“Redemption comes slow,” Murray Lightburn croons on “Saviour,” but the point has already been made: Over 11 and a half minutes, the track mounts in almost agonizing increments. The languid, dreamy sound is heavy on guitar fuzz, gauzy horn charts, plinky piano, somber organ—by the time a children’s chorus kicks in, the band has earned its chamber-pop decadence through sheer exertion. The Dears’ breakthrough was 2004’s No Cities Left, a post-apocalyptic expedition through emotional and political wreckage, and they’re still mining that barren landscape, trying to rebuild. “Disclaimer” is a prayer for connection, and “Missiles” is a harrowing meditation on racial epithets. When a character in the song tells Lightburn, who is black, “Nigger, don’t interrupt,” the singer responds with a righteous, defiant blast of guitar. There’s a time to lick wounds, and a time to lash out.

DOWNLOAD “Money Babies,” “Dream Job”