Some songs, no matter where I am or what I'm doing, always make me happy. Dexys Midnight Runners' 1982 smash-hit, Come On Eileen is one of those songs. Never ever fails to make me smile. Every time I come across it on the radio, the dial stops and I listen and I am happy. Aside from being a jubilant pop-song, I am also 99% sure that Eileen is the most enjoyable song in the world to sing along to as well. With its playful backing vocals and harmonies as well as complex (for a pop single) song structure, it never gets old. Heck, I even named my first car (just recently deceased) Eileen in the song's honor (also so I could say, "Come on, Eileen," when she was having trouble accelerating over hills). For whatever reason I never ventured beyond this single to explore the rest of what Dexys Midnight Runners had to offer. Maybe because they are labeled as a one-hit wonder here in the States and I assumed that Come On Eileen was the best they had to offer. But as I thought about what my next album should be, it seemed only natural that I should give Dexys and 1982's 'Too-Rye-Ay' a fair shake and discover what I had, hopefully, been missing out on.
Formed in 1978, Dexys Midnight Runners is the brainchild of singer and chief-songwriter, Kevin Rowland. A quick glance at the band lineup over the years, featuring some 40-odd members, further illustrates that this is Rowland's band and his vision. From their visual look, public persona, and musical output, Rowland was at the helm of Dexys. 'Too-Rye-Ay' is the band's second album after their 1980 debut, 'Searching for the Young Soul Rebels', which gave them their first U.K. hit, Geno, but their sophomore release represented a shift in style for the band. Along with changing the visual look (including those iconic denim overalls), 'Too-Rye-Ay' sees them incorporating more celtic music and instrumentation into their blue-eyed soul style, as well as dropping some of the more punk and new-wave elements present on their debut. This new 'Celtic-Soul' style served them very well and gave them another huge hit in the U.K. as well as a No.1 here in the United States.
First and foremost, 'Too-Rye-Ay' is a lot of fun and a great album experience. With high-peak fast paced tracks and low valley slow soul ballads, Rowland & Company really take the listener on a journey through the world of Dexys. I'm a sucker for celtic music so the instrumentation on many of the album's tracks was just a pleasure for me to listen to and adds to its replay-ability. The first side of the record is pretty much flawless, both in songwriting and pacing. The first-half of LP puts on full display the musicianship of the band as well as Kevin Rowland's singing ability. While perhaps not the greatest voice in a classical sense, Rowland has the ability to morph his vocals to best suit the mood of each song and convey emotion like few other singers I've heard. You really feel each and every one of these songs. (Aside: The way he sings also makes it difficult to understand what he's singing half the time, which I suppose could be frustrating, but I found it endearing. And I think it is part of what makes songs like Come On Eileen so much fun to sing along to... because we have no idea what the words are.) Side 1 almost operates as its own self-contained record with its last track, Old, fading out on a reprise of an earlier (also excellent) song, Let's Make This Precious. It only took me one listen-through of this first side to realize that Dexys had a lot to offer me beyond the joys of Eileen.
Aside from Come On Eileen which comes at the very end of the record, 'Too-Rye-Ay' has blessed me with quite a few other Dexys' tracks which I've fallen in love with and can sing at the top of my lungs along with. The album opener, The Celtic Soul Brothers starts off the record with a bang and contains a lot of the same, great qualities that make Eileen such a great tune. The band's cover of Van Morrison's song, Jackie Wilson Said, is another highlight for me with it's perfectly saccharine lyrics ("I'm in heaven when you smile") and bouncy brass instrumentation. Old illustrates that the band is also perfectly capable of slowing things down and offering up soulful ballads that are breathtakingly beautiful and full of emotion. Lyrically, Old is a heartbreaking song about becoming older and our perceptions of elderly people and the ways we quickly tend to write them off. It's sad. It's beautiful. It became one of my fast favorites to listen to on the record this week.
Until I Believe in My Soul represents the only real track that never really gelled with me. Like Come On Eileen and Plan B, it presents complex song structures with multiple melody and time signature changes, but for whatever reason these disparate parts never come together into a glorious whole. With a 7 minute runtime, the track doesn't have enough musical ideas to sustain that length before it feels like it has been carrying on for a bit too long. I don't hate it, but if it were half as long I would like it a lot more. Rowland's vocal stylings are usually spot on but at the beginning of the track his falsetto is so over the top that the only thing I can think of when I listen to it is Justin Hawkins from 'The Darkness' (of I Believe in a Thing Called Love fame), which to be fair is my own bias and not Rowland's fault. Luckily, Eileen comes quickly on its heels and finishes off the record in a grand, rollicking fashion and puts the faults of Until I Believe... out of my mind.
'Too-Rye-Ay' is a real treat. The album is stuffed with little musical goodies just waiting to be unpacked by people like me who never ventured beyond their one big hit. While not a perfect album or 'THE GREATEST ALBUM OF ALL TIME', Dexys sophomore outing is jam-packed full of great tunes, interesting instrumentation, and soulful singing that kept me coming back from more throughout the week. Things don't always have to be THE GREATEST. Sometimes they can just be good and fun and full of little pleasures. Sometimes that is enough.
