Music Banter - View Single Post - Bitesize: Trollheart's Daily Album Mini-Reviews

Trollheart · 09-16-2012, 04:50 PM

End of the (Telegraph) Road

(The low rating is not just based on the album being bad: it's not, not that bad. But the fact that it was the last ever Dire Straits album should have seen these guys pull out all the stops, and for me this just comes across as ordinary, okay, nothing special. Damp squib on which to end a fairly glittering career...)

Artiste: Dire Straits
Nationality: British (English)
Album: On every street
Year: 1991
Label: Vertigo
Genre: Rock
Tracks:
Calling Elvis
On every street
When it comes to you
Fade to black
The bug
You and your friend
Hevay fuel
Iron hand
Ticket to Heaven
My parties
Planet of New Orleans
How long
Chronological position: Sixth (and final) album
Familiarity: “Dire Straits”, “Communique”, “Making movies”, “Love over gold”, “Alchemy”, “Brothers in arms”
Interesting factoid:
Initial impression: Starts well, encouraging but tinged with feelings of sadness.
Best track(s): Calling Elvis, Fade to black, You and your friend, Heavy fuel, Planet of New Orleans
Worst track(s): My panties --- sorry, parties!

Comments: Never reviewed an album before that was intended to be the swansong of a band, and in fairness, if any album should have fulfilled that role it was 1985's classic “Brothers in arms”, which brought Dire Straits back into the mainstream and afforded them their biggest success for years, while also re-establishing them as a serious rock band. This is in fact the only DS album I have never even heard once; in fact, for a long time I assumed BiA to be their last, or certainly most recent album, and when I saw this I thought it was yet another of those interminable greatest hits packages that tend to follow bands around like a bad smell.

Does it set the final seal on a career that spans thirteen years, but seems to have lasted a whole lot longer? One of the most famous, and often reviled, rock acts, you'd probably have to go far before you'd get someone who wouldn't know at least the name of one Dire Straits song if asked. Their fans don't stride proudly down the streets wearing t-shirts with their names on, but it seems everyone knows them, whether they love, hate or ignore them. The album starts off well, with a song that somehow puts me in mind of Nick Cave's work on “Murder ballads”, while the title track, much more sedate and bleak, has a lot of James Taylor in it, quite folky in a downbeat way, though it does pick up nicely towards the end.

There are of course some nice blues numbers, which adequately show off Mark Knopfler's deserved reputation as a guitarist, such as Fade to black and You and your friend, and they sit nicely alongside uptempo rockers like Heavy fuel and The bug. We kind of get Telegraph Road part II in Iron hand, and there's Hawaiian style melody in Ticket to Heaven, but generally I'm finding this a weak album. While not actually bad, I can't see it standing up beside such giants as “Brothers in arms” and “Love over gold”, and as an album to bow out on, I really think the guys could have pulled out the stops a lot more. The overall feeling I'm getting from this is a sense of weariness, of wanting it all to be over. That's not to say that there's not energy on the album --- there are some very rocky tracks --- but overall it feels really like a winding-down, a grateful release rather than a last triumphant punch of the air before one of the most polarising bands on the planet take their final bow: there will be no encores, and although that's sad, I feel in a way it's strangely appropriate. Perhaps things had run their course --- it's no secret Knopfler was champing at the bit to take off on his solo career --- but I just feel they have not put into their final album anything like the committment, passion and enthusiasm they did on previous. Sure, we all knew the party was over, but there was no reason we couldn't have had one last blowout, was there?

Ah well, time to grab my coat and step out blinking into the early morning sunlight in search of a taxi.
Overall impression: Quite bland; it has its moments but generally something of a letdown and really more a preview of Mark Knopfler's solo output than a decent ending to a decent band.
Intention: Nothing left I can do! I've now heard all their albums, though in honesty I'd have preferred to have stopped at “Brothers in arms”.

09-16-2012, 04:50 PM	#90 (permalink)
Trollheart Born to be mild Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: 404 Not Found Posts: 26,996	End of the (Telegraph) Road (The low rating is not just based on the album being bad: it's not, not that bad. But the fact that it was the last ever Dire Straits album should have seen these guys pull out all the stops, and for me this just comes across as ordinary, okay, nothing special. Damp squib on which to end a fairly glittering career...) Artiste: Dire Straits Nationality: British (English) Album: On every street Year: 1991 Label: Vertigo Genre: Rock Tracks: Calling Elvis On every street When it comes to you Fade to black The bug You and your friend Hevay fuel Iron hand Ticket to Heaven My parties Planet of New Orleans How long Chronological position: Sixth (and final) album Familiarity: “Dire Straits”, “Communique”, “Making movies”, “Love over gold”, “Alchemy”, “Brothers in arms” Interesting factoid: Initial impression: Starts well, encouraging but tinged with feelings of sadness. Best track(s): Calling Elvis, Fade to black, You and your friend, Heavy fuel, Planet of New Orleans Worst track(s): My panties --- sorry, parties! Comments: Never reviewed an album before that was intended to be the swansong of a band, and in fairness, if any album should have fulfilled that role it was 1985's classic “Brothers in arms”, which brought Dire Straits back into the mainstream and afforded them their biggest success for years, while also re-establishing them as a serious rock band. This is in fact the only DS album I have never even heard once; in fact, for a long time I assumed BiA to be their last, or certainly most recent album, and when I saw this I thought it was yet another of those interminable greatest hits packages that tend to follow bands around like a bad smell. Does it set the final seal on a career that spans thirteen years, but seems to have lasted a whole lot longer? One of the most famous, and often reviled, rock acts, you'd probably have to go far before you'd get someone who wouldn't know at least the name of one Dire Straits song if asked. Their fans don't stride proudly down the streets wearing t-shirts with their names on, but it seems everyone knows them, whether they love, hate or ignore them. The album starts off well, with a song that somehow puts me in mind of Nick Cave's work on “Murder ballads”, while the title track, much more sedate and bleak, has a lot of James Taylor in it, quite folky in a downbeat way, though it does pick up nicely towards the end. There are of course some nice blues numbers, which adequately show off Mark Knopfler's deserved reputation as a guitarist, such as Fade to black and You and your friend, and they sit nicely alongside uptempo rockers like Heavy fuel and The bug. We kind of get Telegraph Road part II in Iron hand, and there's Hawaiian style melody in Ticket to Heaven, but generally I'm finding this a weak album. While not actually bad, I can't see it standing up beside such giants as “Brothers in arms” and “Love over gold”, and as an album to bow out on, I really think the guys could have pulled out the stops a lot more. The overall feeling I'm getting from this is a sense of weariness, of wanting it all to be over. That's not to say that there's not energy on the album --- there are some very rocky tracks --- but overall it feels really like a winding-down, a grateful release rather than a last triumphant punch of the air before one of the most polarising bands on the planet take their final bow: there will be no encores, and although that's sad, I feel in a way it's strangely appropriate. Perhaps things had run their course --- it's no secret Knopfler was champing at the bit to take off on his solo career --- but I just feel they have not put into their final album anything like the committment, passion and enthusiasm they did on previous. Sure, we all knew the party was over, but there was no reason we couldn't have had one last blowout, was there? Ah well, time to grab my coat and step out blinking into the early morning sunlight in search of a taxi. Overall impression: Quite bland; it has its moments but generally something of a letdown and really more a preview of Mark Knopfler's solo output than a decent ending to a decent band. Intention: Nothing left I can do! I've now heard all their albums, though in honesty I'd have preferred to have stopped at “Brothers in arms”. __________________ Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018 Last edited by Trollheart; 01-13-2015 at 11:21 AM.