mail: daniel_fjall@hotmail.com
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dire straits comminqué making movies love over gold alchemy brothers in arms
Dire Straits Since Dire Straits’ debut was far from contemporary or followed any of the current trends in the 70’s, it remains fresh and far from out dated to this day. The band’s laid-back and relaxed groove is a rewarding listening. Mark Knopfler’s, the undisputed leader, hushed vocals and minimalistic, tasteful and clean guitar playing characterize the group and separates them from any other. Even in the later days when the sound would be a lot slicker than here, Knopfler’s excellent playing cannot be mistaken for somebody elses. At a time when punk was riding high and enjoyed commercial success, Dire Straits' self-titled debut couldn’t have been released at a more controversial time. Yet it offered an alternative for the audience who wanted something else than bad-attitude kids in ragged clothes. The album is very consistent and not very diverse. Although, if it had been diverse, I’m not sure it would have been as strong. The muddy shuffle of the group puts the listener in a certain mood and if any song had sounded different, the mood and atmosphere had been interrupt and the feeling would have been lost. The most famous song on the album is the single “Sultans of Swing”, and if you like that one, you will probably love “Setting Me Up”, “Down To The Waterline” and “Southbound Again”. Dire Straits is strong and even if its follow-up tried to mimic the sound of it, there’s no album that sounds quite the same. Arguably the best album they ever did, and probably the only album that adjusted itself to the band members advantages and flaws before Knopfler brought in professional studio musicians, replacing the original members (except Mark Knopfler, only bassist John Issley played on all albums).
Communiqué The band’s second album tries hard to repeat the sound and atmosphere of the debut, but miserably fails. It’s more lightweight and has far less integrity. The lyrics are nowhere near as haunting and capturing as on the debut and the band isn’t very inspired. Boring is the word to describe it, I guess. Well, except for the opening reggae-ish “Once Upon A Time In The West”, the great guitar playing in “News” and the radio hit “Lady Writer”. Three songs that, doesn’t save the album or makes it worth getting, but at least serves as some comfort for wasted money. Even though the trademark sound of early Dire Straits is present, Communiqué comes off as bland and generic. Strange as it might seem. Maybe they rushed it, excited about the success of the debut? Knopfler wouldn’t repeat that mistake, as he would spend more and more time in the studio between releases. Anyway, this is the weakest Dire Straits album and far from essential. Rhythm guitarist David Knopfler, Mark’s younger brother, left the band after this album and that forced Mark to bring in other musicians to fill out the sound.
Making Movies With the third album, Mark Knopfler takes a new approach. Instead of keeping the muddy, laid-back, blues influenced pub band of the first two albums, which obviously was quite limited musically from an arranger’s point of view, Knopfler requites a new guitarist and some keyboard players. Making Movies moves towards a more refined sound that has more in common with Born To Run than it has with Dire Straits (which is not so surprising as keyboardist Roy Bittan since long is a standard member of Springsteen’s E-Street Band). Ambitious and pretentious as it may appear, it works best when relying on well constructed, dynamic arrangements highlighted by fantastic guitar playing. Epics such as “Tunnel of Love” shows a lot of ideas and is a highlight in the entire Dire Straits catalogue. You can also tell that Knopfler has a sense for melody. His vocals are terrific throughout, and if he lacks the range to hit some notes, he transfers his wanted melody into the arrangement, often performed by the guitar with great results. “Romeo And Juliet” is another favorite. Knopfler’s lyrics delivers some sort of ‘street-romance’ (‘you and me, babe, how about it?’), but also offers a more traditional and poetic, old fashioned side (‘I can’t do everything, but I do anything for you’). As expected, the song is highlighted by an extraordinary guitar performance and just as in “Tunnel of Love”, every move and tone is well planned beforehand, yet not sounding overbearingly slick or clean. A masterpiece compressed into 6 minutes. The rest of the album isn’t quite as ambitious, even if it remains very different from the debut, it’s a step back to material easier performed by a small band (compared to the two opening songs), even if still filled out with keyboards and overdubs. Especially “Expresso Love” is successful, and especially “Les Boys” is poor. An album worth owning for the two opening songs only, and if you would happen to like the other songs as well it’s a great bonus. Solid and much better than Communiqué, even if not perfect.
