Communique is the 1979 follow-up to the group’s surprisingly successful debut album. The sophomore album entered the German charts at number one in its first week and reached gold status in the U.S. Now reissued on 180g vinyl.
The third album for Dire Straits, Making Movies was originally released in 1980. On Making Movies, Dire Straits began to move away from its roots rock origins into a jazzier variation of country-rock and singer/songwriter folk-rock storytelling. Featuring «Romeo And Juliet», «Tunnel Of Love» and «Skateaway». Although the songs «Making Movies» and «Suicide Towers» were recorded during the sessions for this album, the two were never officially released.
On 1982’s Love Over Gold Dire Straits added a new rhythm guitarist, expanding its sounds and ambitions on their sprawling fourth studio album. Despite the fact that Love Over Gold contains only five songs, the powerful effect of these selections makes this Dire Straits’ more underrated record. Building on the ambitious arrangements and more sophisticated story-songs that made up the prior Making Movies, Mark Knopfler audaciously composed «Telegraph Road», a near-15-minute cut that traces society’s technological evolution. Although this kind of subject matter might sound ostensibly dry, Knopfler’s crisp playing and warm raspy voice, combined with Alan Clark’s gorgeous keyboard runs, makes for a sweeping experience.
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Dire Straits’ Self-Titled 1978 Debut Distinguished by Jazz-Inflected Mix of Folk, Blues, Country, and Rock: Guitarist Mark Knopfler Displays Uncanny Precision, Intricacy, and Texture
Breakout Dire Straits Album Includes «Sultans of Swing» and «Down to the Waterline»: Band’s Shuffles, Boogies, and Ballads Spark With Crispness, Soulfulness, Coolness
Dire Straits’ arresting self-titled debut arrived in the midst of punk’s reign but couldn’t have been further removed from the era’s slash-and-burn style. Recorded in West London in February 1978, the band’s tasteful, jazz-inflected set embraces folk, blues, and pub rock while also tracing a direct line back to the beat-oriented sound of early rock n’ roll. Country and roots accents further distinguish the British quartet’s stripped-down music from any 1970s peers, as does the transparent production, which has remained revered among audiophiles the world over – and which has never been better than on this meticulous analog pressing.
Mastered from the original master tapes and pressed at RTI, Mobile Fidelity’s 180g 45RPM 2LP version of Dire Straits features natural tonalities, superb balances, you-are-there imaging, deep-black backgrounds, and pristine clarity. Even if you’ve heard this album hundreds of times before, you’ve never experienced it with such lifelike sonics and premium richness. This numbered, limited-edition collector’s set immerses you within the smoky, laidback atmospherics of every song. This is how all vinyl should sound.
Crucial to every arrangement, Mark Knopfler’s winding guitar lines emerge with supreme transparency and multi-hued textural detail. His intricate playing comes across as if it’s being transmitted via his 60s-era Fender Vibrolux amplifier placed right before you. The cleanliness, dimensions, and live feel are that good. His bandmates, too, benefit from the extra groove space afforded by this 45RPM edition. Rhythms skate and swirl; percussive effects resonate with crispness and attack; the leading edges of notes naturally decay.
Dire Straits’ strong, well-edited batch of original material further enhances the overall enjoyment and makes the record one whose pleasures go far beyond the organic sonics. Just as Knopfler’s narratives pour forth with poetic and surrealist texts, the musical settings – an intoxicating combination of easygoing shuffles, back-hall boogies, and pop-honed ballads – mirror the old-fashioned soulfulness inherent in the classic recordings of the late 50s and early 60s. The lyrics are equally captivating.
Drawing from his time as a youth in Newcastle, Leeds, and London, Knopfler invests tunes with an autobiographical slant and emotional connectivity that become obvious the moment he opens his mouth to sing. «Down to the Waterline,» «Wild West End,» and «Lions» all feature colloquial touches that add to their reach. By extension, «In the Gallery» functions as a tribute to Leeds sculptor Harry Phillips (father of future Knoplfer collaborator, Steve Phillips) while the record’s breakout smash, «Sultans of Swing,» pays homage to struggling bar bands.
Through it all, Dire Straits performs with a subtle cool and clever poise that no band ever matched. Just how good is the chemistry? Bob Dylan heard the quartet and invited Knopfler and drummer Pick Withers to play on Slow Train Coming. But even Dylan himself didn’t hear Dire Straits sound this magnetic back in its original heyday. Now, everyone can.
The record sounds amazing. If you are a fan, you’ll want to upgrade to this. If you’re not, it’s still worth considering if just as a demo test record to help determine your system’s transient precision and clarity and especially its bass and mid-bass performance.
«…The sparse atmospherics – built around Knopfler’s crystalline Fender Strat and 60s-era Fender Vibrolux amp, his Dylan-esque vocal snarl, and a tight rhythm section (guitarist David Knopfler, bassistg John Illsey, and drummer Rick Withers) – shines on this remaster, which delivers shimmering highs and punchy lows.» – Greg Cahill, The Absolute Sound, March 2020
Mark Knopfler | vocals, lead & rhythm guitars |
---|---|
David Knopfler | rhythm guitar |
John Illsley | bass |
Pick Withers | drums |
TAS Rated 5/5 Music, 4.5/5 Sonics in the January 2019 Issue of The Absolute Sound!
