Thursday, March 31, 2011

Best of the 80's: Love Over Gold by Dire Straits

Love Over GoldComing in at number 96 on the Best of the 80's list is this 1982 release. For me this album as always been a tale of two sides. Side one of this album is fantastic with "Telegraph Road" and "Private Investigations." Side two has always been OK but nothing to write home about.

That opening side is heavily instrumental with a heavy mood. It opens with the sound of thunder and quiet and that feeling is kept through the entire first side. It's a fantastic listen if you want to turn out the lights, crank up the stereo and just enjoy. Musically I don't think Dire Straits is ever better than this first side.

"Industrial Disease" opens the second side and breaks the mood. It's not that the second side of the album is bad, it just doesn't hold up to the first.

Following the Rhapsody rating method I give it 3 out of 5 stars for Pretty Good.

3 comments:

  1. When I was in college, I was great friends with a guy who was a huge Mark Knopfler fan and who had memorized all the lyrics to "Industrial Disease." We used to listen to that song by the hour. I think it's brilliant. In fact, I think "Telegraph Road" and "Industrial Disease" are the best things Dire Straits ever did.

    Having said that, I pretty much never listen to this album all the way through. About 10 times a year, I will listen to "Telegraph Road." About 5 times as year, I will listen to "Industrial Disease." And that's about it.

    Having said that, I will say I wish there were more bands today that were as interesting and thought-provoking as Dire Straits.

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  2. I would also say that "Telegraph Road" is the only really successful attempt by someone other than Bruce Springsteen to write a Bruce Springsteen song.

    "You had your head on my shoulder
    You had your hand in my hair
    Now you act a little colder
    Like you don't seem to care.

    Just believe in me baby,
    And I'll take you away
    From out of this darkness
    And into the day

    From these rivers of headlights
    These rivers of rain
    From the anger that lives on
    These streets with no name.
    'Cause I've run every red light on memory lane
    I've seen desperation explode into pain
    And I don't ever want to see it again

    From all of these signs
    Saying 'Sorry, but we're closed'
    All the way
    Down the Telegraph Road."

    Now that sounds exactly like a Springsteen lyric. And yet it's so good that it doesn't seem like a cheap knockoff.

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