Let's Make This Precious: A Week with 'Too-Rye-Ay'

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