Dire Straits- a band which has got few of greatest rock hits of all times to their names, the enchanting vocals of Mark Knopfler’s, selling a whopping 103 million ablums, and in their time... werent actually liked by the critics, but were hugely successful....man its difficult to write a review on these guys. more so on this album, of which almost every song is just GREAT.
The album begins with ’Sultans of swing’ and it clearly gives an indication of the feel of the album. The guitar and drums form and unbeatable combination and it sets the tempo going. Those were the days when drums used to be real . With some excellent guitaring, the song just stays!! then follow ’lady writer’, ’tunnel of love’ and ’twisting by the pool’, all of which are sort of rock and roll songs. with good lyrics, and even better guitar, what could a rock fan ask for. the 8 minute ’tunnel...’ is certainly one of the best songs of the album. an interesting fact is ’twisting...’ was composed in one day! ’romeo and juliet’ and ’private investigations’ however reveal a different mood. Both are slow rock ballads, each of them extremly hummable. acoustic guitars and piano make thier way in these both songs, giving both the songs a rich feel.
The album also has 3 live version songs ’love over gold’, ’your latest trick’ and ’local hero/wild theme’. ’love...’ is again a beautiful song, interlaced with good piano, while ’your latest...’ begins with a saxophone...and lingers throughout the song, blending at different intervals in form of a jugal-bandi with the guitar....and its mesmerizing!! ’local hero/...’ is a slow guitar solo, and is refreshing to listen to. ’so far away’ and ’brothers in arms’ are slow rock songs, with the latter one nearly feels a vocal solo. ’ Walk of life’ again sets up the tempo with some synthesizer music, becomes a feel-good rock and roll song. ’ Calling elvis’, ’ Heavy Fuel’ and ’ On every street’again mix drums and guitar...reminding that this is essentially a rock album!! but perhaps their most talked about song was ’money for nothing’ which is true rock song.
With full guitars and drums, this one again becomes a addictive song. but frankly speaking, I found ’tunnel of love’ to be the one which I think is the best amongst the lot. with so many variations in their music, dire straits easily rank amongs the best rock bands in the world...and yet at the same time, manage a mix of blues, country music and what not! they are also different from others in the sense that they dont sound ’angry’ or ’hoarse’ which I believe is a common point amongst many rock bands. If you are a rock fan...grab this one. U just cant miss this one!!! long live ROCK!!!