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Post by Horacewimp on Jan 19, 2015 17:17:56 GMT
As you would expect from me another 1980s album, this time it is early 80s and not a Synth band. From Birmingham UK I bring you Dexys Midnight Runners “Searching for the Young Soul Rebels” This in my opinion is a great first album and is so much better than their later “Too-Rye-Ay” period, you can feel the anger and aggression within the songs. Not every song is great but there are many classics Burn it Down (Dance Stance), Geno and There There My Dear were singles but other tracks Tell Me When My Light Turns Green or Seven Days Too Long would of made good singles. I saw the band play live a number of times and they were great, so much energy and power and just a little different from the Two Tone acts which were also rising to fame at the time. Edited details of the album taken from Wikipedia. Searching for the Young Soul Rebels is the debut studio album by English pop group Dexys Midnight Runners, released on 11 July 1980, through EMI Records. Led by Kevin Rowland, the group formed in 1978 in Birmingham, England, and formed a strong live reputation before recording their first material. Recorded during April 1980, the album combines the aggressiveness of punk rock with soul music, particularly influenced by the Northern soul movement. The album was preceded by and contains the hit-single "Geno", which topped the UK Singles Chart. It also contains two other charting singles: "Dance Stance" (re-recorded as "Burn It Down") and "There, There, My Dear". The album reached number 6 on the UK Albums Chart. It has been widely acclaimed by music critics since its release and is included in 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. Mojo summed up the sound of the album as "an energetic mix of pop, Northern soul and punkish attitude." The band intended to create a brassy sound mixed with the aggression and intensity of punk rock. In 2008 the BBC stated that "Young Soul Rebels - fierce, raging and passionate - remains one of the greatest debut albums of all time" and later commented "this was the sound of a soul released from a straitjacket still blazes as poetry." The album was included in the 1980 "Albums of the Year" lists for Melody Maker, which was in no particular order, and NME, being placed at #10. It has since been included on numerous critics' lists and reference books, including The Guardian's list of the 100 Best Albums Ever, Melody Maker's the All Time Top 100 Albums, NME's list of the 100 Greatest British Albums Ever. Track List 1) Burn in Down 2) Tell Me When My Light Turns 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 It 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 It’s a slow start to the first song, so please give it time. Be aware there are occasional explicit lyrics!! Put on your Doc Martens and black wooly hat and listen up. The YouTube is a playlist and so the embedded video below might not play the whole album, if it doesn't please follow this link. YouTube and click play all
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Post by unomusette on Jan 19, 2015 20:39:33 GMT
Good call, HW, I'll enjoy hearing this one. It's another one of those albums I always mean to listen to but never actually do
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Post by jrmugz on Jan 20, 2015 1:15:52 GMT
Cool biz, HW, looking very forward to checking it out! Will provide feedback within the next few days!
Jim
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Post by Helmut83 on Jan 20, 2015 2:44:47 GMT
Cool biz, HW, looking very forward to checking it out! Will provide feedback within the next few days! Jim I can't wait for your review of the "occasional explicit lyrics" Horace talks about.
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Post by Helmut83 on Jan 20, 2015 2:47:50 GMT
Great, Horace, the info you gave set my expectations very high, so let's see if the album finally meets them or I'll have to grab my axe again. Geez, last time I hit it so hard over Jim's Ideola album that it got stuck and now I can't take it away.
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Post by queenofthehours on Jan 20, 2015 15:21:29 GMT
Great! I love Dexys but I've never heard a whole album before.
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Post by jrmugz on Jan 21, 2015 18:41:50 GMT
Just an update that its been a busy week and still is HW; but I will aim to have my review of it by sometime tomorrow!
Jim
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Post by Horacewimp on Jan 21, 2015 20:10:19 GMT
Just an update that its been a busy week and still is HW; but I will aim to have my review of it by sometime tomorrow! Jim I know, playing with you new birthday presents
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Post by jrmugz on Jan 21, 2015 20:35:07 GMT
Just an update that its been a busy week and still is HW; but I will aim to have my review of it by sometime tomorrow! Currently I am enjoying its very funky soul flavor, and writing down the thoughts for each song as time permits. Good stuff!
