ATMOSPHERIC PLEASURE

I think we, the Mark Knopfler fans must bury our hope that Knopfler ever again, or at least one more time, a song, not to mention an entire album, in the style of grandiose Dire Straits raushaut anthems. The older Knopfler is, after all, and he is now also soon 66 (in August), the calmer he is. Also, let alone music. We have to tolerate (because honestly, it's ourselves not so?), Even if the most intimate wish is another. One of those anthemic grade called Speedway to Nazareth. Or Telegraph Road. Or Going home. Or Brothers in Arms.

These times are when I Trackers, his eighth solo album now listen to me, irretrievably past. Knopfler's latest work is still on its way - a great success and full of great small musical gems. Full of sound fantastically beautiful robes.

MIGHTY MAN is a sparkling, lyrical piece. Small, quiet and yet so great. A grandiose melody, a brilliant guitar. So beguiling outstanding melancholic. And as the accordion by Phil Cunningham swings back and forth - like the surf on Scotland's rugged coastline. That in my opinion the best song of the entire, high-quality album again.

Almost as good is BERYL which almost breaks out with its mid-tempo ballad from the predominantly scheme of the album. If even begin because gas does not give right Knopfler also here. In a nutshell, he is here, with a little more than three minutes and the significantly shortest song - a tribute to the writer Beryl Bainbridge died in 2010. The Sound garb reminded here, however, at the early stages of the Dire Straits. The Sultans of Swing swing deliberately and quite solid with

Already these two immensely relaxed songs make it clear: Knopfler returns to the Blues from 2012 predecessor Privateering the back and goes back into the fold beautiful, Scotch-Irish folk songs.

As LAUGHS AND JOKES AND DRINKS AND SMOKES, which makes the kick off of the album. The title suggests a lot, almost everything. After a short drum intro that comes along very jazzy and ends with such, turns the song toward Irish pub song. A real drinking song, not rough-dog, but finely chiseled as the kind Knopfler and his perfectly-sonorous voice equivalent. On the tours, Knopfler has told me, the band sitting after the concerts still to dinner together, and let the end befallen night. It has to him this splashy shanty choir number, an ode to the days of youth as the age, be remembered.

A fat contrast is Silver Eagle, a typical Knopfler ballad, which he has so often shaken in recent years out of his sleeve. Quiet, underlaid with a magnificent guitar, and incurred during the US tour in 2013 with Bob Dylan. The piece is named after Knopfler's then tour bus.

Also inspired by the poet Basil Bunting BASIL, the second song on the album, takes the same ballad notch. Atmospheric, also accompanied by a fantastic guitar. Here Knopfler overwhelmed with an outstanding Steel Guitar accompaniment. To Dream. Maybe this song in Taormina in Sicily (as Lights of Taormina, more on that later) it has invaded, because for me sounds here by Italy.

A similarly dreamy ballad LONG COOL GIRLS. But still the soul-stirring love song lacks the class of Basil and Silver Eagle.

Speaking of Taormina. Song number 8 is LIGHTS OF TAORMINA. Even so, a song that best enjoyed in a warm summer night when cruising in an open convertible along a Mediterranean coastline. But why Knopfler has highlighted a gentle reggae rhythm with Caribbean feeling in this song about a lost love, well, that who can understand. Sicily is not Cuba.

Similarly supple flowing RIVER TOWNS then, a grippy Poprocksong, above the Bemused hovers a saxophone.

I must confess, the first few times through hearing this almost intimate deliberation of the album I did not like. But each time more listening disclose such pieces until their full feel-effectiveness and their increasingly prominent undertow. At River Towns it is certainly due to the smoothigen Saxophone Nigel Hitchcock.

SKYDIVER Personally I like contrast with dislike. A mixture of American Country with slight blues strikes. Even the rhythmic, almost like a demo version sounding Broken Bones do not skin off my feet. Despite wah-wah guitar and despite JJ Cale bonds.

The album closes with Wherever I Go, a delicate duet. Knopfler's singing partner here Ruth Moody from Canadian folk trio The Wailin 'Jennys. Even so, a quiet, almost soporific title. A kind of declaration of love to his best friend Nigel and an ode to the silence. One wonders seriously, where there now is behind the nearly two years of work, because those dreamlike pieces succeed Knopfler now but in his sleep? And that's not at all meant disrespectfully, but respectfully!

Total Trackers is a family album in the metaphorical sense. Nice to hear, in a warm summer night, on the terrace, with a full-bodied red wine in glass. An atmospheric pleasure and still no no Aufreger. And you dream of how it would be if Knopfler again, just once more

But Knopfler has long been his way, his path found. His track is different.