Recently signed to Heavenly Recordings, Dexys Midnight Runners have now announced their forthcoming album, LOVE, out on September 4, 2026.
LOVE is a deeply personal and emotionally rich album that may mark the final chapter in Dexys Midnight Runners extraordinary musical journey. Their first release under the Dexys Midnight Runners name since 1985’s Don’t Stand Me Down, LOVE gathers stories spanning Kevin Rowland’s life – from his 2nd generation Irish childhood and family relationships to late-life romance, loss and reconciliation.
Built around themes of love in all its forms, the album moves beyond traditional romance to explore ageing, memory and emotional connection. Produced by Belfast musician / DJ David Holmes aided and abetted by Peter Schweir with additional contributions from long-time collaborators Sean Read, Mike Timothy, Jim Paterson and string arranger Brian Irving.
Pre-order LOVE HERE
Dexys Midnight Runners have also shared a video for “My Life In England Pt.1,” the first single to be taken from the album. Talking about the track, Kevin Rowland said:
“We put out a version of this song on a compilation album in 2003, but I felt we could improve on it. I wrote it a long time ago with Jim [Patterson], along with ‘My Life in England Pt. 2’. It’s all memories of my own experiences. Pete, that’s my brother. In my book [Bless Me Father], I changed his name to Pat. There’s quite a lot of overlap with the book in this one. We were in England dreaming of America: it was pre-Beatles, so it was Elvis, it was Sonny Liston, Cassius Clay, clothes, all of it was America. In the second verse, I’m remembering being in a social club listening to everyone singing Kevin Barry [a song about 18 year-old medical student and IRA soldier Kevin Barry, executed by the British government on 1st November, 1920] and my mum telling me ‘This song’s not allowed in England’. It was daytime, and all the curtains were drawn, everyone drinking, singing an illegal song. I remember thinking, Wow, yes, exciting! My childhood memories, I just wrote them down. You can’t really write on behalf of anybody else. Though I realised later that when I was growing up in north-west London, loads of the kids around there were second generation Irish. All obsessed with being up the front with the best clothes, with dancing to the new records.”
Listen to “My Life In England Pt. 1″ HERE
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