Jim
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Post by unomusette on Jan 21, 2015 20:46:32 GMT
I'm first up then! Here goes: Burn it Down - Aha! A Mr Radio style intro, I like this. Now then, how many songs can I spot? Doesn't sound as if Kev approves of any of them. The parping brass sound is great, but I hope he isn't going to sing in this yelping style all the way through the album. I know it's his trademark but sometimes I recall him overdoing it. Tell Me When My Light Turns Green - Nodding along happily to this one. Nothing outstanding but pleasant enough as background music. The Teams That Meet in Caffs - Some cool hammond organ in this, I don't normally like it in heavier stuff , eg Deep Purple, but it fits in much better here. Goes on about a minute too long for me, although I did enjoy the wild saxophone outro. I’m Just Looking - Creepy whispered opening, you'd have a bit of a shock if you heard it first on headphones. Reminds me of something Alex Harvey might have done, therefore I rather like it despite the dodgy vocal and my eternal hatred of most things bluesy. Geno - Great single, takes me back to my lost youth when Dexy's were always on Top of the Pops. The kids of today don't know what they're missing....catch One Direction or their like coming up with something that actually means anything to them? I don't think so. Seven Days Too Long - Very northern soul, interesting mix of anguished speech and communal chorusing. One of the good 'uns. I Couldn’t Help It If I Tried - Bit of a dirge, not doing much for me. Is it over yet? Thankfully Not Living In Yorkshire It Doesn’t Apply - Well, that's quite a title. This is a chirpy little number, sounds like The Darkness doing a parody which boggles the mind somewhat but it's actually rather nifty. Nice plinky keyboards. High marks for this one. Keep It - Too much yelping on this one. Get a grip, Kev! Love Part One - Very beatnik, this is a brave choice for a mainstream album. Mike Skinner probably based his idea for The Streets on this very track. There, There, My Dear - Ooh, I recognise this, I never knew what it was called. Nice lively outro to the album, still a bit yelpy but counterbalanced by the cheeky rrrrrr!'s When this came out I suppose it was a progression from all the ska that was around in the late '70's and early '80's. They always seemed to be looking to lead a new trend, which is never a bad thing, although it didn't always prove successful. For a mostly mainstream act they actually seem to care about what they produce which is never a bad thing. Thanks for the chance to listen, Horace!
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Post by Horacewimp on Jan 21, 2015 21:11:02 GMT
I'm first up then! Here goes: Burn it Down - Aha! A Mr Radio style intro, I like this. Now then, how many songs can I spot? Doesn't sound as if Kev approves of any of them. The parping brass sound is great, but I hope he isn't going to sing in this yelping style all the way through the album. I know it's his trademark but sometimes I recall him overdoing it. Tell Me When My Light Turns Green - Nodding along happily to this one. Nothing outstanding but pleasant enough as background music. The Teams That Meet in Caffs - Some cool hammond organ in this, I don't normally like it in heavier stuff , eg Deep Purple, but it fits in much better here. Goes on about a minute too long for me, although I did enjoy the wild saxophone outro. I’m Just Looking - Creepy whispered opening, you'd have a bit of a shock if you heard it first on headphones. Reminds me of something Alex Harvey might have done, therefore I rather like it despite the dodgy vocal and my eternal hatred of most things bluesy. Geno - Great single, takes me back to my lost youth when Dexy's were always on Top of the Pops. The kids of today don't know what they're missing....catch One Direction or their like coming up with something that actually means anything to them? I don't think so. Seven Days Too Long - Very northern soul, interesting mix of anguished speech and communal chorusing. One of the good 'uns. I Couldn’t Help It If I Tried - Bit of a dirge, not doing much for me. Is it over yet? Thankfully Not Living In Yorkshire It Doesn’t Apply - Well, that's quite a title. This is a chirpy little number, sounds like The Darkness doing a parody which boggles the mind somewhat but it's actually rather nifty. Nice plinky keyboards. High marks for this one. Keep It - Too much yelping on this one. Get a grip, Kev! Love Part One - Very beatnik, this is a brave choice for a mainstream album. Mike Skinner probably based his idea for The Streets on this very track. There, There, My Dear - Ooh, I recognise this, I never knew what it was called. Nice lively outro to the album, still a bit yelpy but counterbalanced by the cheeky rrrrrr!'s When this came out I suppose it was a progression from all the ska that was around in the late '70's and early '80's. They always seemed to be looking to lead a new trend, which is never a bad thing, although it didn't always prove successful. For a mostly mainstream act they actually seem to care about what they produce which is never a bad thing. Thanks for the chance to listen, Horace! Great review thanks Uno, l don't like all the tracks on the album but overall I rate it highly. Overall you seemed to enjoy most of it, Kev's voice can get a bit grating but in small doses it's ok. I think it's probably the first album in CD of the week to have a brass section and funky tones so I didn't know what members might make of it. The youtube of "There There my dear" doesn't have what is said at the run off of the record which was "everything I do will be funky from now on" this turned out not to be true as our Kev donned his dungarees and sang "Come on Eileen" for the next album.
