The first fifty seconds as the radio is re tuned with a snatch of Sex Pistols and the late great Terry Hall of The Specials and then in comes Kevin Rowland and Dexys are off with Burn It Down “Shut it that’s not the way I planned it, Shut your fucking mouth, til you know the truth.” What a song to start an album.
This is no normal band, not a standard four piece. Sax, trombone, and organ are just as important to the sound.
Throughout the multiple line-ups we have one constant, Kevin Rowland, a man who has reinvented himself many a time, He does not have a classic voice but croons, yelps and shouts throughout this magnificent record and it blends perfectly with the big brass sound.
Tell Me When My Light Turns Green keeps the tempo going as the horns storm out of the tracks and the band join Rowland on the chorus.
Certain songs are in the minds of people across the world and you know them the second you hear them, Dexys managed this on their debut with the number one single Geno, the second it starts you are there, many a band never achieve this level of recognition but Dexys managed it twice when Come On Eileen came along a few years later.
I’m Just looking has passion oozing from its pores and Seven Days Too Long you could imagine on a sixties Motown special in glorious black and white. Thankfully Not Living in Yorkshire Doesn’t Apply has a wonderful “Oooh Oooh Aahh Aahh” throughout that just makes me smile
There, There My Dear has the line at the near the end “Maybe you should welcome the new soul vision.”
Without a doubt we should.
9.5/10
GIVE IT A STREAM: Burn It Down