563. Dexy's Midnight Runners - Don't Stand Me Down (1985)
















Track Listing

1. Kevin Rowland's 13th time
2. Occasional flicker
3. This is what she's like
4. My national pride (formerly Knowledge of beauty)
5. One of those things
6. Reminisce (part 2)
7. I love you (Listen to this)
8. Waltz

Review

You will possibly notice that the track listing above is different from the one in the book. This is because this track list is from the Director's Cut version of the album, which changes the mixing, adds the first track and changes some of the titles on the other tracks. That said it is a superior version to the one released before.

Dexy's give us an absolute career suicide in the form of this album, tellingly their last album. Something that is career suicide is not necessarily bad, and in this case it is very very good, only you could never release any of these tracks as a single in the mid 1980s.

In an era where music was all about efficiency in production, tight pop-music, often full of synths with very recognisable hooks and so on, Dexy's give us a collection of sprawling, disjointed tracks that sometimes last for as long as 12 minutes, being constantly interrupted by chatter, and it works. The album just creates a totally relaxed atmosphere, you can tell that even if no one else is enjoying their work, at least they were. They jam, tell jokes, take digs at each other, basically fuck about, and you enjoy listening to it. In a deliberate effort not to create another Come On Eileen the might have erred slightly too much on the other side, but what a great work they made.

Track Highlights

1. My National Pride
2. I Love You (Listen To This)
3. This is What She's Like
4. The Occasional Flicker

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

During the mastering process for the Creation release, a stereo enhancer was used, which Rowland felt "ruined the dynamics". As a result, a third version of the album was released in 2002, subtitled "The Director's Cut". The tracks were again digitally remastered, and the CD featured new artwork, further notes by Rowland and the additional track "Kevin Rowland's 13th Time". According to Rowland, the album now sounds to him "as it was intended to sound". "Kevin Rowland's 13th Time" had originally been intended as the opening song, but was left off the original issue of the album due to a "dodgy drum beat at one point". Rowland penned two pages of notes relating to the track, as well as a "foreword to The Director's Cut".

Video for This Is What She's Like, but it is just part of a 12 minute suite: