Dire Straits - On Every Street (1991)

So yeah, I got bored and decided to come back to blogging.  That, and I went out and picked up a Dire Straits CD whilst I still could.  And yeah, it's the third album from the band I've reviewed this year.  I try not to write reviews for the same artist within a year if I can.  But sod it, I'm gonna do it anyway.  Now, two things are certain at this point in time - 1) the world is in dire straits and 2) Mark Knopfler is not in Dire Straits.  And it's a shame in a way about the latter - Dire Straits made great music, even with the travesty of adding steel guitars into the instrumental mix on albums such as this one, On Every Street.  Otherwise, it's not a bad swansong studio record for the band - it loses my attention a bit with "Iron Hand" and "Ticket to Heaven", and I'm sure I'm one of three people who actually likes "The Bug."  The title track, "On Every Street", however, is by far the best song here, and "Calling Elvis" and "Heavy Fuel" are good enough to make their best of compilation albums.  "My Parties" is listenable too, even if it does have a "stoned Mr. Blobby inadvertently frightening small children" musical feel to it.  But as soon it ticks over into "Planet of New Orleans" I'm starting to think that this is more like it.  And the final track, "How Long", has a bit of a John Denver-meets-Postman Pat vibe going on, but nonetheless it's remarkably good, with an upbeat country-esque sound that other bands and and artists who occasionally delve into the genre would struggle to sincerely replicate so well.  Was it worth buying?  Yeah.  A-