The Breakdown:
Stand-Outs: Come On Eileen, The Celtic Soul Brothers, Jackie Wilson Said, Old
Let-Downs: Until I Believe in My Soul
Rating: 8/10
2013 has been a pretty fabulous year for really strong electronic/pop debuts with Disclosure's 'Settle', Rudimental's 'Home', and London Grammar's 'If You Wait' being some of the highlights for me (The fact that they are all British is a bonus). I can now add AlunaGeorge's debut 'Body Music' to that list. I discovered them through their feature on Disclosure's record and I have been throughly enjoying their album this past week. With inventive and fresh production from George Reid always anchored in Aluna Francis' strong and unique vocals, 'Body Music' is good times. So here is a single from AlunaGeorge that gives a sampling of the goodies I've been enjoying this week.
There is not much else in this world that I enjoy more than really good electronic music. Whether it's Kraftwerk, Daft Punk, Burial, Aphex Twin, or The Knife, something about electronic music has really always appealed to me. A lot of it may have to do with growing up in Asia in 90's where techno was playing just about everywhere you went. Whether in bowling alleys, malls, markets or taxi cabs, electronic dance music was omnipresent. From my younger years through today, electronic music and I have had an ongoing and burgeoning relationship and I'm always excited to see what is coming down the pipe next as the genre continues to evolve and change.
When I first heard Rudimental's single, Feel the Love (a number 1 hit in the UK) late last year I was immediately hooked and excited for what they might offer next. But life happens and over time I forgot about Feel the Love and their following debut album until the nominees for this year's Mercury Prize were released. Rudimental's debut 'Home' was on the short-list and I thought that now would be a perfect opportunity to give the record a week (and 16 complete listens) of my time.
Rudimental are a drum and bass electronic outfit from London consisting of four members (Piers Agget, Kesi Dryden, Amir Amor, DJ Locksmith) all sharing songwriting/producing duties. They've said in interviews that they want to give anthems to their generation that celebrate who they are and the times they live in. 'Home' lives up to this statement by providing a sort of melting pot of popular trends in both pop and electronic music. Everything from dubstep warbles, to soulful vocals, to ernest lyrics, to group-sing-along chorus, and a reclamation of 90's R&B stylings and melodies can be found on this record. Rudimental wants to cram everything that they love about music onto one record and when it works it truly is a thing of beauty.
Rudimental do a lot of things right on this record. Rock solid production values are found on every track. The bass rumbles and the melodies soar; everything sounds great. Along with grabbing stylistic hints of this and that from popular electronic music, Rudimental brings their own unique flavor by adding horns to many of the tracks. From vocal accompaniment to trumpet solos, horns play a big role in making this record something new; they provide an extra edge to tracks like Feel the Love that really sets them apart. The vocal performances on the record are also excellent without a real misstep in the bunch. 'Home' does a wonderful job of pairing up-and-coming pop vocalists with tracks that really show off their strengths as singers. Rudimental balances all of these elements quite well from track to track, especially considering that this is their debut outing.
Stand-out tracks like Spoons and Baby feature inventive production (with Spoons featuring actual spoons forming the basis of the track), excellent silky-smooth R&B vocals from guest MNEK, and solid songwriting representing what is wonderful about groups like Rudimental. Waiting All Night (also a number 1 single in UK) is another high watermark for me. Its skittering beat and passionate vocals from Ella Eyre energize the track and keep it engaging for five minutes, which is no mean feat. An infectious exuberance permeates these energetic songs and makes them impossible not to enjoy and get caught up in. Rudimental are passionate about their craft and their energy is palpable in these tracks.
As with many records, 'Home' contains a few tracks where the grand synthesis of styles and ideas that Rudimental strives for doesn't quite gel. Hell Could Freeze contains a wonderful chorus, but the rapped verses feel disjointed; almost as though they belong to another song. More Than Anything suffers from a similar problem, its wonderfully-power-ballady-rock-your-socks-off chorus makes the verses that precede and follow seem like a bit of a letdown. While Not Giving In sounds like Rudimental treading water; ticking the boxes and painting-by-numbers but not really capitalizing on some of the ideas or vocal talent present in the song. None of these tracks are bad or even necessarily weak, but Rudimental could have done more with them to give them that extra zing! They could have been essential to the album rather than pleasant scenery along the way.
Needless to say, I'm excited for where Rudimental goes next. 'Home' proves that they have something to say and some exciting ways of saying it. If you have any interest at all in electronic-pop, I highly recommend giving Rudimental a whirl. Hopefully by the time album number two rolls around they will have been able to really pin down what makes them unique in the pop-electronic world (horns, excellent guest vocalists, exuberant production) and play to those strengths. For now we have 'Home', a perfectly delightful debut record that serves up the pop-electronic-R&B goods while showing ample room for growth and exploration in the future. Here's to a long and prosperous future.
