One Day I’m Going To Soar
Fascinating comeback from ‘80s icons
Olaf Tyaransen, 15 Jun 2012
Despite the timeless foot-stomping ubiquity of the monumental ‘Come On Eileen’, and the fact that nobody has worn faded denim dungarees as a fashion statement for yonks, it’s still hard to believe that it’s been more than a quarter-century since Dexy’s Midnight Runners last released a record. Reported at the time as being one of the most expensive albums ever made, 1985’s Don’t Stand Me Down – their third album and the follow-up to their now classic 1983 megahit offering Too-Rye-Ay – failed to do the business and, in between various sackings, resignations and internecine disputes, that seemed to be pretty much it for the erstwhile young soul rebels.
Two Kevin Rowland solo albums followed in extremely slow succession – 1988’s The Wanderer and 1999’s My Beauty – but both flopped commercially (the latter largely as a result of its notorious cover featuring the singer wearing make-up, black panties and suspenders). Although the band reunited in 2003 for a Greatest Hits tour, few would have predicted a serious attempt at any artistic comeback. But 27 years on from Don’t Stand Me Down, here’s Dexys (no more Midnight Runners) again, with the grandly titled Antony Hegarty-esque One Day I’m Going To Soar.
Featuring original members Rowland, Mick Talbot, Pete Williams and Jim Paterson, alongside new recruits Ben Trigg, Neil Hubbard, Tim Cansfield, Madeline Hyland and Lucy Morgan, the good news is that Dexys 2012 are an outstanding proposition musically. When they’re not funking it up, they’re soulfully grooving. Throughout ODIGTS, they’re always tight.
One Day I’m Going To Soar is a concept album of sorts. Kevin Rowland sets out his stall on album opener ‘Now’, which embellishes the bird metaphor of the title. “I know that I’ve been crazy,” he confesses, “That cannot be denied/ But inside of me there’s always been/ A secret urge for flight.”
This is followed by ‘Lost’, an anguished and occasionally impassioned ballad about Rowland’s youthful dreams and how he never fit in with his childhood contemporaries: “I was so lost/ I was lost inside/ But I tried to hide it from the world/ And all of my family/ I could not exist in the world/ Like there was something wrong with me.”
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