Success had been a long time coming for the band Dire Straits. After some time spent building up and mastering their craft, this fifth album by the band was released back in 1985. It was a huge international success at the time, selling over 30 million copies since its release to this day. This album was also notably credited with promoting the then brand-new format of the CD player. It was the first album released on CD that sold over a million copies. The album also showcased the unique and wonderful musical talent of guitarist Mark Knopfler, who is a musical legend and someone worthy of musical praise. This album was very popular, especially in countries with an English-speaking population. It also was at the #1 position on most album sales charts for many years during the 1980s, therefore making this album an extremely important listening experience. In any case, this ought to be worth listening to, so let’s jump into it and hear what it sounds like.

So Far Away launches right into it, with some good guitar work. It quickly leads into a good song that, despite sounding stereotypically 1980s, is a great Pop/Rock piece with some decent and unusual sounds. These include slide guitar, keyboard and awesome vocal harmonies. All the same, this is a very pleasant listening experience. The music is lengthy, but it does sound entertaining throughout. A strange and warped-sounding guitar solo is present here, this is a very good and unique musical listening experience throughout. It’s standard 1980s sort of music, which will only appeal to some listeners, to be fair. It is also lengthy and repetitive throughout, which takes some of the appeal out of this music immediately upon hearing it. In any case, this is good but is far from great. It just drags on with some ordinary retro sounds that definitely have not aged well at all. One can already sense that this album isn’t the best to listen to. A bit of a musical drag, it ends after five minutes in length.

Money For Nothing is an interesting chart-reaching tune that is over eight minutes in length. It begins with some atmospheric keyboards, and some weird falsetto vocals about wanting to be on TV. This gradually begins building up with some sonic textures on keyboard that sound like Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here album. This is nowhere near as good as Pink Floyd, however. Drum rolls that are psychotic enter, and this launches into an extremely catchy electric guitar that is obviously lifted from The Rolling Stones’s Jumping Jack Flash. Mark Knopfler sings well here, but he isn’t the greatest vocalist, either. There are some homophobic lyrics in this song, which isn’t really nice to hear, even if you are totally straight in sexual orientation. This is sell-out 1980s trash that only appeals to the lowest common denominator throughout. If you want some 1980s music, you’d be better off looking elsewhere. This is awful, ordinary and pretentious music that does not deserve your time or ears. The lyrics present are also awful, with references to household appliances, for goodness sake. Not exactly a song to listen to, nor to take at all seriously, Dire Straits fail on songs such as these. Sure, the guitar riff throughout is great, but this is a really trashy song otherwise. By this point, you’d be better off throwing whatever means you can to get rid of this album out of the nearest window. It is also far too long song length-wise, reaching a nadir of Pop/Rock culture that the mid-1980s was. The guitar riff is repeated at the end of this song, which is good but is a bit much in terms of length. It fades out gradually at the end of it all.

Walk Of Life begins with some ordinary and extremely naff organ sounds, and strummed acoustic guitars and launches into another terrible song by Dire Straits. Some Fender guitar sounds enter, and we are on our miserable way. Mark Knopfler sings like a Country musician, which isn’t appropriate for this song. Sure, it is a shorter piece of music, but it sounds like the equivalent of projectile vomiting. This is not good music to listen to and it is enough to give one a serious headache. This makes one wish to destroy one’s copy of the album and go and put on the Sex Pistols instead. In any case, this joke of a song will not last forever, and the music throughout is worse than autotune ever has been today. It ends with a repetitive keyboard section, before fading out. A parody of music.

Your Latest Trick begins with a lone trumpet part, with organs and other textures present. It is a slower piece that is okay, but only okay, nothing huge to listen to here. It’s an unorthodox piece of music that has some weird guitar soloing to match some ordinary trumpet sounds, followed quickly by saxophone. Honestly, this is not an impressive listen, particularly being on an album as naff as this. Mark Knopfler sings with some of the most ordinary lyrics out there, and this is not a great fusion of music, lyrics and performances. Some may like the horn sections on this piece. However, this is another disappointing listening experience that sounds like a musical joke. If this is considered music, grab your copy of this CD (or your phone where this is on) and hurl it out the window. A drag to get through and this sounds so awkward that one wishes this would be a better listen overall. It is not, however. There are some interesting textures and sounds towards the end with the saxophone solo. Still, why bother listening to this garbage? The music sounds good without try-hard guitar licks and ordinary singing by Mark Knopfler. It ends after six minutes of sheer boredom, not good at all.

