They say that the first album of a band is the most important one. Well, I guess that is very much true for Dire Straits. Look at the track list of their self titled first album:
1. Down To The Waterline
2. Water Of Love
3. Settin' Me Up
4. Six Blade Knife
5. Southbound Again
6. Sultans Of Swing
7. In The Gallery
8. Wild West End
9. Lions
The album takes you from an emotional journey down to the waterline, and soon you feel a water of love. Then you set yourself up with a six blade knife, and before you realize, you are southbound again. There you meet the Sultans of Swing, who takes you in to the gallery in the wild west end. Finally you find Lions chasing you and you go down to the waterline.
Well, the paragraph above was kind of silly, but what I meant to say is that you can listen to this album over and over, without feeling bored. The first track starts off with an excitedly jubilant, and yet emotional tune. Then things get a bit slow with water of love, and the same pattern persists throughout the album. All the tracks are heavily influenced by different styles of guitar play by none other than Mark Knopfler. He is called a guitar virtuoso for good reasons, and this album nods to it perfectly well.
If you listen to the tracks using a two channel speaker, you will miss out many background sounds. However, the experience totally changes when you use a 5 channel speaker setup.
Sultans of Swing is obviously the chart topping hit, but the other songs are great as well. A must listen for any fan of music. I'd give it 10 out of 5. 5 for excellence, and an additional 5 for timelessness. This album came out 30 years ago, and yet it sounds fresh as new.
1. Down To The Waterline
2. Water Of Love
3. Settin' Me Up
4. Six Blade Knife
5. Southbound Again
6. Sultans Of Swing
7. In The Gallery
8. Wild West End
9. Lions
The album takes you from an emotional journey down to the waterline, and soon you feel a water of love. Then you set yourself up with a six blade knife, and before you realize, you are southbound again. There you meet the Sultans of Swing, who takes you in to the gallery in the wild west end. Finally you find Lions chasing you and you go down to the waterline.
Well, the paragraph above was kind of silly, but what I meant to say is that you can listen to this album over and over, without feeling bored. The first track starts off with an excitedly jubilant, and yet emotional tune. Then things get a bit slow with water of love, and the same pattern persists throughout the album. All the tracks are heavily influenced by different styles of guitar play by none other than Mark Knopfler. He is called a guitar virtuoso for good reasons, and this album nods to it perfectly well.
If you listen to the tracks using a two channel speaker, you will miss out many background sounds. However, the experience totally changes when you use a 5 channel speaker setup.
Sultans of Swing is obviously the chart topping hit, but the other songs are great as well. A must listen for any fan of music. I'd give it 10 out of 5. 5 for excellence, and an additional 5 for timelessness. This album came out 30 years ago, and yet it sounds fresh as new.
Its also my favorite album.
ReplyDeleteI heard Sultans of Swing being practiced over and over again by a rising band in our neighborhood (Para). This is how the album influenced our generation and will keep doing it for generations to come.