Mark Knopfler: Kill To Get Crimson

Posted on November 20th, 2007 by admin

Kill To Get Crimson, Mark Knopfler (2007, Warner Bros)

It’s been a good year for new pop music, with excellent releases from Wilco, Interpol, The White Stripes, Feist, Ryan Adams, Radiohead and many others. At the top of my favorites pile sits this disc from an old master, the venerable Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits fame.

And it’s at once both strange and understandable that one has to qualify him with those 4 words. While Knopfler has never enjoyed the Straits’ level of commercial success in his solo work, he’s been far from obscure. Performing alongside stars like Bob Dylan and Emmylou Harris over the years, MK has long been respected as a musician; at some point while we weren’t noticing, he’s also evolved into a songwriter of quite compelling stature. Kill To Get Crimson is just the latest in a string of very fine work.

Like Wilco’s Sky Blue Sky, it took me a few listens to get into it. There’s nothing flashy about this record. It sets a plaintive, folksy-electric tone, with Knopfler mixing major and minor chord progressions effortlessly as always. The musicianship is excellent, as you’d expect. And the patient listener is gradually rewarded with more and more ‘gold’, as these beautifully crafted songs slowly unfold to reveal a remarkable depth and layering. No overhyped guitar work, no shouting. Knopfler is so understated, he’s the epitome of cool. Yet when his songs call for vocal passion (Let It All Go, In The Sky), he delivers it in spades. When heartaches and regret bear down like a weight (True Love Will Never Fade, Behind With The Rent), he’s able to convey the sadness with his signature voice - which has aged extremely well. Other standouts (We Can Get Wild, Heart Full Of Holes) are so good I won’t even attempt to redux them.

For me, a near perfect record…very enthusiastically recommended. I will update this review when I’ve received the vinyl copy, mastered by Stan Ricker.