Dire Straits [Import]

Though you can discern Knopfler's influences (Dylan, JJ Cale, Chet Atkins-style picking) it's all blended into a distinctive flavour that is hard to fit into normal pop-rock categories. It is also distinctively English, as the detailed storytelling lyrics make clear. Knopfler's singing is Dylanesque without really sounding like Dylan, and his guitar playing is bluesy, elegant and chunkily percussive without really sounding like anyone (unless it's a more bluesy Richard Thompson). Because of the cleaness of the production and Knopfler's guitar tone, you get a palpable sense of his fingers attacking the guitar strings (something many rock guitarists rely on distortion to hide).

Though the songwriting is on one level conventional enough, the various elements of the band's sound combine forcefully to grab the attention. Dire Straits (in this incarnation) are tight, and rhythmically limber, while Knopfler's distinctive vocals and literate writing draw the listener in relentlessly. And unlike many guitar heroes, Knopfler's solos are always there to support the song rather than to be flashy. When the vocals stop, the guitar really does seem to take over the singing and the expressive foce of the song.

Sultans of Swing is of course known to almost everyone. But Down to the Waterline, Six Blade Knife and South Bound Again, respectively urgent, menacing and wirily funky, are also excellent. Anyone who finds Dire Straits' later work bland or overproduced should check out this album. It's as satisfying and sweet as an exquisitely rendered small-scale novel about ordinary people's lives.

I would recommend this album to every music fan. From the opening fast-paced "Down To The Waterline" to the classic "Sultans of Swing" to the beautiful "Wild West End," this truly is a class album. Just sit back and enjoy and appreciate the brilliance of the original Dire Straits before they became overwhelmed by the commercialism and temptation of fame. In my opinion this is one of the greatest albums in rock history, I hope after listening to this album you will share the same opinion.

However you define their sound, though, listening to Dire Straits' self-titled debut album 25 years after its publication, it is still amazing how rounded and accomplished their style was even then. The band's composition would change over the course of the years and Mark Knopfler would take them to the heights of the ambitiously-conceived "Love Over Gold" and the bestselling diversity of "Brothers in Arms," but the basic elements of the typical Dire Straits sound, recognizable throughout all those later developments, were there right from the start: Knopfler's rough, dark vocals, his signature style as a guitar player, the unique Fender sound soon associated with his name, and even little details like his tendency to introduce songs by a couple of solo guitar slides - seemingly just tossed out casually but immediately catching the listener's attention, even before the band joins him for the "real" start of the song; a feature present from the very first track on this first album, "Down to the Waterline." Their debut release was Dire Straits' most sparsely-produced record; musically it did not yet involve the more elaborate elements of Knopfler's later compositions, and it was the only release featuring only the band's original four musicians. This, in addition to the album's equally firm anchoring in rock, blues and folk music (with a little bit of country here and there) and the particularly raw tinges of Mark Knopfler's voice gave it a "down to earth" feeling not always present in the band's later recordings. Besides, Knopfler had not yet discovered the limelight of a really large concert arena (the band's name was no coincidence, after all) - he obviously always knew he was good, but many of his early songs almost became different pieces of music over the course of their live performances throughout the years; most notably, "Sultans of Swing:" just listen to the version recorded on the "Alchemy" live album five years later. Perfection? Absolutely and undeniably ... but also incredible showmanship, ignited by the cheers of the audience and by his pure joy in playing.

"Dire Straits" is much more than just a well-done debut album; it is as essential a component of the band's and Mark Knopfler's body of work as any of its successors. I disagree with those who are saying that this is the "real" Dire Straits; to me, this band (and Knopfler in particular) still defies categorization, and every one of their records first and foremost expresses the state of their musical development at the time it was recorded. But regardless where you place this particular album in their catalog, one thing is for sure: It is one of those few timeless and definite classics that will forever have a validity of their own and whose importance, if anything, only grows with the passage of the years.