Dire Straits: Brothers in Arms (2LP) [BACK TO BLACK/VERTIGO]

Why you'll love it

Spread over two 180g LPs, this Back to Black edition restores the full-length versions of four songs that were edited down on the original one-disc LP, "Money for Nothing" among them. The album spent nine weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and has sold more than 30 million copies.

This edition

• 2LP set
• 180g vinyl
• Full-length song versions
• Download card included
• Pressed in the EU
• Stereo mix

About the album

Brothers in Arms was built for a new format before the format was really ready for it: it became the first album ever to sell a million copies on CD. Mark Knopfler wrote every song in advance and rehearsed them with the band, then took them to AIR Studios on Montserrat from November to December 1984, co-producing with Neil Dorfsman, who had engineered Love over Gold and Local Hero.

Knopfler played most of the guitar parts himself, and the snarling tone on "Money for Nothing" owes something to a happy accident of microphone placement on his Les Paul and Laney amp. "Walk of Life" is a bouncy jukebox shuffle, "So Far Away" and "Your Latest Trick" are smooth late-night gems, and the title song closes the record in a slow, mournful haze. On vinyl, the long songs finally get room to stretch.

It was the first album certified ten times platinum in the UK, won a Grammy for Best Engineered Album and a Brit for Best British Album, and its 20th anniversary mix won another Grammy. The CD got there first, admittedly, but the vinyl has been very patient about it.

Also at Kops: more Dire Straits on vinyl · browse Rock

Tracklist

Listen

On Vertigo (cat# 3752907), a reissue of the 1985 album.