Customer Reviews

Searching for the Young Soul Rebels

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Kicking and punching all the way from the opening bars of "Burn It Down" to the searing fade in "There There My Dear", Birmingham-based Dexy's Midnight Runners' debut album is that rare gem: lyrical and musical integrity with infectious melodies. With its roots solidly in the dark nights of Northern Soul and the R&B combos of Geno Washington and the Ram Jam Band (the band's 3rd single, "Geno" -- and what was the last track on side one on the 1980 EMI LP release -- was dedicated to the singer), singer Kevin Rowland and guitarist Al Archer fashioned a tight, hard-hitting eight-piece band which included a propulsive 3-horn section. At once venomous ("Burn It Down", "There There My Dear") and poignant ("Keep It", "Love Part Two") this is an album that will have you hummin', tappin' and finger poppin' well after the soles have been worn off your shoes from the dancing.

Musically I would give this CD 5 stars. However, I am unhappy that the extra tracks included on this 'enhanced' CD are only accessible via a PC. It is annoying that there is all this extra music (single A & B sides etc) which I can't hear unless I'm sitting in front of a PC. (Maybe I'm old-fashioned but I don't enjoy listening to music while sitting in front of a computer screen with a mouse in my hand). The music which IS accessible on a CD player is only 38 minutes long so I can't see why the extra tracks weren't added in the conventional way.

'Searching for the young soul rebels' begins with someone fiddling with a radio finding only mindless fuzz (including, cheekily, 'Anarchy in the UK'), before Kevin Rowland switches it off, bluntly ordering 'For God's sake, burn it down', answered by a gang's call to arms, and the pounding opening song. It is a frightening moment, demanding a leap of faith and unswerving devotion from the listener, a demand that our heart and soul is purified from all the numbing cultrual rubbish that surrounds us, made new and true, worthy to look on the New Soul Vision, evangelised by a uniformed gang of street toughs.

It's such a brilliant idea - melding the sound and emotional depth of Stax and Northern Soul to the aggression and rigour of punk - you wonder why no-one else had thought of it, and why few have done it since.

'Rebels' is one of the great proletarian albums, one that records and celebrates working class life, its cameraderie and energy, and polemicises that its soul need not be the diminished concrete-dimmed bleakness Mike Leigh and Ken Loach would have us believe, but bursts of brass exploding from rigid confines (of course, behind the scenes, the reality was less romantic!). Pulp have done something similar with disco, and the origin of Jarvis' obsessive monologues, where the tawdry everyday is elevated to the intensely dramatic can be found in songs like 'Seven days too long', 'Keep it' and 'Love part one'. Chris Roberts said Dexy's made the greatest album in the world twice. Here's the first.

Driving, powerful horns dominate the early dexy's sound.The songs are powerful and Kevin Rowlands voice is awesome.Their best album!

The editorial review of this CD reissue touts "non-album A and B sides only to be heard on PC or Mac." Similarly, the AllMusic Guide claims that "the 2000 reissue contains a slew of extra tracks and B-sides, making it the version to find." Well, having picked this up with great expectations, I've made my way carefully through all of the PC content, and there are NO non-album tracks to be found on this disc. There is an electronic discography that includes cover art images, track listings, and lyrics from various early Dexys singles, but not a note of additional music. So, if you're planning to pick this up for the original music, the remastered sound, or the videos, you won't be disappointed. But that's all there is to it. If anyone can find extra music on this release, I'd love to know how to access it....

A lot of people mentioned that they can't find the songs of the singles in the CD. The interface in the CD is not very clear. The best way is to use Explorer on the CD. The song files are in Quicktime MOV format in the folder D:\DATA\QTS. I opened the files on Itunes and converted them to audio format. These files CAN'T be played from the original CD on a CD player.

I bought this CD having read 'A Music Fans' review not expecting to find any additional tracks and when I found the first five singles (A & B sides) I was delighted. As far as I can tell some of these tracks are not available anywhere else on CD. Tracks like The Horse, Dance Stance (the original version of Burn It Down) and Soul Finger really added to the whole concept of this album. Kevin Rowland has never sounded angrier.

I owned this album in vinyl, wore the grooves out, couldn't decipher any of the lyrics but didn't care, lost it in a cross country move, and have been craving it ever since.

The CD repackage includes several wonderful photos; quite a switch from the LP, which, consistent with the universal soul rebel theme, did not depict the musicians. It includes lyrics, which are also rather wonderful, and make all the great songs sound new again. Finally, we get liner notes from Kevin Archer, which are informative of the band's processes, if a bit weak as to the source of inspiration. For after all, even if the band did set out to pay homage to a certain neglected corner of soul music, what resulted was a unique and delightful pop artifact, full of witty and modern songwriting, and vocalizing that no one has dared before or since. The horns blast away in all their retro glory, while Rowlands weaves more literary figures into his lyrics than Lloyd Cole and Morrissey combined!

There's an ambience here that isn't present in any other "rock" recording I know, with the possible exception of the Flamin' Groovies' "Shake Some Action" In both records, the band members subordinate themselves so completely to the channeling of the sacred text, that authorship almost ceases to matter. But unlike the Groovies, who had several recordings under their belts, this was a debut album, and the band, for all we knew, could have been visitors from another (very cool) planet.

Four stars only because there isn't more of it.

i dont know what trichard was up about, but this is one of my favorite albums, right along with too rye aye, don't stand me down, and let's make this precious. i found a dexy cd by chance and bought it for come on eileen, and thats where it started. to me, there is no other music. this is what life is about. the only other stuff that comes anywhere close might be paul simon or colin hayes. i hope that the dexy fan base stays small so we can hold onto the last good thing in the world without the population polluting it.

I was too young to catch the debut of Dexys, but it's my understanding the Brit press hated them, for their seriousness and anti-punk stance.

Well, here's a Gen-Xer who loves every era of Pop/Rock (including Punk) up 'til Grunge/Alt, which I found uninspiring and alienating. Thus, I admire --adore!-- the original Dexys mottoes, "Projected Passion" and "Intense Emotions". These are things we've nearly lost in the last decade, and these are things, *I*, for one, badly crave.

Ironically enough, some of these tunes are just as snappy and colorful as the best of the original Punk/New Wave movement. Others, notably a couple of slow, 12/8-time ballads, build on a quiet intensity, up 'til the breaking point. The discipline in these arrangements cannot be overstated.

The up-front, (in-your-face?) mix of horns, well, I'm stunned at how satisfying it is. Never was a big horns guy, but again, it's the sheer ballsiness of it that appeals. Corny and rebellious at the same time -- Genius, I say! Genius!!

Which leads me to "Geno" -- Incomprehensible to imagine this tune reaching #1 on the charts today, with it's cheesy, almost Sousa-like horn riff . . . but I expect you'll find yourself humming it with pleasure, eventually. (Musical note: Most compelling is how they seem to resist an overwhelming compulsion to fall into swing/triplet time. The conflict, the tension, is intense!)

Of special note: "Seven Days Too Long", a cover (of who?) is a fantastic bash, with the adrenaline of --dare I say it?-- the early Beatles -- only more loaded with tough, macho romanticism. (You never heard a major-seventh harmony sound so, well, brutal!)

If you're coming directly from "Come On, Eileen", well, you're in for a shock. This was a vastly different band. But the passion of Kevin Rowland, coupled with the inspired strength of Kevin Archer, and a "gang" of dedicated players, yields *fantastic* results that you, too, may fall in love with.

I, for one, am ready for more/new/another Dexys, ANYTIME!