The Dears Return With Ninth Album▪

Montreal’s The Dears have announced their ninth studio album, Life Is Beautiful! Life Is Beautiful! Life Is Beautiful!, scheduled for release November 7, 2025, through Next Door Records. The record marks the band’s first new material since 2020’s Lovers Rock.

Frontman Murray Lightburn describes the album’s conceptual foundation as emerging from a moment of clarity during recent anniversary shows celebrating No Cities Left. “I was on stage surrounded by wonderful musicians, playing songs I wrote in my 20s. My kids and my mom were sitting up on the balcony of the theatre,” Lightburn recalls. The experience led him to tell the audience that “life is beautiful” three times, which became the album’s central mantra.

The band has shared “Tears Of A Nation,” featuring a video directed by Kevin Drew of Broken Social Scene. The track follows earlier single “Babe, We’ll Find A Way” in previewing the new material. Lightburn frames “Tears Of A Nation” around questions of collective versus individual responses to societal noise: “There is a decision to engage or to go it alone. To be part of the collective cries or to cry alone.”

New York Times bestselling author Jeff VanderMeer contributed commentary on the album, noting how The Dears “have made some of the most beautiful music of the past quarter century, but also some of the most defiant, with an attitude and emphasis that seems to blend the operatic with a punk sensibility.”

Since forming in 1995, The Dears have established themselves as foundational figures in Canada’s indie rock landscape. Their 2003 album No Cities Left gained international attention following SXSW performances, while 2006’s Gang of Losers earned a Polaris Music Prize shortlist nomination.

The band will support the album with Canadian dates beginning November 20 at Montreal’s Le National, followed by stops in Ottawa, Toronto, Guelph, St. Catharines, and Hamilton. European dates are scheduled for February 2026, including shows in Rotterdam, Paris, Istanbul, and various UK cities.

Lightburn recently received recognition at the 2025 Canadian Screen Awards for Best Original Music in a Documentary for his work on Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story.

THE DEARS TOUR DATES