The Dears

When The Dears released their breakthrough album, No Cities Left, in 2003, it was a crepuscular, romantic soundtrack to uncertain times. 9/11. War. The looming economic crisis. Nearly two decades later, as Murray Lightburn and Natalia Yanchak began work on the band's eighth album, Lovers Rock, well… as the meme says, “This Is Fine.” “There’s a direct line between the sort of doominess of No Cities Left and this album,” says Lightburn. “You could go straight from Lovers Rock to No Cities Left a 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.”

Photo Credit: Richmond Lam