Don’t Stand Me Down

I've never heard of these blokes before and am quite surprised they've got three entries on this list? Even artists like Fiona Apple don't have that much. I liked some songs and the upbeat instrumentals are nice, but I can't say I'm looking forward to the next time they pop up. This record does little to distinguish itself from other British new wave bands of the same ilk, and several songs lose steam before the end. The vocalist, while occasionally strong, sounds like he's singing around a cotton ball stuffed in his mouth. Cool band name though!

Oh, come on, really? The Dexys again?! True to their form, this shit sucks. The songs are always at least a minute longer than they need to be, with basically no hooks to speak of and very limited songwriting ability. The vocals are as terrible as always, and they fail to convince the listener that there's actual soul in these recordings. There's even random spoken word bits in these songs. This album is easily one of the worst I've had in a long time, even though it shows some potential for being OK. Not even good, just OK.

This was fine. Kinda boring to me. 3/5

-ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER-
Me: I hope this has 'Come on Eileen' on it!
Me: Nope :(
Me: But for some reason it has the music of S̶w̶e̶e̶t̶ ̶H̶o̶m̶e̶ ̶A̶l̶a̶b̶a̶m̶a̶ 'Werewolves of London' :(

This is a strange one as the songs are overly long and the speaky bits were annoying…until I found myself not minding the talky intro to ‘Reminisce’.
I enjoy the piano led shindig feel to a lot of Dexy’s music and ‘The Occasional Flicker’ was really enjoyable.

It was quite surprising to hear the riff ‘Werewolves in London’ throughout ’One of those things,’ but enjoyed how this worked with lyrics about everything sounding the same.

But for a bit more judicious producing this would have been a 5/10

It's so much easier when I have a consistent feeling about a whole album, rather than veering between 'like a lot' and 'absolutely despise'.

In the latter camp, listening to someone mutter over the riff to Werewolves Of London for nearly 6 minutes during One Of Those Things made me actually angry. Especially with Dexys, of all people, having the actual gall to complain all the songs on Radio 1 sound the same.

But the instrumental I often liked, or at least didn't dislike. The Occasional Flicker for example, I probably would have loved had it not have Kevin Roland warbling over the top of it. And then they go and really spoil it all by having a 1:15 second pointless chat at the beginning of the next song (which goes on to once again have an instrumental I quite like).

This is probably a 3.5/4 for the music, a 1/1.5 for the singing and a -5 for the random conversations.

2/5

Nothing in this even closely compares to Come on Eileen unfortunately

I think these guys could do with a fourth album on the list

The 60's taught us that Pop artists could make long songs, the 70's taught us that they could be more than just a jam and Dexys Midnight Runners taught us that we really should be making songs shorter again. It's not bad but none of these songs have any reason being over 3 or 4 minutes long. I also just don't like Kevin Rowlands high voice I've figured. There is enough 80's music in the world and on this list and this could've stayed 4 decades in the past. Pretty cool they covered Kid Rock though.

Poor old Dexys getting a hammering on here. I remember as a 15 year old reading a rave review but taking one look at that sleeve and thinking "Yuppies!? No thanks". Which was a shame. It's such an imaginative and intriguing album.

Having exposed only to their hit-single 'Come On Eileen' and seeing as there are two additional records of them that I will need to listen along the way, I am a bit dumbfounded on the relevancy of this one. There are no real standouts of the album, which is consistently average.

7/10 [DROP]

It's a good album.

On the one hand, I think that three albums by this band is way too much. On the other hand, even if I can't find anything special after a first listen, their albums (this is the second one I've listened to) are somehow growing on me.

From this album, I particularly enjoyed: "Knowledge of Beauty", "Reminiscence Part Two", or "The Waltz".

So, for now, I think this is also 3 stars. However, I may revisit these ratings when listening the third album in this project.

I will say that Don't Stand Me Down is the most consistent out of the Dexys Midnight Runners albums but it is also the most forgettable. I feel like the other two DMR albums have at least one thing that is really good about them but they have one thing that's really bad about them but not this one. This one didn't really have anything good or bad about it, it just kinda existed for me. The music on offer is very solid and the vocals, while they could get a bit quirky, never got too annoying like they did on Searching For The Young Soul Rebels. All of that is to say that while this album isn't bad, i really don't see why it needs to be on this list.
Best Song: One Of Those Things
Worst Song: Reminisce (Pt. 2)
Side note: Last Dexys Midnight Runners album, meaning:
1. Too Rye Ay
2. Don't Stand Me Down
3. Searching For The Young Soul Rebels

Another album of enthusiastically played bluesy/trad music that would be best with a pint of good beer in front of one. The fast ones are fun piano, fiddle, sax wailing away; perfectly competent. The slow ones are… slow. I think this record is another example of “you’ll like this if you like things like this.” I played it while prepping dinner and processing some photos, and it was fine for that.

One song sounded exactly like “Werewolves of London,” except with lyrics that were a complaint about things all sounding the same, which I guess was on point.

3 stars

Stop talking over the music I'm trying to listen to it!!

occasional flicker … of quality

I understand the frustration but it’s funny how many reviewers are annoyed by the number if Dexys album in this list .

All I can say is there is at least one to many - and it’s this one

I'm guessing this album is here because it killed the band and not because it's good. This Is What She's Like is way too long and so was the rest of the album considering how unremarkable the songs are.

Tiene una especie de Medley que suena como muchas de sus canciones, dura unos 12 minutos, no está mal. Sin embargo, me he guardado otra canción: Listen to this. El disco es bonito pero no llega a brillar en ninguna canción en concreto aparte de esa. ¡Qué voz tan particular la de su cantante!

WT…and I mean this…AF is this doing on here. Three albums of this group???

What a fascinating and strange listen. Think it might be brilliant, but not totally sure. Love that Kevin Rowland constantly reinvents himself, this album being a case in point, and did he invent the album skit?