In their half-decade lifespan Dexys Midnight Runners went through at least four distinct versions, each forged then broken on the ferocious, perfectionist willpower of leader Kevin Rowland. When the version of the band that made debut album Searching for the Young Soul Rebels went on the road, they called it the "Intense Emotions" tour, and the music they made together bore that out. This 30th anniversary reissue comes with a bonus disc covering the entire career of that first Dexys incarnation, from debut single "Dance Stance" to "Plan B", the first disc cut by Dexys Mark II. Repeated material from radio sessions means there's a certain amount of fat, especially if you own prior compilations. But if you're new to the band, this is an album that deserves the extended look.
Dexys thrived in a period of fierce, tribal pop loyalties by radiating and inspiring passion unusual even for the time. "Dance Stance"-- reprised on the album as "Burn It Down"-- sets out their stall, a brawling kind of soul, the band's thick, brass-driven sound topped by Rowland's combative yelp: "Shut your mouth till you know the truth." Indeed on parts of Searching, Rowland is so passionate he's barely comprehensible-- "Thankfully Not Living in Yorkshire It Doesn't Apply" is high-register babble; on "There, There, My Dear" his determination to prove a point turns the verses into an angry, thrilling tumult of words.
Rowland's artistic breakthrough came in applying the lessons of punk to the ideal of soul: If soul was a feeling, an inner fire, then the technical limitations of the singer were simply irrelevant. If you believed in yourself, your soul and the purity of your self-expression, you were a soul singer no matter how gulping and agonised your actual voice was. But did he believe in himself? Too contrarian to sing much about politics, Dexys were nonetheless an ideal band for a moment in which every aesthetic and lifestyle decision felt intensely political. Songs like "There, There, My Dear" lashed out at others for compromise and fakery, but Rowland was his own harshest critic. His ascetic self-doubt and self-scrutiny powered the band's career. This version of Dexys broke up after falling out over the release of "Keep It Pt. II" as a single-- four minutes of choked, howling self-flagellation from Rowland whose subtitle, "Inferiority Pt. I", says it all.
That single's B-Side, "One Way Love", was a vigorous soul cover-- Dexys' early catalogue is studded with them, and much of this set's second disc is taken up with versions of "Respect", "Soul Finger", and three goes at Johnny Johnson's terrific "Breaking Down the Walls of Heartache". While Rowland's psychodramas are more compelling, this scrappy, good-times side of the band helped build their fanbase. In fact the best moments come when Rowland marries his self-awareness to his group's instrumental toughness-- the loping gang-chant "Geno", smoldering "I'm Just Looking", and joyful stomper "Tell Me When My Light Turns Green". Rowland's obsessions would lead his band in ever more fascinating directions, but ultimately it's this line-up's aspiration to being a working soul band that makes Searching the tightest and most consistent Dexys album.
