DIRE STRAITS: "Love Over Gold"

Original released on LP Vertigo 6359.109

(UK , September 1982)

Contrary to the blasé buying habits of the general listening public, "Brothers in Arms" is not, in any way, shape or form, Dire Straits's best album. It is commercially detestable, aurally indigestible and critically contestable. But hey, if you enjoy such annoyingly overplayed bits of MTV tripe like "Money for Nothing" or "Walk of Life", then avert your eyes, as this review aint for you. If, however, you enjoy moving songs played elegantly and some genuinely gorgeous riffs plucked by guitar-picker extraordinaire Mark Knopfler, then there's hope for you yet! "Love Over Gold" is an album that was very ambitious, but was successful in achieving an incredibly evocative sound and an impeccable clarity, even over the 14+ minute composition "Telegraph Road", the stellar centerpiece of the album. Then there is one of my favorite songs of the 80s, "Industrial Disease", one of the funniest takes on technology overload ever written (with a wonderfully infectious organ line and sly Dylanesque lyrics and rhyme scheme). There is also the dark "Private Investigations", and jazzy stylings of the title track. And Sting was not required to sing backup anywhere on the album. (in RateYourMusic)

Statements don't get much riskier than a commercially ambitious '80s album with five songs and two of those stretching over eight minutes, but the artistic gamble paid huge dividends for Dire Straits in Europe with "Love Over Gold". The near-quarter-hour "Telegraph Road" starts as Mark Knopfler meant to go on, a sprawling landscape of a track depicting the tale of a growing one over the years that gradually chugs faster until reaching its epic crescendo, a guaranteed live favourite from this point until the group's demise a decade later. The only other track on the first side, "Private Investigations", is a slow and largely brooding, acoustic guitar-led saga from the first-person view of a jaded cash-for-hire detective. Not exactly a recipe for hit-making in 1982, right? Wrong, it climbed all the way to number two in the band's native United Kingdom, the joint-biggest single they ever released. Side two opens with by far the breeziest and funniest cut "Industrial Disease", followed by a piano-laden title track ballad of high-wire circus working and living. This is Dire Straits at their most atmospheric, you need to be patient with this one, but the vast rewards are there. (in AllMusic)