Review of Dire Straits' COMMUNIQUE

[Shai]

Here, you will find a very nice review of.....Communique; it took this bloke a while until he gave it a real listen, but this is a nice article.

http://somethingelsereviews.com/2015/06/15/dire-straits-communique-mark-knopfler/


Enjoy!!

     Saul

[Pottel]

great review.

[rudiger]

"Communique is an understated gem "   

[Shai]

Communique is worth its weight in gold. Literally! I own a Dire Straits Gold Album of Communique!! It is a fine piece of art with the Dire Straits red strat logo on the right side!!

Saul

[IrisRose]

When released, Communique was not treated well by the critics.  It has since shown its worth.  It is a marvelous set of music. 

[JF]

during my early years of DS fan (1988) Communique remained my fav album, and I far prefered it compared to the 1st album.
years later (around 1994-1995) my friend drummer made me rediscover the 1st album, and since, it's hard to choose the one I like the must.
well, apart from OES, I must admit I love ex-aequo all DS albums 

[IrisRose]

Communique remains my favorite DS recording, and Ragpicker's Dream my favorite MK recording.  While there are much loved tracks on all the others, these two are my go-to cds.    My favorite track of his whole body of work is on Golden Heart.   

[3Pints]

When released, Communique was not treated well by the critics.  It has since shown its worth.  It is a marvelous set of music.

Agreed.  It was going to be tough to live up to expectations in following up the exquisite, self-titled debut and I think it was also hard for some listeners and fans - myself included - to really appreciate the second album (Communiqué) at first.   
After the group disbanded though (in other words, with the benefit of hindsight), I really did come to love and appreciate Communiqué as one of their finest albums.  ....and still do!   

Thanks Shai, for posting the link to that review. 

Cheers,
3Pints

[dustyvalentino]

I think it's easy to see why it wasn't appreciated when it came out. Sonically it's too similar to the first album and it lacks a hit single.

[ds1984]

I think it's easy to see why it wasn't appreciated when it came out. Sonically it's too similar to the first album and it lacks a hit single.

Mark expressed his view about that, saying that doing Communiqué in the same vein as the first album was an error and that he learned from that by doing each following album different. Is this still true in 2015?

[Justme]

I think it's easy to see why it wasn't appreciated when it came out. Sonically it's too similar to the first album and it lacks a hit single.

Mark expressed his view about that, saying that doing Communiqué in the same vein as the first album was an error and that he learned from that by doing each following album different. Is this still true in 2015?

Very good quote. When I think about it, every album has its own unique feel - Tracker in 2015, too. so this could be true. Or maybe it is just my impression. Different times in life, growing older and so on. <scratching my looooong grey beard>   

[JF]

I think it's easy to see why it wasn't appreciated when it came out. Sonically it's too similar to the first album and it lacks a hit single.

Mark expressed his view about that, saying that doing Communiqué in the same vein as the first album was an error and that he learned from that by doing each following album different. Is this still true in 2015?

well spoted, his solo work is more "uniform" than the DS stuff imho

[dustyvalentino]

Disagree.  A lot of random styles thrown around on the solo albums, albeit with a familiar folky theme running through.

Knoxville
You Don't Know Youre Born
Hard Shoulder
Paraguay etc

[JF]

Disagree.  A lot of random styles thrown around on the solo albums, albeit with a familiar folky theme running through.

Knoxville
You Don't Know Youre Born
Hard Shoulder
Paraguay etc

I see your point Dusty and indeed you are right in the fact he has going through different styles in his solo work, but in term of melodies or songs keys (almost all Tracker songs are in C) I find that his solo work has more the "same rengaine" feeling that the DS stuff. Maybe it's just an impression ?
the 2 firsts albums have the same guitar tone on all tracks, and are all in the same style, with pentatonic blues scales, BUT by listening I find them with far more variations than say KTGC or Tracker which feels to be more "static" more "linear", can't find the right word to express what I mean.
His solo stuff is more "pépère" like we say in french, more "safe zone", while on the DS stuff he seemed to take more risks.
I think it's hard to get some "surprises " on a recent Mk album, we know almost all type songs we will get before the release (celtic, ballads, H. Marvin stuff, maybe some classic blues and that's it) while I bet that fans who discovered MM or LOG were quite "surprised" in comparison to what they had heard before. I hear more musical "evolution" between communique and BIA for example, than between TRD and Tracker, but again it's just my opinion, and my hearing impression. Of course, I don't pretend to say the truth

[Lis]

Very nice review -- thanks for posting this, Shai!

And I am glad to know that I am not the only one who has to sit on some LPs (and books), before I am ready for a listen.