Mark Knopfler Solo Album Elimination Poll - Round 8

[Knopflerfan]

And so onto the 8th and final round to find out the AMITers favourite MK solo album....

[dustyvalentino]

Shock result on the cards?

[Knopflerfan]

Shock result on the cards?

Maybe, just maybe Dusty...

[Jules]

Nah, STP is going to win. For sure.

[KnopfleRick]

Nah, STP is going to win. For sure.

Who knows, who knows....

[Jules]

Nah, STP is going to win. For sure.

Who knows, who knows....

By the way, for me the best MK solo records are already gone, so I'm not gonna feel identified by any of these two, even I think that ShangriLa is better than STP, none of them are better for me than my favorites, that are gone.

[NicoMK]

By the way, for me the best MK solo records are already gone, so I'm not gonna feel identified by any of these two, even I think that ShangriLa is better than STP, none of them are better for me than my favorites, that are gone.

Same for me. Get Lucky, Golden Heart and KTGC are my top 3. Shangri-La is OK to my ears but I prefer Sailing to Philadelphia so…

[Knopflerfan]

Nah, STP is going to win. For sure.

Who knows, who knows....

By the way, for me the best MK solo records are already gone, so I'm not gonna feel identified by any of these two, even I think that ShangriLa is better than STP, none of them are better for me than my favorites, that are gone.

Oh I agree with you jbaent. I know my faves are already gone but at least Shangri-la has a chance perhaps...

[461oceanblvd]

I absolutely love Shangri-La and think it's his masterpiece. I'd go one step further and place it atop the list of ANY of his albums, DS included. It starts with his greatest musical accomplishment (5:15 AM) and features one stunning example of songcraft after another. His writing, playing, and even singing are in peak form on this album. Even the songs that feel like throwaways aren't. (I know some will definitely disagree, but that's the fun of this). And as an added bonus, his attempts at the blues work on this album. That's normally the one genre (I think) that eludes him (especially on later albums), but Sonny Liston (the perfect Knopflerian anti-hero) and Back to Tupelo are such great songs.

I so thoroughly enjoyed reading y'all's feedback on these polls. It's been a great diversion.

Cheers

[quizzaciously]

I absolutely love Shangri-La and think it's his masterpiece. I'd go one step further and place it atop the list of ANY of his albums, DS included. It starts with his greatest musical accomplishment (5:15 AM) and features one stunning example of songcraft after another. His writing, playing, and even singing are in peak form on this album. Even the songs that feel like throwaways aren't. (I know some will definitely disagree, but that's the fun of this). And as an added bonus, his attempts at the blues work on this album. That's normally the one genre (I think) that eludes him (especially on later albums), but Sonny Liston (the perfect Knopflerian anti-hero) and Back to Tupelo are such great songs.

I so thoroughly enjoyed reading y'all's feedback on these polls. It's been a great diversion.

Cheers

Hello brother! I totally agree. On top of all that, Shangri-La is a perfectly recorded album as well and perfectly named after the studio. Everything's amazing about it, even the cover, even the promotional photoshoot was perfect. And promotional interview, too. Everything! And it's especially cool for me personally because I got to know Mark right in the heart of this album's release and Shangri-La tour. So if Shangri-La wins in any poll, I'm not surprised at all. This album is a masterpiece!

[KnopfleRick]

I absolutely love Shangri-La and think it's his masterpiece. I'd go one step further and place it atop the list of ANY of his albums, DS included. It starts with his greatest musical accomplishment (5:15 AM) and features one stunning example of songcraft after another. His writing, playing, and even singing are in peak form on this album. Even the songs that feel like throwaways aren't. (I know some will definitely disagree, but that's the fun of this). And as an added bonus, his attempts at the blues work on this album. That's normally the one genre (I think) that eludes him (especially on later albums), but Sonny Liston (the perfect Knopflerian anti-hero) and Back to Tupelo are such great songs.

I so thoroughly enjoyed reading y'all's feedback on these polls. It's been a great diversion.

Cheers

Hello brother! I totally agree. On top of all that, Shangri-La is a perfectly recorded album as well and perfectly named after the studio. Everything's amazing about it, even the cover, even the promotional photoshoot was perfect. And promotional interview, too. Everything! And it's especially cool for me personally because I got to know Mark right in the heart of this album's release and Shangri-La tour. So if Shangri-La wins in any poll, I'm not surprised at all. This album is a masterpiece!

 

[dustyvalentino]

I'm pleased to see the love for Shangri La here. It's my favourite but doesn't get talked about much so I didn't think it was as highly regarded as it appears to be here.

STP might still come out on top but it's nice to see it's not the landslide jbaent was predicting!

[superval99]

I'm pleased to see the love for Shangri La here. It's my favourite but doesn't get talked about much so I didn't think it was as highly regarded as it appears to be here.

STP might still come out on top but it's nice to see it's not the landslide jbaent was predicting!

I agree and even if STP wins, Shangri-La will always be the winner for me!   

[quizzaciously]

I'm pleased to see the love for Shangri La here. It's my favourite but doesn't get talked about much so I didn't think it was as highly regarded as it appears to be here.

STP might still come out on top but it's nice to see it's not the landslide jbaent was predicting!

I agree and even if STP wins, Shangri-La will always be the winner for me!   

I do guitar lessons on Mark's songs and naturally, I never planned this, but I almost covered every single Shangri-La song. I can't do Donegan's Gone yet becasue I don't have a spare guitar for slide playing, so apart from a couple of songs I covered it all. It just shows to me the incredible strength of all the songs on the album, even the "quiet" ones are amazing songs. And loud ones are so great you can listen to them on repeat. Music is subjective of course, but at least I have this funny additional metric to judge things.

[MagicElliott]

I'm pleased to see the love for Shangri La here. It's my favourite but doesn't get talked about much so I didn't think it was as highly regarded as it appears to be here.

STP might still come out on top but it's nice to see it's not the landslide jbaent was predicting!

I agree and even if STP wins, Shangri-La will always be the winner for me!   

I do guitar lessons on Mark's songs and naturally, I never planned this, but I almost covered every single Shangri-La song. I can't do Donegan's Gone yet becasue I don't have a spare guitar for slide playing, so apart from a couple of songs I covered it all. It just shows to me the incredible strength of all the songs on the album, even the "quiet" ones are amazing songs. And loud ones are so great you can listen to them on repeat. Music is subjective of course, but at least I have this funny additional metric to judge things.

Two points to make on this fascinating post.
Firstly, I wonder how different the album would have been had MK not had the accident. I know he always takes his time but it feels like this one possibly “marinaded” a bit more.
Secondly-could you do a lesson on the rhythm part on Donegan’s Gone?
Richard’s part and the way he plays it looks quite involved (to me anyway.)