Dire Straits: Communiqué (import) [RHINO]

Why you'll love it

This 180g Warner / Rhino pressing comes from the Start Your Ear Off Right series and was made in the USA. Communiqué went to No. 1 in Germany, Spain, Sweden and New Zealand and reached No. 5 in the UK.

This edition

• 180g vinyl
• Pressed in the USA
• Start Your Ear Off Right series

About the album

Dire Straits didn't hang about. Eight months after their debut, the band were back with a second album, recorded in two weeks at Compass Point Studios in the Bahamas at the end of 1978 and mixed at Muscle Shoals in Alabama. Producers Jerry Wexler and Barry Beckett, two of the great names of American soul and rock, were in charge.

Mark Knopfler wrote every song, and his clean, singing guitar is all over it. "Once Upon A Time In The West" opens with a slow, reggae-tinged groove, "Lady Writer" is the brisk, hooky single, and the title track, "Portobello Belle" and "Where Do You Think You're Going?" show how much feeling he could pack into a few notes. Beckett adds keyboards on several tracks, and the rhythm section of John Illsley and Pick Withers keeps everything light on its feet.

It was the last album with David Knopfler and the original line-up, and in Germany it arrived while their first album was still sitting at No. 3. Spending the end of 1978 recording in the Bahamas strikes us as a very sound bit of scheduling.

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

Tracklist

Listen

On Warner / Rhino (cat# R1 3330), a reissue of the 1979 album.