The Breakdown:
Stand-Outs: Feel the Love, Spoons, Baby, Waiting All Night
Let-Downs: Hell Could Freeze, Not Giving In
Rating: 8/10
Up Next: I'm diving this week into another genre that I've never really (seriously) given the time of day: jazz (expect, you know, when eating at Panera). I thought I would select what is widely regarded to be one of the best jazz albums of all time: John Coltrane's 1965 LP 'A Love Supreme'.
This was a difficult album for me to write about. It was not because Katy Perry's 'Teenage Dream' was awful or that I hated every moment spent listening to it. I think it was difficult for me to really think about why I liked the things that I liked and why I disliked the things that I did. It was a hard record for me to pin down in my head. But I would like to begin by saying that I'm not here to trash Katy Perry, her record, or the people that genuinely love her. What follows is simply some of the myriad of thoughts I had during my week and 10 listens of 'Teenage Dream: The Complete Confection'. It is just my opinion.
I'll begin with what I really genuinely enjoyed about the record: the singles. There is a good reason why these singles sold upwards of 30 millions copies in the U.S. (which is an insane number; especially when compared to the overall albums sales of 5 million). These are very catchy songs; they are fun, well-produced, and slick. Songs like Teenage Dream, California Gurls, and Firework, whether you love them or hate them, get stuck in your head and stay there. It's easy for me to appreciate and enjoy the auditory experience that is Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F) on a pop level; with its syrupy bass line and (almost) Daft Punk-y repetitive riff, it's a good tune and it punches all the correct pop-pleasure center buttons. I'm sure most of you reading this can sing along with one if not all of the singles released from this album; they were everywhere. They are engineered to be blasted in your car while driving down the highway, singing along with your friends at the top of your lungs or dancing 'til you can't dance no more at wedding. They are light-hearted, enjoyable, easily digestible, and most of all, fun.
I like to think of the album itself like candy. Candy is wonderful in small doses and it hits a special spot that only candy can hit. I feel the same way about a lot of good pop music; it does something in my brain when I'm listening to it that no other kind of music does for me. I love the band Joy Division, but their music was not made for cruising down the highway and especially not for dancing at weddings. But I love them just the same and for very different reasons than I love a great 3-minute pop single. As I was listening to Katy this week, I realized it's not the kind of music that is meant to be sat and thought about; there's no subtext (and I don't really mean that as a criticism). Things are just to be fun and taken at face value which is a good thing sometimes. But after a week of 'candy', I'm ready for something more substantial.
The biggest gripes that I had with this record were with the non-single tracks. And I'm sure that's only natural seeing as this is a pop record and singles are were all the focus is placed. But it was in these tracks that listening to this record day after day became a bit of a burden. Lyrics are not Katy Perry's strong suit. She does write a lot of her own songs which is not the norm in pop music, so respect must be given for that; but sometimes it did get a little painful. Peacock could be a song about letting the greatness inside of you shine through, but it really just seems to be a song about wanting to see a guy's wiener. And the song, Pearl, has a very encouraging message about being true to who you are and getting out of abusive relationships but it's just overwrought and, unfortunately, just a little too hammy.
The worst offender on the album to me was the song Circle the Drain. It's about not wanting to stick around and watch someone throw their life away to a drug addiction. It goes for this edgy, hard vibe and it just really doesn't work. At all. The chorus contain's the line, "I want to be your lover, not your f*cking mother." It just hurts every time it comes around; not because I'm offended by the word but because it rings so false. Katy Perry isn't hard and edgy - I think the record struggles whenever it tries to play that card. There is a big difference between ernest and edgy. Katy does ernest really well; whether Firework or The One That Got Away, she is very good at balancing being positive and inspirational without slipping too much into cheesy territory. But edgy and confrontational does not work for her, so its good to see that she is playing to her strengths in her newest single, Roar. I sure hope there is not another Circle the Drain on her upcoming record.
At the end of the day, I have also realized that I'm not the target audience for this record. I'm not a fifteen year old girl (or am I? Dun-da-dun!!!!). Songs like Pearl and Who Am I Living For? that seem a little overdone and cheesy to me, may totally hit the mark for others. Music has always been so exciting to me because we can all like different things and that's okay. There is always room to expand and explore and grow in music and that's what makes being a listener so great. Katy Perry is at her best when she is genuine and plays to her strengths. As listeners, I think the same principle carries over; we are who we are and your opinion is just as valid as mine. For a long time, I've felt the need to keep up with what's hip and new in music and to like the things that everyone else likes and hate the things that are cool to hate; but I'm trying to get away from that mindset. I enjoy the things that I enjoy and there may be artists and genres that, try my darn-dest, I may never like. If Katy Perry is your favorite artist, that is wonderful and your adoration of her is part and parcel of what makes music so great. For me, I'm glad to have spent the week with 'Teenage Dream' but I will be alright with simply buying the singles collection in a few decades and cranking it up while I drive down the highway, awash in nostalgia.
Up Next: Black Sabbath's 'Paranoid'. The godfather of all metal albums that I have somehow gone this far without ever (really) listening to.
