The Dears stream new track, set to release 4th album in October.

Aww, the Dears. I stumbled upon them about four years ago when I first moved to Chicago. I was on one of my CD buying sprees where I trusted the blurb at the record store, or just bought it unheard based on the 4-star "Q Magazine" rating on the sticker. Those were the days, when discovering new music came with a risk....the prospect that you may have just laid down $16.00 for a crap album! This was before I had bought my computer of course...a more innocent time!
Anyway, the Dears were a success story! The blurb at the record store said they had a strong similarity to many britpop bands of the mid-nineties...and of course The Smiths.
The album was "No Cities Left" and it was brilliant. Murray Lightburn has a voice that is halfway between Damon Albarn (in his falsetto mode) and Morrissey. Good. Good.
Anyway, since then, they released Gang Of Losers in 2006, another strong album of which I am a huge fan.
They've had some troubles. Currently the only remaining original members are Murray Lightburn, and his wife Natalia Yanchek. They also had a bit of a hard time shopping their upcoming album around to a new record label. Thankfully though, they are releasing album number four "Missiles" on October 20th!
They are streaming a new song "Meltdown in a Major" on their website right now.
It's standard Dears fare, the band from Montreal bases their sound on the more soulful side of indie rock. A respite from the dancier fare which seems to be the current mode of indie.
So if you like the melancholy side of britpop, or the Smiths, and need a break from dancing about the Dears are for you!