release date: May 1978
format: vinyl (6360 162) / digital
[album rate: 4 / 5] [4,12]
producer: Muff Winwood
label: Vertigo Records - nationality: England, UK
Track highlights: 1. "Down to the Waterline" - 4. "Six Blade Knife" - 5. "Southbound Again" - 6. "Sultan of Swing" (5 / 5) - 8. "Wild West End"
Studio debut album by Dire Straits. With this album they sort of came out of nowhere and jumped all the way to the front row of modern contemporary pop music. The band consists of Mark Knopfler on vocals, lead and rhythm guitars, his younger brother David on rhythm guitar, and backing vocals, John Illsley on bass, and backing vocals, and with Pick Withers playing drums. The style is quite unique, although, it's also obvious that it's build on mostly British r&b and blues rock as played by The Yardbirds, Cream, The Animals with a twist of early Fleetwood Mac and Dylan, but it also incorporates elements from British pub rock, jazz, and folk, which help making the music rather unique. At the time of the release, I wasn't old enough to discover this by myself but my older brother bought the album and he played it constantly, and I enjoyed it so much that I bought a copy of my own just one year later. Listening to it today, it's also evident that both Peter Gabriel and Creedence Clearwater Revival may have been inspirational sources. The album is enlisted in "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die".
[ allmusic.com 4 / 5 stars ]
