diff --git a/beam-core/Database/Beam/Backend/SQL.hs b/beam-core/Database/Beam/Backend/SQL.hs
index e2cd37d0..6f9db126 100644
--- a/Database/Beam/Backend/SQL.hs
+++ b/Database/Beam/Backend/SQL.hs
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@
 import Database.Beam.Backend.Types
 
 import Control.Monad.IO.Class
+import Control.Monad.Fail (MonadFail)
 
 -- * MonadBeam class
 
@@ -29,7 +30,7 @@
 --   strategies. More complicated strategies (for example, Postgres's @COPY@)
 --   are supported in individual backends. See the documentation of those
 --   backends for more details.
-class (BeamBackend be, Monad m, MonadIO m, Sql92SanityCheck syntax) =>
+class (BeamBackend be, Monad m, MonadIO m, MonadFail m, Sql92SanityCheck syntax) =>
   MonadBeam syntax be handle m | m -> syntax be handle where
 
   {-# MINIMAL withDatabaseDebug, runReturningMany #-}
diff --git a/Database/Beam/Backend/SQL/Builder.hs b/Database/Beam/Backend/SQL/Builder.hs
index 9e734036..e9849912 100644
--- a/Database/Beam/Backend/SQL/Builder.hs
+++ b/Database/Beam/Backend/SQL/Builder.hs
@@ -33,6 +33,7 @@
 import           Data.Hashable
 import           Data.Int
 import           Data.String
+import qualified Control.Monad.Fail as Fail
 #if !MIN_VERSION_base(4, 11, 0)
 import           Data.Semigroup
 #endif
@@ -507,8 +508,10 @@
   type BackendFromField SqlSyntaxBackend = Trivial
 
 newtype SqlSyntaxM a = SqlSyntaxM (IO a)
-  deriving (Applicative, Functor, Monad, MonadIO)
+  deriving (Applicative, Functor, Monad, MonadIO, Fail.MonadFail)
 
 instance MonadBeam SqlSyntaxBuilder SqlSyntaxBackend SqlSyntaxBackend SqlSyntaxM where
-  withDatabaseDebug _ _ _ = fail "absurd"
-  runReturningMany _ _ = fail "absurd"
+  withDatabaseDebug _ _ _ = Fail.fail "absurd"
+  runReturningMany _ _ = Fail.fail "absurd"
+
+
diff --git a/Database/Beam/Schema/Lenses.hs b/Database/Beam/Schema/Lenses.hs
index b21dddb6..5df0654c 100644
--- a/Database/Beam/Schema/Lenses.hs
+++ b/Database/Beam/Schema/Lenses.hs
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 {-# LANGUAGE PolyKinds #-}
+{-# LANGUAGE UndecidableInstances #-}
 module Database.Beam.Schema.Lenses
     ( tableLenses
     , TableLens(..)
diff --git a/beam-core.cabal b/beam-core.cabal
index 4bf4ffd9..251d4d85 100644
--- a/beam-core.cabal
+++ b/beam-core.cabal
@@ -64,8 +64,8 @@
                        time         >=1.6     && <1.10,
                        hashable     >=1.1     && <1.3,
                        network-uri  >=2.6     && <2.7,
-                       containers   >=0.5     && <0.6,
-                       vector-sized >=0.5     && <1.1,
+                       containers   >=0.5     && <0.7,
+                       vector-sized >=0.5     && <1.3,
                        tagged       >=0.8     && <0.9
   Default-language:    Haskell2010
   default-extensions:  ScopedTypeVariables, OverloadedStrings, GADTs, RecursiveDo, FlexibleInstances, FlexibleContexts, TypeFamilies,