Album Review: Dexys, The Feminine Divine

Dexys are back, which is exciting, it being 11 years since their last album of original music. And here’s a thing: opener ‘The One That Loves You’ would not have looked out of place on their ground-breaking debut Searching for the Young Soul Rebels, doused as it is in superb horns and hi-hats, tinkling piano, smooshing backing singers, and those wonderfully unique Kevin Rowland vocals.

But this is Dexys: things never stay the same for long. On ‘It’s Alright Kevin (Manhood 2023)’, across an all singing and dancing West End number, complete with Greek chorus, Rowland tears apart his macho persona and launches a concept album of sorts – one which imparts the suppression of the masculine and worshipping of the feminine by our hero, Kevin Rowland himself.

Lead single, the dance-hall infused ‘I’m Going To Get Free’ sets an agenda of banishing previous versions of Kevin. Before, in old parlance, the second side of the album enters synth cabaret territory. The astonishing trio of songs – ‘My Goddess Is’, ‘Goddess Rules’ and ‘My Submission’ – offer complete adoration and entire servitude to the feminine (“My goddess, she tells me I’m her bitch… I will be your pet to do with what you will”).

It’s a triptych probably unlike anything else ever recorded. Now, that’s proper Dexys.

7/10