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Post by unomusette on Jan 21, 2015 21:17:27 GMT
I appreciate any band that appear to care about what they're producing, and who aren't afraid to branch out because it suits them and not because it's what people are expecting of them. Most of all I like it when they look like they're enjoying themselves performing, even when the songs might be about something miserable. I'd say Dexy's fall into that category
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Post by jrmugz on Jan 23, 2015 16:38:12 GMT
OK HW, here is my review of Dexys Midnight Runners “Searching for the Young Soul Rebels”. Overall, I really enjoyed it; it's a really good white soul album. 01) "Burn in Down" - Unique sound, sounds like Joe Strummer meets Power Station. Hard to make out the words. There was one I made out, though. :-\ ...but I'm not bitter. 02) "Tell Me When My Light Turns Green" - Good groovin' tune. Nice melodic brass. Huey Lewis would be proud. 03) "The Teams That Meet in Caffs" - A pretty decent instrumental, but since it has a decent melody, it really seems to be begging for lyrics! 04) "I’m Just Looking" - Nice bluesy change of pace; sounds real good! The singer's voice is best suited for this type of song. 05) "Geno" - Very cool, reminds me of something I heard before, wonder if its a remake of a classic song. 06) "Seven Days Too Long" - Good soul food stuff, hit the dance floor. I like it! 07) "I Couldn’t Help It If I Tried" - Took a little too long to develop, doesn't seem to go anywhere. Just allows the singer to croon a little bit. 08) "Thankfully Not Living In Yorkshire It Doesn’t Apply" - Nice nod to Marvin Gaye, novelty-type of song, not my fave though. Strong chorus I have to admit. 09) "Keep It" - Decent tune and groove, somewhat annoying vocal performance. A tad of a throwaway. 10) "Love Part One" - Sounds pretty good, on the one hand the singer's voice is weird, on the other hand it has a lot of soul and fits a song like this well. 11) "There, There, My Dear" - I really like this one. A very cool song for the soulsville style they use on this album. Star Rating: 3.5 out of 5 Prime Cuts: "I'm Just Looking", "Seven Days Too Long", "Geno", "There, There, My Dear" Bottom Line: Very cool band that gave soul a fresh feel in the 80s, just like The Stray Cats did for rockabilly. It has an addicting sound, and it is one that I will be playing cuts again from in the future! Thanks, HW, for introducing me to a cool CD I haven't heard before and introducing us to more of DMR than their one big hit. From the bonus tracks, I really liked this demo of the classic Sam and Dave song "Hold On, I'm A Comin'". Jim
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Post by Horacewimp on Jan 23, 2015 17:14:05 GMT
Great review, glad you liked it Jim. There is a good chance you have heard Geno before, it's not a cover version but it was a number one single in the UK and performed in the style of the Geno Washington Ram Jam Band.
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Post by jrmugz on Jan 23, 2015 17:58:35 GMT
Great review, glad you liked it Jim. There is a good chance you have heard Geno before, it's not a cover version but it was a number one single in the UK and performed in the style of the Geno Washington Ram Jam Band. "Geno" definitely a classic! Jim
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