Deluxe Limited Edition CD & 3LP Box Set!
Mark Knopfler’s 9th studio album is released on Knopfler’s own British Grove Records via Virgin EMI Records.
The album stays true to the folk and roots-inflected ambience of his solo material, but introduces new elements of jazz, funk and even a hint of the rockier leanings of earlier days.
The album features new songs inspired by a wide range of subjects, including Knopflers early days in Deptford with Dire Straits, a stray soccer fan lost in a strange town, the compulsion of a musician hitching home through the snow and a man out of time in his local greasy spoon diner.
Knopfler explains, Down The Road Wherever is a line from One Song At A Time. I remember my pal Chet Atkins once saying that he picked his way out of poverty one song at a time, and it just stuck in my mind. You get to an age where youve written quite a few songs. But Down The Road Wherever seems to be appropriate for me just because its what Ive always done. Ive always tried to make a record and also to keep my own geography happening in the songs.
Knopfler assembled the same group of top-flight musicians he has worked with for the past few years (plus one or two new faces). He encourages them to put their own stamp on the material without interfering with the essence of the song.
I think the business of making a record, from having written a song and then bringing it to musicians, it can be quite a bendy route, notes Knopfler. Its not just motorways all the way
and you can end up in the occasional cul-de-sac, then you have to do a 16-point turn to try to get your truck back out on the main road as unobtrusively as you can. Thats part of the fun of it.
Down The Road Wherever is produced by Knopfler and Guy Fletcher (Dire Straits, Roxy Music) and was recorded at British Grove Studios in London. The band features Knopfler on guitars, Jim Cox and Guy Fletcher on keyboards, Nigel Hitchcock on saxophone, Tom Walsh on trumpet, John McCusker on fiddle, Mike McGoldrick on whistle and flute, Glenn Worf on bass, Ian Ianto Thomas on drums and Danny Cummings on percussion. Richard Bennett and Robbie McIntosh also feature on guitar, Trevor Mires on trombone, and Imelda May, Kris Drever, Lance Ellington, Beverley Skeete and Katie Kissoon all add backing vocals. All songs are written by Knopfler apart from Just A Boy Away From Home on which he shares writing credits with Rodgers and Hammerstein, using a piece of Youll Never Walk Alone to spin the songs tale of a lone Liverpool F.C. fan wandering the empty streets of Newcastle after midnight.
Knopfler has previously released eight solo albums, as well as Neck And Neck with guitar great Chet Atkins and All The Roadrunning with Emmylou Harris. He has also created film soundtracks for Local Hero, The Princess Bride and Cal. Knopfler was made an Order of the British Empire in 1999 and was given the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award at the Ivor Novellos in 2012.
«…»Down the Road Wherever» is the apex intersection of the Scottish-bred artist’s ambition and craft, deftly entwining his mastery of locational songwriting flavored with Nashvillian strum and twang. «Back On the Dance Floor» entangles his patented gnarly guitar tone with a sensual background-vocal kiss during the choruses, courtesy of Irish enchantress Imelda May. «Just a Boy Away From Home» weaves subtle, back-in-the-mix keyboard fills from longtime collaborator Guy Fletcher, smooth brush drums, and melody-caressing horns alongside an acknowledged vocal an soloing shout out to Rodgers and Hammerstein’s «You’ll Never Walk Alone»… Wherever Knopfler’s muse continues to roam, our ears must surely follow.» – Mike Mettler, The Absolute Sound, January 2019
Features:
• Deluxe Limited Edition CD, 2LP, Bonus 12″ w/4 Extra Tracks Box Set
• 12″ Double Gatefold LP
• Bonus 4 Track LP
• Deluxe CD
• 16-page booklet (with deluxe CD)
• 12″ Guitar Tablature of «Back On the Dance Floor»
• 12″ Print of Album artwork
• Made in the E.U.
• Limited time digital download card
Selections:
Side A:
1. Trapper Man
2. Back On The Dance Floor
3. Nobody’s Child
Side B:
1. Nobody Does That
2. Good On You Son
3. Floating Away
Side C:
1. One Song At A Time
2. Heavy Up
3. Slow Learner
Side D:
1. Just A Boy Away From Home
2. My Bacon Roll
3. When You Leave
4. Matchstick Man
Bonus 12″ Vinyl:
Side 1:
1. Drovers’ Road
2. Don’t Suck Me In
Side 2:
1. Sky And Water
2. Pale Imitation
Deluxe CD:
1. Trapper Man
2. Back On The Dance Floor
3. Nobody’s Child
4. Just A Boy Away From Home
5. When You Leave
6. Good On You Son
7. My Bacon Roll
8. Nobody Does That
9. Drovers’ Road
10. One Song At A Time
11. Floating Away
12. Slow Learner
13. Heavy Up
14. Every Heart In The Room
15. Rear View Mirror
16. Matchstick Man