Bureau - ...And Another Thing

  by Malcolm Carter

published: 27 / 9 / 2008

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On paper this looks like it should be a major event. Former Dexys Midnight Runners members ( ok, so are some of Status Quo and they don’t make a big thing out of it as this band are but…) and the ever-wonderful Mick Talbot from the Style Council reunite again after their hard-to-get debut album was finally released in 2005 to critical acclaim. So it’s not unreasonable to expect an album full of brassy, Stax-influenced tunes belted out by a singer with vocals dripping with passion. Unfortunately that’s not what we get. I wasn’t going to over-play the Dexys connection, but when the press release and the band’s web page mention it time and again they obviously feel that by drawing attention to the fact that certain members of the Bureau broke away from the original Dexys to form this band then any Dexys fan should be interested in checking them out. Which is fair enough. But let’s face it, for many ; despite the excellent backing from the musicians who played behind Kevin Rowland, it was that front man’s passionate vocals that were the main attraction. Again the same thing could be said about Mick Talbot, for all his keyboard skills after his time with the Merton Parkas would he be so well-known if not for the singer in The Style Council's composing and vocal skills? Without wishing to take any praise away from just how good a set of musicians the Bureau are, and if you look at just how many great artists these guys have played with, it’s confirmation that they are a respected and talented bunch of musicians, but in the past the bands they have been successful with have had strong singers. Whereas Rowland showed more passion in his vocals, Weller always had his heart in the right place and over the years has developed his own soulful vocal style. The main singer in the Bureau is Archie Brown. He has been singing with a band called The Young Bucks since 1985 apparently and also been producing music for BBC2 so he obviously knows what he is doing. But he is no Weller and certainly no Rowland when it comes to singing. Now, had we not had the Dexys connection rammed down our throats maybe we wouldn’t have expected such an exceptional singer but the fact is the weakest thing on these songs are the vocals. The opening song, a Geoff Blythe song called ‘Run Rabbit Run’, is a brass-heavy tune as you’d expect from the tenor sax player but it sounds like a Stax b-side sung by Tom Waits ; and although that might sound appealing the first time you hear it you just wish that they’d left it as an instrumental. The playing is faultless. It makes you move, it grooves along nicely but those vocals just irritate on the first few listens. In time they do grow on you but these days do the kids who buy CDs have the time to hang around waiting for a song to grow on them? It’s only us old guys who hang in there waiting for the good stuff to eventually shine through. The following song, ‘Save Me’ shows that Brown can pen a decent tune and lyric, and the vocals do suit the song more here than they do on the opening cut. Brown sounds like an old blues singer at times but those times are too far and few between. Mick Talbot’s ‘Chance In A Million’ makes one wonder if Weller deliberately didn’t allow the keyboardist to contribute so many songs to the Style Councils albums, as judging Talbot’s song writing skills by this song it would appear that he is on a par with Weller. It’s by far the best song on this album and a pleasant surprise to those of us who thought that Talbot didn’t compose any songs to match the brilliance of his old band-mate. The song drips with soul and Brown’s vocals just about do the song justice. But it doesn’t last long, the following song, Geoff Blythe’s ‘A Fine Mess’ is just that. The vocals are more shouting than singing in places; showing passion doesn’t equate to shouting Brown, and while the playing by the band is again faultless the tune is nothing special. It’s a case of having heard it all before and sung better too. Blythe redeems himself on ‘Freedom March’ though, an instrumental, which given the band’s past work is exactly like you’d expect it to be, with those Stax influences to the fore and the tune emitting more emotion than any vocal song on the album with the exception of ‘Chance In A Million’. Says it all really doesn’t it? It would also help if the order of the songs listed on the CD cover actually matched the playing order on the actual CD. What’s the point in numbering the songs on the cover if they don’t match the actual song playing? Archie Brown writes a good song but next time boys let’s have more instrumentals or another lead singer…or else I’m going to have to return to my Blue Ox Babes 45s.

Track Listing:-

1 Run Rabbit Run
2 Save Me
3 Chance in a Million
4 A Fine Mess Rag
5 Freedom March
6 Just a Word
7 Falling
8 Divided in Two
9 Mad
10 Flying Lessons
11 Nothings Going to Stand in Our Way
12 Keaton's Walk

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