If you have a Spotify or any other music streaming service that lets you listen to entire albums in one go, I've got some homework for you.
I know they put out a lot of great albums, but I still feel to this day that nothing compares to Dire Straits' self-titled debut album from 1978. I remember when this record came out while I still lived in Montreal, and it took off like a rocket.
The opening is perfect. The sounds of a port in the fog. Then that guitar slashes through the fog like a knife. What a way to announce your arrival to the world. Down to the waterline.
Water of love opens with beautiful steel guitar licks the likes of which you don't typically hear in modern popular music. The chorus is very catchy. I love when this song comes up on my Spotify playlist.
Setting me up has a nice upbeat feel to it. But you're listening to this and you think to yourself, "Is this a sneaky way to mash zydeko, country, and blues together and unleash it on the unwary public?" Yes, yes it is. Sly devils.
Six blade knife shows that sometimes less is more. Slow, deliberate, smoky and oh so cool.
Southbound again revisits that zydeko feel and you're thinking that this is all Dire Straits have in the tank. Are we in for a big surprise.
"Then the sultans, yeah the sultans they play Creole. Creole." The sultans of swing was that song that made us all stop and ask, "Who are these guys? And who is Guitar George?"
Three more songs round out the album and they're worth a listen if for nothing else but the slick guitar work. I tell ya, if you know someone with an audiophile grade stereo system, you owe it to yourself to listen to this entire album on it from start to finish.
Because itty bitty speakers just don't do it justice.
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