Why Worry? begins with some acoustic guitars and Fender Stratocaster licks to boot. It does sound quite different, but peaceful sounding as well. This is an eight-minute-long tune that is somewhat of an improvement on the songs before it. It sounds different. Soon enough, some bongos enter and this tune launches into a good piece of suspenseful music. This is a far better effort than expected, but still, it has overtones of horrid 1980s Pop Music about it. Regardless, this is an okay listen but just because this is good, doesn’t mean that the rest of the album is so. Mostly instrumental based on this track, but really absurdly lengthy. Mark Knopfler sings okay here, but saying that this music is great is like saying that The Velvet Underground were popular back in the late 1960s, it really isn’t the case. A drag musically, even for a better tune such as this one. Even Oasis’s Be Here Now album is better than this, which says a lot. The spacey keyboard sounds are sweet to hear, and this tune has some neat Fender Stratocaster licks throughout. A good listening experience. The second half drags on quite a bit, and the music is a bit annoying as a result. Still, the spacey nature of this tune is pleasant indeed. Eventually, some drumming enters and we slowly march towards the conclusion of this song. Nothing hugely memorable on this album, but this spacey instrumental is an improvement on what came before it. This predictably wraps up towards the end, with Fender Stratocasters quacky 2nd position playing. It finally ends after eight minutes, which is a relief.

Ride Across The River begins with some Eastern flute-styled melodies, and some interesting percussion and launches into a weird tune with what sounds like Gibson Les Paul playing by Mark Knopfler. Singing emerges with some pretentious lyricism at hand, and this has some singing about Army men in combat. Again, this is a good listening experience, but nothing special on this album. Sadly, this album is not very rewarding nor worth your time. It sounds like a rip-off of later Pink Floyd material. Mark Knopfler ought to have cut down and edited some of this material, it sounds unpleasant and natural in this way. The guitar soloing on this song is very good, however, even if the song is nearly seven minutes long in length. This is neither impressive nor worth your time to listen to, and the music throughout is stale sounding. In the second half are saxophone parts, good guitar playing and repetitive song structures. One could easily fall asleep to this music, it is very ordinary. Regardless, this track is okay, but better musical efforts have been made by this time in music history. Some neat Fender Stratocaster licks are present towards the end, yet this certainly is a drag. This builds up to some interesting guitar soloing right at the end, before this tune gradually concludes. Barely passable as a tune. It ends with the flute section again.

The Man’s Too Strong sounds like a Nick Drake tune at the beginning, with some mournful acoustic guitar. Mark Knopfler sings deeply here. Fortunately, this is a good listen that isn’t drowned in electronics here. Some pleasant and gorgeous sounds are here. It just shows that Dire Straits still had some mojo in them. The chorus, however, is awful. This album would have been better in a stripped-down version instead. Sadly, Mark Knopfler did not realise this at the time. A powerful tune, but not an impressive listen. In any case, this is a different and weird tune about expressing one’s sins. It sounds very punchy and loud in sections and has some weird slide guitar, piano, keyboards and other textures to match. This does drag on, like the other tracks here as well. A very weird listen, but it’s okay. It ends with some nice textures and a fade-out.

One World launches into a boring and straightforward 1980s tune. Mark Knopfler sings a bit like John Lennon on this song (how original) and the song itself sounds like a poor Rock Music imitation from Dire Straits. The music present lacks magic and just sounds really very much like a drag. In any case, skip this one if you can. There is a breakdown with heavily processed harpsichord, but that is about it for this tune. Mark Knopfler is a good guitarist on this tune as well, but still, this is so dated and formulaic that you should hit stop and go and do something else better with your time. Fortunately, this is only just over three minutes long. A very weird and not very good listening experience.

Brothers In Arms is the last song on this album. It begins with some Deep Purple-sounding keyboard sounds and launches into a weird piece of music. This is neither original nor interesting. Electric guitars enter next, and this has not aged well at all. Mark Knopfler sings in an almost whispered way, sounding like Roger Waters on this tune. A real drag to get through, and this is enough to bore you to death. Surely, this cannot be taken seriously? This music lacks soul and consistency throughout, it just sounds like the trash that MTV would play back in the 1980s. Hence, Money For Nothing which is a self-aware statement about the trashiness of this music. This tune is no different, it is dullsville central in a musical way. The second half has some good guitar soloing, but nothing else is really musically consistent on this album. A weird and trashy listening experience that could have been done much better. Not much else needs to be said here, this is a finishing tune for a very overrated and poor album in general. The instrumental section that this wraps up with is just as boring, too. A boring end to a not-so-good album-listening experience.

This is extremely overrated music that does not do the listener much good. Most of the songs present are nearly 10 minutes in length, and they rely on stereotypical sounds that are extremely dated, and which were not good in the first place. In many areas, this album is a failure overall. The best thing about it is Mark Knopfler’s guitar work. The worst thing on this album is the horribly processed and retro-sounding 1980s keyboard sounds. In any case, should you listen to this album? Unless you respect all music from the mid-1980s, then definitely not. This is disappointing.

A bore and a drag to get through.

5/10