Playlist 02.01.12

There will be a new Dexys Midnight Runners album in 2012. Not everybody may share my excitement at the prospect but I'm always a bit thrilled when Kevin Rowland delivers something new. Let's not forget, the contentious 'My Beauty' album from 1999 was a covers project. The last 'proper' solo album was 'The Wanderer' in 1988 and since then, there have only been three new songs in circulation: 'Manhood', 'My Life In England' and more recently, 'It's OK Johanna'.

A recent online sample of new work suggests that it will partly return to the theme of Celtic laments and his connection to the west of Ireland via his parents' Mayo roots. Which is great by me. On my first show of the year I dropped in 'Young Man' from that 1988 collection. The sound of a guy telling his lessons to another generation, consoling the boy's heart, looking to balance the intensity of pure experience with the world's brutal tendencies. Kevin sings it tenderly and it always chokes me up.

BBC Radio Ulster, 92-95 FM

Online: www.bbc.co.uk/radioulster

Blog: https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/stuartbailie/

Mondays, ten - midnight

The Psychedelic Furs - Pretty In Pink (CBS)

The Silver Seas - Candy (Lights)

The Amboy Dukes - Baby Please Don't Go (Elektra)

Tom McShane - Private Rooms (Third Bar)

Leonard Cohen - Show Me The Place (Sony)

Tom McShane - A Personal Narrative of Life At Sea (Third Bar)

Howler - Back Of Your Neck (Rough Trade)

The Rockingbirds - Til Something Better Comes Along (Spring)

The Staple Singers - Got To Be Some Changes (Decca)

Van Morrison - Brand New Day (Warner)

Porcelain Raft - Drifting In And Out (Secretly Canadian)

Duke Special - This Time Next Year (Reel To Reel)

Julia Lee - If It's Good (Mercury)

Jeb Loy Nichols - Ain't It Funny (Decca)

Mayer Hawthorne - A Long Time (Universal)

Aretha Franklin - Ain't No Way (WSM)

Kevin Rowland - Young Man (Mercury)

Michael Tiwanuka - Home (Communion)

Mary Margaret O'Hara - A New Day (Virgin)

Nick Lowe - The Poisoned Rose (Proper)

Ruth Moody - Winter Waltz (Red House)

Craig Finn -Terrified Eyes (Full Time Hobby)

Nat Johnson - The Scottish Song (Sheffield Phonographic)

Malojian - Julie-Anne (white)

Portico Quartet - Ruins (Real World)