When he says his voice is his star instrument, he’s entirely correct. But that doesn’t just refer to his distinct timbre – melancholic yet spirited, quivery yet strong – Rowland's narrative voice is always at the heart of every Dexys record as well. The band are best known for their early LPs, Searching for the Young Soul Rebels (1980) and Too-Rye-Aye (1982), both made when Rowland was a young man in his twenties and weaving a lively mix of punk, folk, soul, and pop into his stories of young love, identity, prejudice, and so on. But their later work has often been just as lyrically layered, if not more so. Case in point: their most recent album, 2023's The Feminine Divine, where Rowland, now in his seventies, looked back on decades’ worth of interactions with women and masculinity. In their new, and possibly last, album LOVE, all these versions of him come together, starting with his schoolboy days in “My Life in England Pt. 1.” Producer David Holmes imbues the ten songs on LOVE with undeniable sheen. Although it’s one of the more generic tracks, “You’ve Got The Love” is elevated by wonderful strings and gorgeous harmonies and ad-libs by Dexys back-up vocalist Beatrice Howard. A fascinating section in the Tim Buckley cover “Strange Feelin” sounds as if a music box were replicating a jazz ensemble, and similarly interesting sonics abound across the album. At a few points, however, they work against the singer, as in “I’ll Always Love You”, where his voice gets buried beneath the majestic orchestral flourishes. The rather simple synth and piano backdrop of “Once a Man, Twice a Child”, an emotional ballad about losing a parent, proves to be one of LOVE’s most effective moments. Rowland gets adventurous with his vocals here. His tone has grown more gravelly than ever with age, but he’s still capable of flying into the fifth octave via cry-like falsettos. Penultimate track “Old Love” is another comparatively stripped-back moment, stuffed with raw, clumsy lines like “Old, old love / I hate getting old,” and a verse that rhymes the word “age” with itself. The lack of lyrical refinement is the point, though, and one realises this when he admits in the song, “I know I look different, but I feel the same inside / I have the same insecurities that I had as a child.” Closing song “My Life in England Pt. 2” gets political, addressing various social tensions and calling for the people in England to “rise up.” The twinkly synths from the first part are finally allowed to swell, paired with touches of gentle piano, and the payoff is beautiful.Minor flaws aside then, it’s easy to 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.