Coming 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.
This is my favorite piece of Mark Knopfler music.
ReplyDeleteWhen 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.
ReplyDeleteHaving 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.
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.
ReplyDelete"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.