KEVIN Rowland will be 60 in August and he still hasn’t found love. Well, not “real love”.

It’s always been about the “search” with Kevin, ever since he was Searching For The Young Soul Rebels on Dexys Midnight Runners’ combustible debut album in July 1980.

“And I can’t find them anywhere,” you may recall him replying to himself, as has become his way in his conversational songs.

He may divide opinion like Marmite, but don’t dismiss Dexys as a more bonkers Beautiful South. You should treasure Dexys – Kevin has dropped the Midnight Runners on their first album since 1985’s Don’t Stand Me Down – for his refusal to give up on his dream, his pursuit of finding love (or persuading someone to fall in love with him), and his desire to write beautiful Celtic soul music beyond the grasp of all but Van Morrison.

Like king Sisyphus, he keeps trying to roll the same boulder up the hill, but at least he does reach the top every so often before being the architect of his downfall. This album is no different and unlike Don’t Stand Me Down, which was rediscovered all too late, let’s hope I’m Going To Soar will indeed do that far more immediately.

Trusty Big Jim Paterson’s trombone should be higher in the mix than the pub-basement drums, but that aside, Rowland and co-producer/keyboardist Mick Talbot’s arrangements combine the best of Dexys’ past (strings, horns, piano) with Kevin’s latest frank expositions on love, being Irish, love, being unloved, and love, sometimes in humorous jousts with new co-vocalist Madeleine Hyland.

Now, Me, Incapable Of Love and the closing It’s OK John Joe make for the best confessional album since Amy Winehouse’s Back To Black.