The most dangerous angles that you ever saw

Continuing my trip back in time through the album charts

31/03/96 : Golden Heart - Mark Knopfler


I like Mark, the stuff he did with Dire Straits and his ace YouTube videos where he uses guitars to make the most amazing sounds.  And I even owned a copy of his soundtrack to Local Hero, which featured one great tune on it.  Repeated about ten times, which soon got more than a little bit dull.  So I'd be lying if I said my expectations were sky-high for this one (which I don't think I was aware even existed).  But, before we get into that, we have a compilation album for me to resoundingly reject.

At #4 (down from #1 last week) we have The Beatles' Anthology 2 which features a load of out-takes and demo tracks from the late 60s - often in mono.  No, no no.  Just no.  Back to Mark and my low expectations.

And, well - let's just say my expectations were well out of whack with reality.  However dull I feared it might turn out to be, I can assure you it turned out to be considerably duller than that.  CONSIDERABLY!  It's all done to a high level of musicianship with a twang here, a riff there and a growl somewhere else, just where he thinks they need to be.  But that doesn't make it any good, I'm afraid.  No sir-ee.  And it doesn't even feature any ten minute long guitar solos either (this is a bad thing, btw).  And no, we never owned it - 12/40.

We're at #9 with a new entry this week on the start of a 20 week run, which feels exceedingly generous of the record buying public indeed - although this was his most successful solo album in terms of chart longevity, so it appears they learned their lesson.  The top five this week were Take That (a new entry), Oasis, Celine, The Beatles and Alanis.  There were no other new entries in the top ten, but just outside we have the Irish horror double-bill of Daniel O'Donnell & Mary Duff (#13) and Clannad (#14).  I also have to mention yet another bloody pan pipes album coming in at #32 - seriously, what was wrong with people in 1996?!?

Wikipedia tells me this is officially his debut solo album (soundtracks don't count!) and well, err - that's pretty much it.  Critical reception was muted - "The result was listenable but secondhand", but it did well commercially getting to the top ten in quite a few European countries, selling a million copies in the process.  But it only got to #105 in the US though - I think they have more than enough of this kind of thing over there without importing some of ours.

"Customers also listened to" David Knopfler, John Illsley and Bap Kennedy - I'd never heard of Bap, but he worked with quite a few well-known names, including one M. Knopfler Esquire.  Who I have a lot of time for, but not for this album, I'm afraid.

24/03/96 - Right up my street
07/04/96 - Very much of its time, but an enjoyable visit

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