It's the age old question, how to follow up a critically acclaimed album? For The Dears, that time is now. Breaking through with 2004's "No Cities Left", a swirling Brit-influenced album full of the joys of Britpop and the sorrows of Morrissey, they captured the imagination - dragging you kicking and screaming into their dark and heavily layered world. "Gang of Losers" however, is a very different beast. Instead of treading the same paths created by "No Cities Left", they've found a different road, a larger more mainstream highway full of rapturous choruses and catchy guitar riffs. Unfortunately this isn't what The Dears originally sold us.
Sure, it's not a bad album, but it's missing the breadth of vision encountered previously, even the subject matter of the songs seems banal in places (see "There Goes My Outfit"). They've traded their dark, dense songs for the "big sound", epic production found on Embrace, Coldplay and Keane. We have nifty guitar riffs and Murray Lightburn's (still) fantastic voice rollicking along at a fair old pace, but it lacks the heart and emotional depth that won them their fans originally.
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