Track Listing
1. Burn It down
2. Tell Me When My Lights Turn Green
3. The Teams That Meet In Caffs
4. I'm just Looking
5. Geno
6. Seven Days Too Long
7. I Couldn't Help If I Tried
8. Thankfully Not Living In Yorkshire It Doesn't Apply
9. Keep It
10. Love Part One
11. There, There My Dear
Review
This is the first of all three Dexys albums on this list. This might seem strange to some people, particularly those who are in the US as there they are only seen as a one hit wonder. This has actually tainted their image to an extremely unfair point, as they have never, ever produced a bad, average or good album, they are all exceptional. Actually it annoys me that when a respectable band has a hit they are dismissed as crap, as a "one hit wonder" how many hits did so many great bands have? None that's how many, but if you have no hits then you are alternative and underground and suitably obscure enough to be respected. Now if you have the supreme bad luck of having one hit, in the States that is, you will forever be tainted as some kind of freak accident of nature, better to have no hits then. So Dexys are not a one hit wonder, firstly in the UK they are a multiple hit wonder, one of the songs on this album, Geno, reached number 1. Then they are one of the greatest bands of the 80's period. Rant done.
This is one of the most original albums that I have had the pleasure of listening to, imagine a mix of soul music, in the style of James Brown intertwined with new wave sensibility and some Jamaican influence and you get the drift, well maybe not the drift but might be intrigued enough to check it out.
Then this is one of those albums which is injected with a relentless energy which reflects the band's name pretty well, Dexys comes from Dexedrine and this is a very amphy album. The brass band is fantastic and Rowland's voice just howls and screams over it like a man possessed and then the lyrics are fantastic so shed your music snobbery and preconceptions and worship at the feet of Dexys. Actually the only thing that I dislike about this album is the lack of an apostrophe on the cover.
Track Highlights
1. Geno
2. Burn It Down
3. Keep It
4. Seven Days Too Long
Final Grade
10/10
Trivia
From Wikipedia:
The album was ranked 98th in a 2005 survey held by British television's Channel 4 to determine the 100 greatest albums of all time. In 2000 Q magazine placed it at number 85 in its list of the 100 Greatest British Albums Ever.
The first track, "Burn It Down", is a re-titled re-recording of the band's first single, "Dance Stance". "Seven Days Too Long" is a cover of the Northern Soul favourite originally recorded by Chuck Woods.
The Brighton-based new-wave punk outfit, Young Soul Rebels, took their name from this album.
Geno:
2 comments:
Ok I am really confused.. I have listened to this album about thirteen times and have not figured out any good things about this album. I mean it's all below average on this album.. can you explain the appeal because I am genuinely curious what one good thing about dexys is beside their one hit.
Other than what I wrote in my Review?
EVERYTHING!
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