[review 2006: the best of the year]

No one should have to live all of their life on their own.

For a band so totally invested in the fortunes of melancholia, “no one should have to live life on their own” is an impossibly optimistic statement for the Dears to make. And yet there it is, not just a throwaway line but repeated over and over in the chorus to “Ballad of Humankindness,” a passionate refrain that may as well be a rallying cry. It is the living heart of Gang of Losers, an album not far removed from 2004’s No Cities Left and yet an entirely different beast.

In the run-up to No Cities Left and in the wake of the Protest EP, a lot of people paid a lot of attention to the band from Montreal that arguably kickstarted the Canadian indie music renaissance. How, exactly, do you follow up the grandiose, melodramatic statement that was the Dears’ debut album, End of a Hollywood Bedtime Story? No Cities Left answered by trumping the debut on nearly every metric. The sound was bigger, the subject matter weightier, the mood darker, the delicious agony more acute. As a result, No Cities Left was quite accomplished and yet just a bit hard to love; occasionally, the melodrama was just a bit too over the top, a bit much to cope with. Some parts of the album, like the beginning of “Expect The Worst/’Cos She’s A Tourist” and the end of “Never Destroy Us,” felt more like assaults. In the end, No Cities Left seemed to creak ever so slightly under the weight of its own hubris.

Fast forward to the opening of Gang of Losers two years later, and the shift is not so much perceived directly but rather felt on a subconscious level. Yes, the orchestral arrangements are toned down, and yes, the songs seem less ponderous, more lightfooted. But neither of those explanations seems sufficient to explain why Gang of Losers feels so different. But it does. Somehow the Dears have evolved, their outlook more optimistic, their music more hopeful.

“Ticket to Immortality” is a surprisingly lush opener that helps to set the tone for the whole album. Amidst a sea of warm backup vocals, singer Murray Lightburn enters with a spring in his step and a soulfulness in his voice that surprises. By the time Lightburn starts in with another bold statement, “the world is really gonna love you,” you can tell things are going to be different this time around. And though “Death Or Life We Want You” is a bit of a throwback to the Dears of old (though a very good throwback), we’re back to the new regime on “Hate Then Love” and the sparkling “There Goes My Outfit.” The latter especially is the closest, I think, the Dears have ever come to sounding seductive—though clearly the lyrical content is at odds with that particular interpretation.

“We’ve got the same heart,” Lightburn sings on “You and I Are a Gang of Losers,” but strangely it’s not until Valérie Jodoin-Keaton and Natalia Yanchuk chime in after the bridge with the same line that you feel the impact. And then finally, another statement of hope, “Ballad of Humankindness,” a typically conflicted song where Lightburn plays the role I have to think a lot of us have played before—the guilty and frustrated individual that sees everything that is wrong with the world and feels powerless to change things. Finally spurred into changing his ways, Lightburn sings the line that is at once a sign of outrage and a declaration of action: “no one should have to live all of their life on their own.”

Gang of Losers is not simply a hopeful album or a passionate album. It demands the sorts of things many of us have felt were missing from our own lives without really realizing it—a sense of belonging, a sense of community, a sense of things set right. Lightburn and the Dears make references to Us throughout the album. It’s clear that they’re not just talking about themselves, but also their audience, who share many of the same hopes and dreams for tomorrow. We’ve got the same heart. You and I are a gang of losers, indeed.