiar sort of dramatic, flower-throwing, cheekily campy pop record British people were making between the day Morrissey went solo and the day Oasis hit U.S. radio, only without loads of references to London neighborhoods whose symbolism you can't parse-- suave crooning, rainy-day pop strumming, cabaret orchestration, melodic guitar solos, lyrics like "Somewhere someone says they've got it all/ But that's not even what we want/ Not even close." Made by Canadians. In the twenty-first century. Passably well.
If that's the sort of thing you'd like to listen to, you're welcome in my apartment any time. But we will not talk about the Dears. We will listen to Pulp and watch old Smiths videos and throw flowers at one another. Like common people.
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