Dire Straits - Dire Straits

180 Gam Black Vinyl LP Record, Repress

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Dire Straits is the debut studio album by British rock band Dire Straits, originally released in October 1978 by Vertigo Records.

Given their low-key music and resolute lack of visual flash, the guys in Dire Straits seemed like good candidates for one of those slow-building careers - and unlikely candidates for mainstream pop stardom.

Initially, it looked like the band’s self-titled debut might be destined for cult status; in spite of a spate of positive reviews, sales for Dire Straits didn’t ignite right away - especially in the U.S., where the record’s big single, “Sultans Of Swing”, took more than five months to really start taking off.

In the meantime, Dire Straits were busy touring across Europe, where audiences greeted them with more immediate enthusiasm, especially in Australia and the U.K. Eventually, record buyers caught up with the band, and by the end of 1979, they’d graced the upper reaches of album charts worldwide while sending “Sultans Of Swing” to the Top 5 in the U.S.

It served as sweet vindication for a group whose pronounced financial poverty helped inspire its tongue-in-cheek name, with Mark Knopfler’s blue-collar existence helped inform the characters in his songs

Dire Straits' minimalist interpretation of pub rock had already crystallised by the time they released their eponymous debut. Driven by Mark Knopfler's spare, tasteful guitar lines and his husky warbling, the album is a set of bluesy rockers.

While the bar band mentality of pub-rock is at the core of Dire Straits, even the breakthrough single, "Sultans Of Swing", offered a lament for a neglected pub rock band, their music was beyond the simple boogies and shuffles of their forefathers, occasionally dipping into jazz and country. Knopfler also shows an inclination toward imagery, which enhances the smoky, low-key atmosphere of the album. The band’s sound was entirely out of step with everything else that was going on in rock during the late ’70s.

Though Knopfler’s distinctive lead guitar was often the focal point of the music, his playing resisted big hooks and flashy solos, and the clean production on Dire Straits was the antithesis of the rawer, heavier sound that was popular with a lot of younger acts. Neither punk nor disco, glam nor metal, Dire Straits existed in a part of the musical landscape all its own.

This album is a 2022 repress on 180 gram black vinyl with a printed inner sleeve, pressed in New Zealand via Vertigo Records.

(15052)

Tracklisting:

 

No.

Title

Time

A1

Down To The Waterline

3:55

A2

Water Of Love

5:23

A3

Setting Me Up

3:18

A4

Six Blade Knife

4:10

A5

Southbound Again

2:58

B1

Sultans Of Swing

5:47

B2

In The Gallery

6:16

B3

Wild West End

4:42

B4

Lions

5:05

SKU 15052
Record Label Vertigo Records
Label / Model # Universal
Catalogue Number 3752902
Country NZ - New Zealand
Release Date (Year) 01 January 2022
Original Release Date (Year) 07 October 1978
Barcode # 602537529025
Shipping Weight 0.3000kg
Shipping Width 0.010m
Shipping Height 0.314m
Shipping Length 0.314m
Shipping Cubic 0.000985960m3
Type New
Format Limited Edition LP Record, 180 Gram Black Vinyl, Printed Inner Sleeve, Repress
Vinyl Colour Black
Genre Rock & Popular
Format VINYL LP

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