"Mark Knopfler - Shangri-La"

Mark Knopfler is a very consistant musician. You can count on him to issue an excellent album full of beautiful, mellow music every few years. You can count on his voice to sound gravelly in a mellow, warm sort of way. And you can definitely count on his guitar playing to be precise, well-crafted, and kickass.

Knopfler's Shangri-La is another great album from the former Dire Straits frontman. He picks up right where the mellow masterpiece The Ragpicker's Dream left off, blending American music forms with very English lyrical and thematic concerns. Musically, it's a slight departure from Knopfler's last two albums, which had flirted with Celtic and British folk overtones. In the place of those flirtations, Knopfler has crafted an album full of warm acoustics, country-rock grooves, and simple song structures that allow the feel and the flow of the music to take the forefront. The result is a batch of mellow, tuneful songs that are perfect for late night, early morning, and post-hangover times when you need something to play softly in the background.

Make no mistake, this is a play softly sort of record. It's not designed for playing at high volumes, it doesn't go in for bombast, and it doesn't feel (or even attempt to reach) epic. It's an album of simple, quiet pleasures, and it's best experienced that way. Most of the songs are mid-tempos or ballads, with a couple of more energetic rockers (such as "Boom, Like That") thrown in for variation.

Lyrically, Knopfler continues to mature and age with grace and dignity. His trademark wry wit and seemingly casual observations about the way the common man lives are all in place, and work to great effect. His examination of the enterprising capitolism of Roy Kroc in "Boom, Like That" has you rolling and thinking all at once. "5.15 am" and "Sucker Row" both examine the dangers of the highroller lifestyle; "The Trawlerman's Song" is a wonderfully mournful tune about the plight of fishermen; "Don't Crash the Ambulance" is a hysterial and acerbic examination of his brush with death after a motorcycle accident in 2003. The album is uniformly strong, though it starts to bog down midway through and the songs sort of run together, mostly due to the heavy number of mid-tempo songs on the album.

Mark Knopfler is one of the best at what he does--putting out strong, well-crafted albums each time out, always reminding you that, while he may have been a superstar once, he's decided he'd rather just play the music he wants to make now instead of headlining arena tours. The upshot of that is that the music he wants to play sounds so damn good, and we get to hear it and enjoy the fruits of his meticulous, laid-back labor.

~chuck

Song of the Moment: Mark Knopfler, "Don't Crash the Ambulance"