Dear Dear by 54 40

Dear Dear, the 1992 album from Tsawwassen, British Columbia's 54-40, is the one that put them over the top at home: it became their most successful album in Canada and went platinum there in April 1993. They made it in California, at Tom Petty's studio, and it's a smart, melodic slab of alternative rock with a jangly heart and a slightly crooked grin. "Nice to Luv You" led a parade of singles that also included "She La", "Music Man", "You Don't Get Away (That Easy)" and "We Are, We Pretend".

There's a joke tucked into the CD: count in the silence before the hidden track "Social Work" and the running time comes to 54:40. The irony is that after years of trying to crack America, this was their first album with no US release at all. It earned them three Juno nominations in 1993, Group of the Year among them.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.