Like labelmates POLAR BEAR CLUB and NAKATOMI PLAZA, Brooklyn’s DEAR TONIGHT play the whole post-hardcore/melodic rock sound and they play it well. While the quintet relies heavily on its hardcore/punk foundation (see “Failure Then Fire”), it’s the varying nature of the guitar and vocal work that makes defining their sound such a difficult task. “Dead Boys” and “The Ends” both feature straightforward punk rhythms, but the guitarists set the urgent tone of the songs with distorted and aggressive guitar work. It also doesn’t hurt that the band has several worthy vocal contributors who add a frantic energy behind the well-worn pipes of their frontman.

While DEAR TONIGHT’s urgency is their most defining trait, they have the unique ability to add a sense of restraint to their budding songs. “Flags Hang High” and “All Of Your Heroes Have Failed” are two great examples of this. Both tunes put the listener on edge with repeated, near brooding riffs for the first half before breaking out with two of the heaviest and most climactic endings on the disc. “By Ballot Or Bullet” is perhaps the best song on the record as it features everything the band’s sound encompasses. From the teeter-tottering build-ups to the mammoth group shout-alongs to the pissed-off nature of the lyrics, this is the type of song that will make or break DEAR TONIGHT with fans.

As the title “By Ballot Or Bullet” would have you believe, DEAR TONIGHT is also well-versed when it comes to lyrical content. Unafraid of speaking their minds, the band takes aim at foreign policy, religion, and capitalism in the scathing “Broken Golden Rules;” the foundations of the States in “Faulure The Fire;” and even themselves in the cynical “We Aren’t Doing It.” Moreover, as seems to be custom with a lot of these New York bands, DEAR TONIGHT are all about having heart (from “What We Do In The Dark;” hey, we don’t play it right, but we go all out/ and hey, I can’t hold a note, but I’ll talk dead straight/ and all we can swear is that it’s from our hearts…all the time) and keeping a sense of modest community (from “All The Silver:” we fuck up, and I still find reason after reason to believe in my friends/ maybe we won’t change the world like we planned, but we march down this road to hell, raising glasses and singing loud/ my friends are my estate, and i get by with more help from them they’ll ever know), and you will never once get the sense that any of it is forced.

Even though I’m willing to acknowledge the fact that critics throw around the “resurgence of so and so genre” way too often with little actual results, there is a definite resurgence of this distinct post-hardcore sound being led by Red Leader as of late. DEAR TONIGHT’s We’re Not Men is another completely solid addition to this burgeoning pack and quite possibly the best the label has had the pleasure of releasing in recent time.

Red Leader

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