Love Over Gold If Making Movies was a groundbreaking move for the band compared to previous albums, Love Over Gold is nearly as groundbreaking compared to its predecessor. Only five songs on the album, but yet stretching over 40 minutes long tells you something about the album. The ideas of “Tunnel of Love” and “Romeo And Juliet” is taken to a new, higher level. The songs are full of long, instrumental passages, tastefully arranged with main focus on Knopfler’s guitar. Opening “Telegraph Road” is 14 minutes of great music and good historical lyrics, that manages to tell us about our present days without moralizing too much. “Private Investigations” features some fine Spanish guitar lines and even if Knopfler only reads the lyrics instead of singing them, the result is very affecting. The music is filled with images and nearly becomes a movie itself instead of amplifying the very theatrical lyrics that could have made a decent film on their own. “Industrial Disease” is the shortest song here, as well as the most light weighted, and whilst not a perfect single, probably the only song here suitable enough for the format. It’s also the weakest of the handful numbers here, yet strong enough to sit through and enjoy. The closing two songs are similar to the opening ones and are just as strong as it gets. If somebody else had played guitar or stood behind the microphone, I would never have expected this to be the same band that released “Sultans of Swing” four years earlier. Of course it wasn’t quite the same band, as even more musicians were brought in, but the brain behind all albums is still the same. I know some people might disagree, but Love Over Gold puts Knopfler in the same league as McCartney, Brian Wilson, Dylan and all those other giants. He only stayed there briefly, though.
Alchemy Even if not the best live album ever, it’s still damn good. Knopfler and his band (now the original drummer, Pick Withers, left and was replaced by Terry Williams) with Mel Collins on additional saxophone and Tom Mandel helping Alan Clark with the keyboard work, put on quite a show on the Hammersmith Odeon. Nearly every song sounds better in this live setting compared to the studio versions. It is impressive to hear the band managing the contrasts in the music, moving effortlessly from loud to quiet, from fast to slow and never stumble once. Besides the masterpieces of Love Over Gold, the band transfers that approach into their earlier material as well. “Once Upon A Time In The West” is gaining from this and Knopfler’s guitar is shining, but the song that is improved most is probably “Sultans of Swing”. It starts at a faster pace than the 1978-version, has some more instruments (obviously) and is slightly rearranged towards the end, embracing the contrasts-concept fully and ending in one big climactic jam with Knopfler bringing down the house when finally moving into the fast, familiar legatos which ended the studioversion. “Tunnel of Love” and “Telegraph Road” features some more mind blowing guitar performances, and whilst staying true to the studioversions, there is more of everything. “Solid Rock” and “Two Young Lovers” seems out of place instead of adding diversity and are the albums weakest tracks. Probably fun for the band, but not the breathing pocket they were set out to be. Those two tracks and the fact that the album is a tad too long, prevents me from giving it the highest rating. Alchemy is overall an incredibly strong live album, by a fantastic band featuring one of the best guitarist in rock. When they pick out the absolute cream of their catalogue to date, they can’t do anything but succeed. When appropriately ending on Mark Knopfler’s gorgeous instrumental “Going Home” from the film “Local Hero”, they stand up tall as the arguably best live act of the 80’s.
Brothers In Arms Often considered a sell-out by critics, but besides the first three songs (which happened to be the singles) there’s nothing disturbingly commercialized on Brothers In Arms. The album sold well, but probably because it was one of the first (if not the first) albums to be released on CD. People bought CD-players and realized that they could only listen to one album, naturally they had to buy it. Tracks such as “The Man’s Too Strong” and “Ride Across The River” doesn’t sound to hit-oriented to me, and since when was Knopfler’s rough vocals ever suitable for the charts? But, and that’s a big but, Knopfler takes a step back from the great arrangements of Love Over Gold. The songs are simpler and down to earth, often reflecting a hidden jazz fascination (“Your Latest Trick”) and a back to basis attitude is clearly evident in the boogie of “Walk of Life”, the lullaby country in “Why Worry” and the poppy “So Far Away”. In the other songs Knopfler raises his hand in warning. “Money For Nothing” is attacking the modern world with biting sarcasm, “Ride Across The River” and “The Man’s Too Strong” are anti-war anthems and so is the title track. “Brothers In Arms” is the best song here, containing beautiful, affecting guitar and a mellow background with Knopfler’s bitter, but yet humanistic lyrics. It ends the album on high, if depressing, note and whilst Brothers In Arms isn’t the pop masterpieces as some might say, it is far from as bad and ugly commercialized as others are claiming. One would think that the hype would have died off nearly 20 years later and revealed the truth, but I guess you have to find out for yourself.
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