"Is this just expresso love?"
Back in the mists of time (or to be more precise, 1986) Dire Straits ruled the world. These anonymous men dressed in brightly colured suits and sweatbands bestrode the muscial landscape like giants Geography teachers on a hot date. In suburban commuter towns, middle-aged executives nodded along contentedly in their cars to The Walk of Life and resolved to ask Graham in Finance if he was free for golf on Sunday.
There's nothing more hateful when you're an adolescent than something that is hugely successful, and Brothers in Arms (the bands fourth album) was certainly that (it's current estimated sales top 13 x Platinum in the UK alone!). As everyman-and-his-accountant rushed to grab a copy of the album (for their new fangled Compact Disc Player), you might forgive the younger members of society for getting the impression that The Knof and the boys were about as rock'n'roll as a pair of brown cord slacks and some very comfortable slippers.
So when the band finally returned with their follow up album, On Every Street six years later, it was with a sense of vindication that those self same youths declared it to be "the sort of tedious aural mush they will surely pump into old peoples homes in the future in order to bore the inhabitants to death" **.
But is it possible that Dire Straits were simply victims of their own success? Was it unfair of us to file them under 'big, bland and ideal for long car journeys'? What really lies below the bonnet of this humble band?
On closer examination, a new picture begins to emerge: Knopfler, the late night crooner of romantic misdemenours, the Don Juan of the disadvantaged, the impotent seducer spinning self-depreceating stories from the sidelines, telling tales of love gone wrong. The great lyricist searching for love and meaning in suburbia, before eventually drowning in a pool of his own commercial success. Ladies and gentlemen I give you Mark Knopfler, tortured romantic and observer par excellence.
** Aforementioned youths were clearly unaware of the solo output of Mr Art Garfunkel.
Reviewed by Joe, 21 September 2009.
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