There is in music, roughly speaking, three types of creators. Ones that always search, mutate, mislead, zigzag from beginning to end, and are difficult to cloister in a genre. the Beatles It would be the archetypal case for classic rock, without a doubt. Others who start from an aesthetic category embraced a priori, develop it, polish it, and achieve a result in tune with the genesis, but generally more solid. Maybe guys like Eric Clapton or Jeff Beck gravitate as an example. And there is a third group, which originates without a certain direction, achieves invent a way, a musical personality without peer, and the subsequent journey is a replica – with its pluses and minuses – of that nodal period. Take pink floyd from Dark Side of the Moon as an emblematic case.
One possible way to approach One Deep River, tenth and brand new solo album by Mark Knopfler, It would therefore consist of playing to see which box the guitarist falls into, given that his journey is reaching a final moment in age. A strong clue to contemplate in the face of the dilemma, then: he has been saying in his last public appearances that He loves that people keep asking him about Dire Straits, band that the Scot, born in Glasgow 74 years ago, put together 47 years ago and left 30 years ago, after nine discs; tremendous songs, for example “Sultans of Swing”, “Down to the Waterline” or “Skateaway”; and commercial events such as “Money for Nothing”.
Pick, play or click, then, to solve the recreational dilemma. A first global listen to the album gives that The melodies and their tempos have firm roots in the past. Certain unprecedented dissonances may appear, or some nuance that was difficult to find yesterday, but without a doubt it is again the old and well-known Knopfler the one who is there, playing, singing, creating. On a global scale, in fact, his recent creation is still a mosaic made of blues, folk, rock, country and Celtic breezes, touched by a guy whose good taste It is impossible to deny, and by musicians who follow his tact. Among them, the expert lap steel guitarist Greg Leisz; the piper Mike McGoldrick; either John McCusker to the violin
A second listen, now more focused on the parts, reinforces that yes, when listening to songs like “Two Pairs of Hands” or “One Deep River”, there is a elegance, a style in composition and interpretation that is unavoidable. But over time flats emerge. There is initially a austeritya saving in notes that did not exist before – at least not as a rule in execution – and now it is an intention, almost central line. Even in pieces that are more plausible to be compared with the Straits era – “Watch me gone”, or the country-drenched “Before my train comes”, in addition to those named –, in general it carries that wise economy of resources. There is another piece that alert. Which places a curve in the road. Is called “Scavenger’s Yard”and the lacerating, nervous, sweaty guitars, compensate for a generally calm, lilting and melodious atmosphere, typical of the main sound artery of the violero.
Then there is the part self-referential which does not add or subtract for the purposes of the initial trigger. That in the eponymous theme the author nostalgically and with fine pen evokes the days when he crossed the River Tyne as a boy, is something that he can write in a book, or tell in any musical genre. The same answers fit in “Ahead of the Game”, a gem with clear Dylanesque airs – don’t forget Mark’s participation in the extraordinary Slow train comingby Bob Dylan– whose sounds the Scotsman uses for another evocative period: lhe days when he played cap in the clubs of Newcastle. And in “Tunnel 13”, an epic composition (if there is a “best song” on the album, this is it, then) whose voice impeccably tells the story of a cinematic train robbery, which occurred in the Siskiyou mountains at the beginning of the 1990s. twenty of the last century.
Although there is a abyss of things in Knopfler’s journey between the end of Dire Straits and this present (soundtracks for films that began with Local Heroand a deepening of Celtic music, in addition to nine albums, including some quite unorthodox such as Sailing to Philadelphia) the guy loves to be turned towards Dire Straits. And it should be given credit, despite the variations detected from total and partial listening to One Deep River. If any doubt reappears, however, the solution to the initial game is in the very elegant guitar solo from the masterful “Janine”. In such a garpa the whole, and a garpa the part.
Addition. Knopfler’s creative type remains the second, since there are no profound changes in his compositions, nor did he find the formula after starting. The music from his first album (Dire Straits, 1978) certify it. His thing happened transform in artistic fact – and then polishing – what the soul dictated to him in the beginning. The vision does not change if the twelve pieces of One Deep River It includes the rest of the material published by Knopfler via British Grove – his own label – in CD, cassette and double vinyl formats. It consists of nine themes that also includes a lithograph and an enamelled plate… like yours.
