And on Planet Of New Orleans. He was brilliant.
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Is it Borg ? 
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McEnroe
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You can’t be serious
It was a pure Minor 7th
You’re the pits of the earth
I want the Moderator
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I’ve had a sign, this was our place a few minutes ago.
It’s absolute their best album is Love Over Gold.
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I like most of them but their first album is best for me. But my, there are some music snobs out there! 
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Not that much on this thread. A couple of vague attempts to see Abba as somehow lesser but all done with amiable discussion. As best I can recall there’s only been one attempt to suggest the thread was drifting inappropriately and that fell flat on its arse as it was so obviously not the case. Even Richard talked about Supertramp ;). There’s also only been one post utterly dismissive of the subject of the thread. If intended to be funny it fell flat and we moved on.
This has been the most enjoyable thread for a while. People who like DS a lot with people who like them a little or even less and all done in good spirits (bar the two posts referenced above). The poll should close at some point but the outcome may well trigger further enjoyable discussion.
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A good thread @LindsayM about a great band. It also reminded me that I had this disc, so looking forward to a ‘rockabilly lite’ listening session tomorrow afternoon 
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I have to confess that I have a bit of a thing for the Velocity Girl
and Songs about Polar Bears more generally.
I have been off the forum for a bit and coming back to this thread has been delightful. Many hilarious posts- especially @TheKevster excoriating demolition of DS. LOL moment- and I am happy to admit that I like DS, have seen them live at the NEC and care little as to whether they are cool or not!
First album my favourite but like all their albums.
Great thread and so glad the OP elected not to have it taken down when the ravenous flatfish offered his view. Many thanks
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Just bought this last week:
Haven’t bothered listening to the original album on this release (another remastering? Really?), but the San Antonio gig over 2 CDs is really good. Not quite as good as Alchemy, but still a fun listen, especially the BIA songs.
Mark
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Mission failure declaration!
Okay, I cast a vote for Love Over Gold - that coincided with sixth form years, passing driving test and at last having a listening room where volume (not distortion) was not limited by the will of others! That poor car stereo!
In truth I could just as easily have selected any of the first three albums.
They had an amazing ability to vanish from the airwaves, seemingly quite suddenly - maybe those last albums were a bit of a turn off.
Peter
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Like many, my favourite Dire Straits album has been a moving target over the years.
I entered the party at COMMUNIQUE, which was my big fave until LOVE OVER GOLD arrived.
Aside from (possibly) being the only person on the planet who does NOT enjoy Lady Writer, I was otherwise so enamoured with COMMUNIQUE that I found it somewhat difficult to back-track to DIRE STRAITS, finding the catchy Sultans of Swing so terribly overexposed.
It took decades for me to fully appreciate DIRE STRAITS, but I got there in the end. That said, I don’t rate it as highly as most Dire Straits fans. Yes, I am a fan! 
In its day, MAKING MOVIES contained some of my favourite Dire Straits tracks, but they were played so frequently on the radio, that the album itself got very little rotation around my way. Also, I found Side 2 to be a bore. I just never played MAKING MOVIES and honestly, I still don’t.
From the moment of its release, LOVE OVER GOLD really dominated my turntable - and later my CD deck(s) - for years! But to my ears, it never sounded quite as good on CD.
By the time BROTHERS IN ARMS arrived, I was just a wee bit over Dire Straits. Despite its superb recording quality, I found it difficult to sit through the full album, not unlike my reaction to MAKING MOVIES.
Faith was somewhat restored several years later, when a friend played me ON EVERY STREET. I (eventually) learned to enjoy Calling Elvis and even managed to get over my initial aversion to Heavy Fuel. IMHO, ON EVERY STREET is probably Dire Straits’ most consistent studio album.
Based purely upon present rotation frequency, COMMUNIQUE and ON EVERY STREET remain our most popular of the Dire Straits studio albums.
With all of their studio albums well in tow, I’ve never bothered with the various live and compilation albums. I’m not a great fan of live albums, but given the endorsements above, I might take a listen to ALCHEMY.
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I agree so much with the above, I just hardly ever consider Making Movies. Love all the others depending on mood as to which leads ..
3 tracks I play for diagnostics are Water of love , can you here the timing ticks between initial sticks , Six blade knife ( every snare stroke is played with different power and precision) and You and your friend .
Like old slippers to me DS albums .
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Yeah, Water of Love and Six Blade Knife are real highlights.
In Six Blade Knife in particular, MK really portrayed an attitude that he never quite recaptured in any of his later music. Pure genius!
The other real stand-out Dire Straits tracks for me are:
Once Upon a Time in the West
News
Where Do You Think You’re Going
Follow Me Home
Ride Across the River
The Man’s Too Strong
Brothers in Arms
Fade to Black
Planet of New Orleans
You and Your Friend.
I guess each of us would have our own 12-track Best Of Dire Straits compilation. These tracks would certainly be on mine! 
[Thoughts for a new thread…? A Dirty Dozen of Dire Straits! 
]
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There are at least two of us @SONDEKNZ ! When I first heard it - I believe it was released as the follow up single to Sultans? - I thought it was a pretty awful choice to release. In a too similar vein to Sultans and with none of the charm, humour or spectacular Strat riffing. I guess Mark/the label thought at the time they should stick to the formula and didn’t have the confidence to release any of the moodier, more sparse sounding album tracks that stations may not have deemed suitable for radio play.
Thankfully, that changed later when the first 2 or 3 albums sold very solidly.
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Ironically, my list of MK solo faves is even longer, so I guess I have always preferred his laid-back fare.
I collected my MK solo faves together to create this album…
I had earlier put together this cover - NOT my own artwork - but later, decided it was a bit harsh…
MK is a living legend… Good times! 
A list of great MK solos, I’ll have to work on that.
Communique? There weakest album for me but love News, Angel of, Portobello and Single Handed, the last has a great theme.
Here’s the Dire Straits comparative total global album sales - per studio album - up to and including 2025: (According to AI)
- Brothers in Arms (1985): ~30 million copies.
- Dire Straits (1978): ~15 million copies.
- Communiqué (1979): ~7 million copies.
- On Every Street (1991): ~5.3 million copies.
- Making Movies (1980): ~5.1 million copies.
- Love Over Gold (1982): ~2.8 million copies.
I was very surprised to find that LOVE OVER GOLD trailed the field.
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Ask AI (what a load of bollocks) how many albums Love Over Gold sold and you get this answer
Love Over Gold (1982) was a major commercial success, selling over 7.5 million copies worldwide