Praise for Dexys Midnight Runners ‘LOVE‘…
*Includes the album in-full.
*An in-depth interview with Kevin Rowland and Disco Pogo Journalist Johnno Burgess.
*A remix by ‘LOVE’ producer David Holmes.
“The main instrument here is Rowland’s voice, swooping, soaring, emoting, from lullaby to protest, it is on fabulous form…if ‘LOVE’ is ‘goodnight’ Kevin Rowland closes the door on one of the most fiercely singular careers in pop music.”
– Album of the Month ★★★★★ Record Collector –
“There’s an organic warmth throughout, helped by an expanded line-up and strings-laden production from David Holme; an unhurried organ jazz organ rendition of Tim Buckley’s Strange Feelin’ is a highlight. What really hits home…is the lyricism.”
– Album of the Week ★★★★ The Times –
“Producer David Holmes gives ‘LOVE’ a warm, organic richness, with Philly soul-style strings adding glitterball-reflected drama to ‘You’ve Got The Love’ and Barry White like sensuality to lonely supplicants of ‘I Want To Be Holding You Next Christmas.”
– ★★★★ Mojo Magazine –
“Rowland is in a contemplative and sentimental mood here – which producer David Holmes teases elegantly – with his voice still full of velvet and vigour.”
-★★★★ Uncut Magazine –
“This is indisputably the best Kevin Rowland has ever created…The arrangements, lush and orchestral, underpin bare emotion that his vocals can convey with a subtlety and variation that can only come from experience. Album of the year, very probably.”
– 9/10 Vive Le Rock –
“This David Holmes-produced affair is a Proustian trawl through Rowland’s personal back pages, awash with purging and redemption. This forms a companion piece of sorts to his candid 2025 memoir, Bless Me Father, and accompanying in-conversation shows.”
– Album of the Month ★★★★ The List –
“Simply titled Love, Rowland is another of his soul modes. This time around, it is that classic soul sound that many label as deep soul, and it just might be exactly where Rowland’s true love lies and seems to suit him oh so well.”
– ★★★★ Spill Magazine –
“On LOVE, their first record under the full name in decades, Kevin Rowland does not so much sing ten songs as interrogate them in public. Produced by David Holmes, the album frames his cries, whispers and spoken asides with patient soul arrangements, creating music that feels both intimate and knowingly theatrical.”
– ★★★★ Gigshack –
“Love overflows with all the coolness, passion and feeling as their 46-year-old debut album Searching For The Young Soul Rebels – what’s more, Dexys haven’t lost any of their vintage sartorial sharpness, remaining probably the only band to have ever looked good in denim.”
– ★★★★ Buzz Magazine –
“Fuelled by his unrelenting commitment to revealing truth through art…This new record will come alive on stage, in one of the band’s inimitable theatrical presentations.”
– The Observer –
“Stories of family and friends, tales from past and present. All drawn from Kevin Rowland’s life, each an individual jewel, threaded together with love.”
– Album of The Week – Tinnitist –
“The strength of LOVE lies in “My Life in England, Pt.1” and “My Life in England, Pt.2”. Peering back at Don’t Stand Me Down power ballads “Reminisce Part Two” and “Knowledge of Beauty”, Rowland updates the narrative to showcase an Irish émigré settling in a land that traditionally mocked his class and ethnicity. Vocalizing with every ounce of power, Rowland shouts “that’s my life”, as committed to his melody as Frank Sinatra was on “My Way”. This world is built up on immigration, and humanity benefits from trading cultures. Love is testament to that universal transaction.”
– 8/10 Pop Matters –
“Be charmed by LOVE: Which transcends place and generation to immerse us once again in the Dexys Midnight Runners world: a place shaped by the many forms of love a life can encounter, with Rowland as riveting a protagonist as ever.”
– The Line of Best Fit 8/10 –
“Lyrically, it’s a very personal record – but musically it’s very much a band record. As well as Holmes’ spot-on production, it’s beautifully scored and played, rather than simply being carefully handpicked session musicians. Given the frustrations and regrets at times in his memoir, it does feel like Kevin Rowland is much more at peace with the world.”
– God Is The TV Zine 8/10 –
“As a massive Dexys-head (Searching for the Young Soul Rebels is one of my favorite albums of the early eighties), I’ve been eagerly awaiting LOVE—the band’s seventh and presumably final record—since the day it was announced, and it does not disappoint. Editor Matt Mitchell wrote in their profile of frontman Kevin Rowland that “LOVE is Rowland’s best project since Don’t Stand Me Down in 1985,” and I can’t help but agree.”
– Album of The Week Paste Magazine –
“Produced by David Holmes, LOVE dresses that revelation in warm soul, strings, piano, disco, and occasional flashes of the old Northern soul stomp… Once A Man, Twice A Child…is the album’s most moving song, perhaps because it earns the simplicity that elsewhere comes too cheaply.”
– Awards Music –
“LOVE holds whether one has been a fan of Dexys Midnight Runners since the early 1980s or has just started listening to the catalog.”
– Audio Fix –
• WATCH THE VIDEO FOR ‘ONCE A MAN, TWICE A CHILD’ •
