Too-Rye Ei-leen Has Come On Back!

(On the Return of Dexys Midnight Runners)

by aLfie vera mella

One of the victims of the derogatory appellation “one-hit wonders” (coined by some narrow-eared music journalists) in the New Wave genre is Dexys Midnight Runners—the British band behind the hit single “Come On, Eileen,” from the band’s second album.

I admit, my knowledge about this band back during the New Wave heyday in the 1980s and early ’90s was limited only to that song. However, in the 2000s, as part of my having become a music completist, I did my homework—I acquired the all three studio albums of the Dexys, and as usual, I discovered that there were more equally beautiful songs than Eileen: “Geno,” “Thankfully Not Living in Yorkshire It Doesn’t Apply,” “The Celtic Soul Brothers,” the Van Morrison cover “Jackie Wilson Said (I’m in Heaven when You Smile),” and “This Is What She’s Like.”

Dexys Midnight Runners has so far released four studio albums.

The music of Dexys Midnight Runners is best defined by the distinct voice of Rowland on a backdrop of a melange of Irish Folk, Celtic, Ska, and particularly North Soul music, complete with horns, piano, and fiddles.

Updating myself about the band, I found out that the midnight runners—now known simply as Dexys—have just released a new album after 27 years!

Once again, I surfed the ocean of the Internet and found the treasure I was looking for—Dexys’s latest, fourth album, entitled One Day I’m Going to Soar. My personal recommendations are “Free,” “I’m Always Going to Love You,” and “Incapable of Love.” In this new Dexys offering, Soul dominates their sound.

This is a 2012 live performance of "Incapable of Love," a song off the Dexys' latest album.

The band’s complete studio-album discography is as follows: Searching for the Young Soul Rebels (1980), Too-Rye-Ay (1982), Don’t Stand Me Down (1985), and One Day I’m Going to Soar (2012).

Dexys Midnight Runners in 1982, performing their most popular single, "Come On, Eileen," at Top of the Pops

Final Note

The founding member Kevin Rowland still leads the re-formed Dexys, with Jimmy Paterson (trombone), Pete Williams (bass), Neil Hubbard (guitar), Tim Cansfield (guitar), guest vocalist Madeleine Hyland, and Mick Talbot (keyboard, piano, organ)—yes, the same Mick Talbot formerly of The Style Council, whose association with Rowland stretches back to their beginnings in the late ’70s!