Too-Rye-Ay, as it should have sounded

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DEXYS have announced a full UK Tour for 2022 and reworking of their classic album ‘Too Rye Ay, as it should have sounded’, in what will be the 40th Anniversary of the original album. Top Selling Albums of 1982 — The Official New Zealand Music Chart". Recorded Music New Zealand . Retrieved 1 February 2022. Listened to on a phone, the new arrangements by Helen O’Hara and long-time Dexys producer Pete Schwier aren’t so different from the original mix by Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley which has troubled Kevin Rowland so much for 40 years. Christgau, Robert (26 April 1983). "Christgau's Consumer Guide". The Village Voice . Retrieved 15 June 2016. Too-Rye-Ay is now finally living up to Kevin Rowland’s vision, with extras showing the battle to get it right, here’s our review…

Soon and Dubious are similarly superb B-sides, while the sweet and simple Let’s Get This Straight From The Start deserves to be remembered as better than the flop postscript to the album campaign. Out, too, was the Mean Streets-esque style in favour of one the most recognisable looks in pop: the raggle-taggle dungarees.Kevin Rowland was never happy with the final mix of the album, which was first released by Mercury Records in July 1982, despite its huge commercial success. So with Helen O’Hara, and Pete Schwier they decided to mix it again. Rowley 2018-08-22T11:58:18Z, Scott (22 August 2018). "New wave: A guide to the best albums". LouderSound. {{ cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list ( link) You’ve cancelled the tour to promote the new version of the album, due to your motorcycle accident. How’s the recovery going?

None of this would matter if the songwriting wasn’t there, of course. You can’t blame Langer & Winstanley – producers of so many classic singles – for thinking Too-Rye-Ay wasn’t already good enough. Any album containing the incendiary Plan B and beautiful Let’s Make This Precious is onto a winner. The album’s cover has also been re-modelled, using the preferred image from the “Come On Eileen” single sleeve.He came to the studio and the plan was for us to sing it together, but he listened to what was only meant to be my guide vocal and said, “You’ve already got it, there’s nothing I can add.” Clive told me later that when I’d nipped to the toilet Van was mumbling [affects Irish accent], “It’s an interpretation, it’s an interpretation.” If we’d got that on tape we would have used it as the intro!

After “Come On Eileen” made him a star, Rowland initially enjoyed himself. “It chilled us out. We couldn’t have been like we were in 1980”. But the novelty soon wore off. “Being a well-known person was too intense. I discovered it’s another job in itself”. He stayed in Birmingham, which he says was a mistake: he was recognised everywhere. Before ‘Come On Eileen,’ we’d had a couple of singles that didn’t do so well, so their opinion held sway. If I said I really didn’t like the sound of something, I’d be told not to worry, it was fine. I could never pinpoint exactly what the problem was with the way [the album] sounded, but I was never happy with it. Then, when it was finished, I was told the budget was spent, so I’ve had to live with it – until now!” The new version She was really good when it came to correcting the balance of the strings on stuff like Liars A To E, turning the organ down so that the violins came to life more. Basically, she helped rectify my mistakes. What hasn’t changed a jot is the album’s ability to floor the listener with its passion, its articulacy and its wealth of ideas. Rowland’s blend of the confessional and the keenly observed is couched in a musical palette of striking ambition, a work where every note earns its place in the bigger picture. Larkin, Colin (2011). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (5th conciseed.). Omnibus Press. ISBN 978-0-85712-595-8.I’m so into doing this album, that we are doing shows to promote it, next year, where we will play the whole of the album from start to finish, as well as other Dexys favourites. So Rowland is – literally – correcting the record. Too-Rye-Ay, As It Should Have Sounded remixes the original recordings to present a more organic, purer version of the album’s string-led Celtic-soul sound. It’s not a radical overhaul – “one or two people said to me they can’t hear any difference”, he says, the inverse of his problem in 1982 when many didn’t hear much wrong with the original. Rather, it’s a subtle and nuanced refreshing that brings increased clarity and depth, Rowland’s impassioned vocals – a classic soul singer’s take on Bryan Ferry’s affectations – noticeably cleaner and clearer. “We’re not trying to make it sound ‘2022’. We’re still being true to what it was, letting the music speak for itself.” Offiziellecharts.de – Kevin Rowland & Dexys Midnight Runners – Too-Rye-Ay" (in German). GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved 1 February 2022.

This speaks to something more philosophical, more fundamental – is anything ever truly finished? Is a song ever really finite? Having had forty years to muse on it, surely Too-Rye-Ay As It Should Have Sounded is the definitive statement of Rowland’s and Dexys’ original vision? Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 (illustrateded.). St Ives, N.S.W.: Australian Chart Book. p.88. ISBN 0-646-11917-6. Revisiting and refining can also be an emotional pursuit, because you may also be revisiting and refining memories. That emotional punch is present here too, and with the clean-up of various pops and noises (thanks to technological advances) it allows that aspect to come to the fore. A major difference is that a remixed radio edit of ‘Old’ will be released as a single (which it wasn’t originally) and there are some previously unreleased outtakes, B-sides, and a full rendering of the 1982 Shaftesbury Theatre concert. The album has been masterfully reworked and remixed by Kevin Rowland, Pete Schwier and original violinist Helen O’ Hara. The album will be released in this brand new way and sound next year via Universal on various formats and the band will head out on the road to perform the album in full with other Dexys favourites live at a venue near you. There is no way on earth I would be doing this tour or even promoting a normal 40th anniversary re-issue, if it wasn’t for the opportunity to remix it and present it how it could have sounded.

On The Go

Staunton, Terry (November 2007). "Dexys Midnight Runners – Too Rye Ay". Record Collector (342) . Retrieved 15 June 2016. I was feeling vindicated,” Kevin Rowland says. Not only had the bandleader fought to get “Come On Eileen” released as a single (“even my manager said ‘that song is trying too hard’”) but all this came after the fraught dissolution of the group’s first incarnation – which had a number one hit in 1980 with “Geno” before the other members, tired of Rowland’s infamously demanding ways, walked out and tried to take the Dexys name with them. Now, at last, Rowland had what he always craved: huge success without the enemy of compromise. I never want to repeat the same thing, because ultimately, you’ve got to be true to the music and the inspiration behind it,” Rowland says today. “It’s your job to honor the music, wherever it comes from. It’s not something where you should put it before a committee, and they decide how it should sound, though if you don’t do that, you probably won’t enjoy sustained success.” Producer Pete Schwier adds: “All the material on the remix is from the original recordings, nothing new has been added. Some of the arrangements were changed, for example: on “Plan B” we moved the brass to come in earlier and the ‘girl’ talking was replaced with Kevin’s, which he recorded at the time.