Murray Lightburn is a Canadian musician, best known as the lead vocalist and principal songwriter for The Dears.

Lightburn has been called "the black Morrissey" [1] due to his vocal similarity (and shared penchant for somewhat dark lyrics) to the former The Smiths lead singer. Incidentally, The Dears toured as Morrissey's opening act during Morrissey's solo tour. His voice is also often compared to that of Damon Albarn.[2] Lightburn claims to be "absolutely fucking bored to death" with these recurrent comparisons.[3]

In 2005, Lightburn married fellow band member, keyboardist/singer Natalia Yanchak. They have a daughter named Neptune Lightburn.

In 2011, within a review of The Dears' 'Degeneration Street', TC of Clash magazine wrote "Lightburn has become a leading contemporary songwriter, fusing together words of anguish, a suitably pained vocal style and a musical backdrop that is always in waiting to take a song to a higher plain[4]."

In 2013, Lightburn issued a solo Album called MASS:LIGHT. MASS:LIGHT was an exercise in polarity: It was an electronic opera outing. It was a gothic pop album, straddling the line between dark and light.

In 2015, it is a celebration year for the Dears, existing 20 years. Still unsure if the band will celebrate this by touring again Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.