Not familiar with any Ayreon.
Yeah, I figured as much. I guess the next few updates won't be your thing until #32 probably (or #31, I don't remember the exact order), but I truly appreciate the fact you're following this thing.
Still have to listen to this, but haven't yet because the pre-THE albums aren't my cup of tea.
Which ones did you listen to? Because TDS is probably the only one I love. ITEC has its moments but I never liked it as much as some people do, and while FotM and TFE are good, they're not good enough for me. TDS has its cheesy moments, but I think you'll enjoy it. Though given my grasp on your tastes, I'm most likely totally wrong.
Anyway. Here's another update, I try to send a song from it in every roulette I'm participating. It's the album of
incredible lyrical quality, which every band should take as an example, or, well, something like that. In fact, there are a lot of decent lyrics, so maybe it's not that big sarcasm I'm pulling off there. I've got this subject further covered in the write-up, so here it is:
#34PrivateeringMark KnopflerGenre: rock / blues2012 Oh, this is an odd one. I’ve already written about Dire Straits in this thread, and now it’s time to shed some light on their frontman’s solo work. Some of musicians from DS are regularly putting out their solo albums, for example, their bassist John Illsley had recently released his new record called “Testing the Water” and it’s quite a pleasant listen; but this one, this is loads better. I wrote “rock / blues” in the genre for Privateering, but I’m not entirely sure it can be classified as rock. If I had to describe this album in one sentence, I would say something along the lines of “a spectacular set of heartfelt, touching, melancholic ballads diluted with several playful, driving rockers and blues numbers”.
Mark Knopfler is a famous British guitarist and songwriter born in 1949. He was the founder of Dire Straits, and after the band disbanded in 1995 he went on with his solo career, releasing seven solo albums. Among other things, Mark is famous for his style of playing guitar, he doesn’t use pick neither on acoustic nor on electric guitars. On Privateering Mark worked with a lot of musicians, such as
Richard Bennett,
Guy Fletcher,
Ian Thomas and lots of others. Thus, a lot of different musical instruments were used, such as cittern, accordion, uilleann pipes, mandolin, harp, whistles, clarinet, sax, you name it. Such a wide range of instruments allowed Mark to create something really magical.
One of the odd things about Privateering is that I don’t know for certain why I love it to pieces. Well, I’m sucker for ballads alright, and this record has a lot of excellent ones, and that’s probably one of the reasons, but I can’t satisfyingly put it into words. I guess a certain charm for me is this weird feeling Mark was giving precisely zero fucks about what the audience wants from him and the same amount of fucks about lyrics, all this in a warm, cozy, reassuring way. The readers are probably sitting with “what the hell?” expression on their faces now.
I mean, I can totally envision how some friend of Mark came to visit him, they sat, talked, drank a shot or two of whiskey, then the friend left and forgot his hat at Mark’s apartment, and Mark was all like «hey, that could be a great idea for the song! I’ll name it “
Don’t Forget Your Hat”». Or let’s have this backwards, Mark is visiting his friend, they sit, talk, and it turns out there’s no whiskey in the house, and Mark is all like «this could be a line in my new song! Here, look, it’ll go like “If you ain’t got whiskey, don’t tell me that you ain’t got gin~”». I’m kidding of course, but that’s what I imagine when I hear those blues tunes on Privateering. The ballads are another story, though. I feel Mark was writing the ballads in some kind of insouciant, light-hearted reverie of inspiration. Be that melancholic
Dream of the Drowned Submariner and
Kingdom of Gold or unconcerned, uplifting
Radio City Serenade and
Seattle, they all tug on my heartstrings a little because of sheer brilliance. This gush of acoustic sounds with the rare charming passages on electric guitar leaves me no choice but surrender to the music.
What strikes me in Privateering is that the mix is unlike both Kill to Get Crimson and Get Lucky, previous two Mark’s albums. The record sounds warm and muffled a bit, not crystal clear, and this makes me feel like I’m spinning it on some old turntable or something. It really provides that “retro” feel, and the music is so appropriate for it. This double-album has 20 tracks and is nearly two hours long, but you can’t have too much of a great music, and Mark really nails it on this one. I’ve never lived in the UK, but I daresay this record is British to the bone. I would recommend listening to this in the evening with a cup of tea or maybe something stronger.
Favourite tracks:
Redbud Tree,
Haul Away,
Privateering,
Kingdom of Gold,
Dream of the Drowned Submariner,
Blood and WaterAnd regarding the lyrics, of course there is this:
It gets dark at night, that's how it goes
It gets cold in winter, don't be surprised if it snows
You wanna play Hold'em with my friend Mr Chan?
If you lose your stack, well, you sure can't blame the man
Hahahahah~