Artist: Dire Straits
Label: Vertigo Records
Released: 1979
Length: 42:24
Rating: 4.2/5
A year after a flawless debut album, Dire Straits came back with a very worthy follow-up. Even though the “critics” have branded it Dire Straits’ weakest album, that claim is light-years away from the truth.
The boys kick things off with the bluesy Once Upon A Time In The West, which is super chilled and sets the tone for the whole album. Next up is News, which personally I think is one of the best things Mark Knopfler ever wrote in his entire career, and he later dedicated the song to the late John Lennon. Where Do You Think You’re Going? starts with just an acoustic guitar and Mark’s lazy vocal, which sounds like he couldn’t care less about anything in that moment except this one song. Brilliant!
Communiqué is probably the weakest moment on the album. The arrangement is done really well, but the song, especially as the title track carrying the whole album, is missing something. It’s followed by Lady Writer, one of the livelier and above all more commercial tracks. You could maybe describe it as a sequel to the first hit, Sultans Of Swing. Though never fully tapped, Angel Of Mercy is another mid-tempo song with commercial potential. Portobello Belle, with its touch of romance, slightly recalls Romeo And Juliet from the third album, Making Movies. In short, a really pleasant tune that, with its gorgeous piano, points the way to the next album. Single Handed Sailor is one of those songs that literally hooks you with the guitar line running through the whole thing.
The album closes with Follow Me Home, whose feel reflects the place where the song was written and recorded… in the Bahamas.
Let me wrap up with this thought: Communiqué is a very lazy album, but a pleasantly chilled-out kind of lazy, and among other things it fully shows the influence of the environment it was recorded in.
Lineup
Mark Knopfler – guitar, vocals
John Illsley – bass
Pick Withers – drums
David Knopfler – guitar
Production
Jerry Wexler & Barry Becket
Tracklist
1.Once Upon A Time In The West
2.News
3.Where Do You Think You’re Going
4.Communique
5.Lady Writer
6.Angel Of Mercy
7.Portobello Belle
8.Single Handed Sailor
9.Follow Me Home
