Too-Rye-Ay As It Should Have Sounded - Dexys Midnight Runners (1982)
Ideated from: I keep a playlist of things that have been reissued, remastered, or given some kind of historical or archival release. I’ll tick some of those off this week.
Like a lot of people, Come On Eileen is the only Dexys song I could have named. I’d always associated it with early 80s hits collections,lumping it in with Kajagoogoo and Spandau Ballet and Flock Of Seagulls. As it turns out, nothing could be further from the truth. These guys were a pretty great blue-eyed soul band with much more lush instrumentation than their synthpop peers and more of a post-punk sensibility.
This is a very enjoyable record, rereleased with a mix supervised by mastermind Kevin Rowland. Apparently he was sore for years about how the album sounded, so he relased a mix that… um… sounds more or less exactly the same to my ear. I guess the plunky piano might not be quite as prominent and the horns not quite as bright, but I’d be happy to listen to either version.
