Artist	Song
Dexys Midnight Runners	Burn it down
Dexys Midnight Runners	Show me
Dexys Midnight Runners	Let's make this precious
Dexys Midnight Runners	I'll show you
Dexy's midnight Runners	Plan B
Dexy's Midnight Runners	Geno
Dexys Midnight Runners	Seven Days Too Long
Dexys Midnight Runners	Thankfully Not Living In Yorkshire It Doesn't Apply
Dexys Midnight Runners	Keep it
Dexys Midnight Runners	Dance stance
Dexys Midnight Runners	Until I believe in my soul
Dexys Midnight Runners	The Celtic Soul Brothers
Dexys Midnight Runners	Come On Eileen
Dexy's Midnight Runners	Jackie Wilson Said (I'm in Heaven When You Smile)
Dexy's Midnight Runners	All in All (This One Wild Last Waltz)
Dexy's Midnight Runners	One Of Those Things
The Bureau	Looking for Excitement
The Bureau	Bigger Prize

Comment:

Searching for the Young Soul Rebels was one of the first albums I ever owned; I loved it immoderately, from the pulsing horny funk of "Burn it Down" to the frenetic falsetto of the oddly named "Thankfully not living in Yorkshire it doesn't apply," and I couldn't understand why no one here in the US seemed to appreciate Kevin Rowland's daft pop genius. I was baffled too, and a little disappointed, when Kevin abandoned the horns for Celtic folk on the single "Celtic Soul Brothers." I quickly came to love that song too, but I figured Dexys new-old sound would consign them forever to the fringes of the pop world. Along came Come on Eileen to prove me wrong. The success of that song was of course a mixed blessing, as the relentless overplaying of Eileen managed to kill most people's interest in any of the band's other works. (Kevin's craziness didn't really help either.) So today, in the US at least, the band is remembered basically as a novelty act, a one-hit wonder; go on any of the file-sharing networks these days and you'll find dozens of copies of that song for every copy of any other songs of theirs. It's a pity, because at his best Kevin Rowland was a magpie pop original, blatantly copying the things he loved most from northern soul and Celtic folk and transforming them into something distinctive and wonderful and really damn catchy. (And all without the help of synths and guitars, which Kevin the pop puritan denounced as "noisy and crude.") This mix is my own take on the best of the band. (Alas, I've only got a few tracks post-Too-Rye-Aye, so it's a bit heavy on the first two albums and early singles.) I debated leaving Eileen off, but decided to include; it's a great song, and it's not Kevin's fault it was so overplayed. BONUS TRACKS from The Bureau, a horny band filled with Dexys refugees.

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