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

The Dears

-History:The band formed in 1995 and released their first album, End of a Hollywood Bedtime Story, in 2000. Their orchestral, dark pop sound and dramatic live shows cemented The Dears at the foundation of the then-emerging Canadian indie renaissance...

.

Lightburn has been called "the black Morrissey

Morrissey

Steven Patrick Morrissey , known as Morrissey, is an English singer and lyricist. He rose to prominence in the 1980s as the lyricist and vocalist of the alternative rock band The Smiths. The band was highly successful in the United Kingdom but broke up in 1987, and Morrissey began a solo career,...

" due to his vocal similarity (and shared penchant for somewhat dark lyrics) to the former The Smiths

The Smiths

The Smiths were an English alternative rock band, formed in Manchester in 1982. Based on the song writing partnership of Morrissey and Johnny Marr , the band also included Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce...

 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

Damon Albarn

Damon Albarn is an English singer-songwriter and record producer who has been involved in many high profile projects, coming to prominence as the frontman and primary songwriter of Britpop band Blur...

. Lightburn claims to be "absolutely fucking bored to death" with these recurrent comparisons.

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]."