With LOVE, Dexys Midnight Runners pull off a charming potential farewell

When he says his voice is his star instrument, he’s entirely correct. But that doesn’t just refer to his distinct timbre – melancholic yet spirited, quivery yet strong – Rowland's narrative voice is always at the heart of every Dexys record as well. The band are best known for their early LPs, Searching for the Young Soul Rebels (1980) and Too-Rye-Aye (1982), both made when Rowland was a young man in his twenties and weaving a lively mix of punk, folk, soul, and pop into his stories of young love, identity, prejudice, and so on. But their later work has often been just as lyrically layered, if not more so. Case in point: their most recent album, 2023's The Feminine Divine, where Rowland, now in his seventies, looked back on decades’ worth of interactions with women and masculinity. In their new, and possibly last, album LOVE, all these versions of him come together, starting with his schoolboy days in “My Life in England Pt. 1.” Producer David Holmes imbues the ten songs on LOVE with undeniable sheen. Although it’s one of the more generic tracks, “You’ve Got The Love” is elevated by wonderful strings and gorgeous harmonies and ad-libs by Dexys back-up vocalist Beatrice Howard. A fa...