Search This Blog

Saturday, February 1, 2020

Album Review: Dire Straits - Dire Straits (1978)

Dire Straits' eponymous debut album is a masterpiece for many, and rightly so.  So much skill is on display on this album - notably more so than the likes of Making Movies and Brothers in Arms.  And it's far more upbeat and fast-paced than their latter works too, and that's something I always look for in what I consider to be a great record, or a great song, for that matter.  Thus, there are many great songs here as far as I'm concerned - "Setting Me Up", "Switch Blade Knife", "Southbound Again" and "Wild West End" are jostling for first position in the "Dave's favorite songs on this album" ranks, and with "Sultans of Swing" and "Down to the Waterline" being the choice picks for their greatest hits compilations, finding a song that is even remotely rubbish is not going to happen here.  This is the first time I've listened to this album, and I now see why there is so much reverence for it.  Yet another important lesson for those who were, or still are, stuck on believing that Brothers in Arms is the quintessential Dire Straits, because whilst it is good, it isn't that good.  This album, however, is.  Go listen to it, damn it!  A


No comments:

Post a Comment