Elly Roberts reviews
The Bureau: And Another Thing
Distributed by
The Bureau Productions
Remastered & Expanded: 
- Released: October 2008
- Rating: 2/10
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Resurrection re-shuffle. Old timers’ re-unite..mhh.
Yet another band on the comeback trail is The Bureau.
First time around, they were purveyors of British funk/Northern Soul, apparently.
As a big fan and collector, I know my onions when it comes to the aforementioned
style, so I’m well placed to be critical.
The reunification of ex-Style Council keyboardist Mick Talbot with ex-Dexys’ Archie
Brown, Geoff Blythe, Crispin Taylor, Paul Taylor and Pete Williams is a mouth
watering thought. Between them, they’ve created, or been involved, in some truly
memorable songs: no need to mention.
Back in the early 80s they were rattling the rafters, though from then on,
things got, well, complicated, between one thing and another. They didn’t last very long.
Nostalgia being nostalgia, Archie Brown was seen gigging with his then band The
Young Bucks in 2002. One thing lead to another (networking nowadays) resulted
in the members, who were geographically challenged to pick up the pieces one again.
This time the genre isn’t exactly being represented, as they’ve leaned more
towards their Dexys roots – heavy brass tendencies etc.
You can’t dispute their collective credentials as musicians, but their songwriting
skills leave much to be desired.
Overall, this is a pleasant outcome, but ultimately a drab affair.
What’s missing is the dazzling writing of Kevin Rowland and Modfather Paul Weller.
It starts well enough with a flourish of brass swings on Run Rabbit Run,
though Archie Brown’s singing is more like a poor-man's Ian Dury.
They then go into a funky groove for Save Me, though by even this stage, they
seem like, old men, trying to recreate their youth. Chance In A Million, Freedom
March and Falling are laboured in the extreme, saved by some ‘interesting’ instrumental
breaks by the brass boys.
Just A Word and Flying Lessons have more music hall flavours than Soul, and
Mad is more Latino fused with hoedown tendencies, which are quite good actually.
At the worst end of things, Nothings Going To Stand…, Divided In Two and
Keaton’s Walk are pretty sad efforts at filling the gaps. The weird singing on the
latter, only serves to make matters even worse than the song itself.
File under: Bad bad sad idea.
The full list of tracks included are :
Review & concert pics copyright © Elly Roberts, 2004-2010.
