Mark Knopfler – Tracker
- Written by Ben Macnair
Mark Knopfler’s new album, his eighth solo release, Tracker finds the former Dire Straits frontman on fine form, reacquainting himself with his guitar collection in this album of 11 quality songs that line up all of the usual suspects, as well as adding a lot of surprises.
The songs cover a range of topics from character studies about the poet Basil Bunting to the novelist Beryl Bainbridge in songs named after them. There are songs about the promises of youth in ‘Laughs and Jokes and Drinks and Smokes’ to The Beatles-like rhythms and harmony vocals found in ‘Skydiver’. The ghost of Bruce Springsteen also looms large, particularly the play out during ‘River Towns’ where Nigel Hitchcock’s sax plays a similar thematic line to the ones that the late Clarence Clemons painted over The Boss’s masterpieces.
Knopfler’s burnished, gruff vocal tones are used to good effect, whilst his higher range is used in such ballads as album closer ‘Wherever I Go’. Vocal harmonies are used throughout the album, whilst the contributions of accordionist Phil Cunningham, whistle, flute and pipe player Michael McGoldrick and violinist John McCusker add a lot of colour to such songs as ‘Mighty Man’ and ‘Long Cool Girl’. Unusually, Knopfler is the only guitar player on the album, and he has added a few new tricks to the album. Tasteful, melodic slide guitar is used on many of the songs, whilst the rockier ‘Broken Bones’ finds wah-wah pedals and a distorted Les Paul sound used, and ‘Beryl’ harks back to the patented clean Stratocaster tones that set his work apart in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
There are different versions of this album, the one this review is based on had four bonus tracks, which help to flesh out the album, with the banjo driven ‘.38 Special’, and the solo acoustic song ‘Heart of Oak’ showing that while Knopfler’s branches may well be in rock, blues, and Irish and Scottish Celtic forms, his roots will always be in folk.
Mark Knopfler is now 65, and thankfully shows no signs of wanting to retire anytime soon, with yet another monumental tour to promote this offering this summer. A recent Ivor Novello award for songwriting also shows the esteem with which this musician is held as a writer of first class songs, with the fifteen on this collection adding to an already very healthy repertoire.
Tracker is available from amazon.