"Kill to Get Crimson" (Mark Knopfler) : The Guitar as an Emotional Tonic
Written: Sep 29 '07 (Updated Oct 05 '07)
Product Rating:
Pros: Knopfler's guitar lines and lyrical ruminations.
Cons: Things kept to simmer throughout.
The Bottom Line: Kill to Get Crimson, in keeping with Knopfler's interior tales and a swash of color here and there, is just about right. Not perfect, but right all around.
MiDoyle's Full Review: Kill to Get Crimson * by Mark Knopfler
With Dire Straits on perpetual "official hiatus," it's probably more than past time to think of guitarist Mark Knopfler [b. 1949] in terms outside of the group. And, if so, he’s certainly been keeping himself contentedly busy these last 15 years or so with soundtracks, offshoot recordings, solo works, and welcome duets with Emmylou Harris.
The wait between albums has not been long recently, which is a good thing for anyone whose appetite for intellectually centered rock and roll cannot be satisfied between servings. Knopfler, among all things, remains the most cerebral of rock guitarists.
Knopfler, man of a thousand understated guitar licks, returns with Kill to Get Crimson [2007, Warner Brothers], a worthy album of tunes in his usual style; a lyrical mix of country, blues, and rock with interludes of weathered optimism, melancholy observations on the human condition, and some acknowledgment of the heart’s ability to get it right.
Knopfler’s guitar work is as exceptional as ever here, a lilting mix of floating and shimmering lines with underlying tension and sustain. His guitar lines are the emotional tonic to imbibe with his lyrical world weariness; a blend of the melancholy and optimism coexisting within the narration and characters.
His tales have not changed so much from his days with Dire Straits, though he has gotten deeper with his lyrical inquiry. He is what he is: a story teller of life’s ups and downs and the in-betweens. He writes character sketches with an emotional pulse and uses his guitar’s unmistakable tone as a narrative companion and Greek chorus.
Tracks
True Love Will Never Fade/The Scaffolder’s Wife/The Fizzy and the Still/Heart Full of Holes/We Can Get Wild/Secondary Waltz/Punish the Monkey/Let It All Go/Behind with the Rent/The Fish and the Bird/Madame Geneva’s/In the Sky
All tracks by M. Knopfler.
Total Time: 57:01
Produced by Mark Knopfler, Guy Fletcher and Chuck Ainlay
Musicians
Mark Knopfler (vocals and guitars), Guy Fletcher (keyboards), Glenn Worf (bass guitar and string bass), Danny Cummings (drums and percussion), with Ian Lowthian (accordion), John McCusker (violin, cittern), Frank Ricotti (vibes), Chris White (flute, saxophone, clarinet), and Steve Sidwell (trumpet).
With Kill to Get Crimson, there appears to be an more defined English air to the atmosphere. These are English characters of the city and country life: shopkeepers, wives, prostitutes, working men, dreamers and cynics, with some surprising notes of poignancy amongst the realism.
Within that realism his guitar’s tone is as superb as ever; a polished sheen, a ringing response, and some grit set amongst the beauty and darkness that is ever present in his songs.
Knopfler said in an interview piece on Amazon.com that the album was an attempt to capture a specific setting in some ways as the title comes from a line in “Let It All Go,” a track that references a painting “Four Lambrettas and Three Portraits of Janet Churchman,” by John Bratby [1928-1992], which was painted in 1958. With that sort of setting, the album has a postwar 1950s feel, with shades of the coming turbulence of the 1960s perhaps. His characters are caught in the middle in many of the songs (the in-betweens). There is a sense of “where they want to be” and “where they find themselves currently” at work within the songs.
I wonder if there’s no forever
-- no walking hand in hand
down a yellow brick road
to never-never land
These days I get to where I’m going
-- make it there eventually
follow the trail of breadcrumbs
to where I’m meant to be
to where I’m meant to be
[from “True Love Will Never Fade"]
It can be said that his songs are a lot about the atmosphere he creates. As a guitarist, he works within the space between the lyrics; he lets a little bit in and takes a little bit out. So, his songs work best as sketches of emotion within a larger framework of ideas. And, his tone (as shaped by influences such as Chet Atkins, B.B. King, Duane Eddy, J.J. Cale and others) remains a defining component within his search for that larger whole within songs of dissolution and connection, turbulence and inertia, economic and personal fault lines, political tremors, and resolution and reward.
Knopfler presents his characters as their inner selves. Though they may be artists, wives, shopkeepers, students, and the like, he is interested in their inner life: their thoughts and dreams and ruminations. Their position is not as important as what they say and think, though that is related to the choices they make and the life that Knopfler’s lyrics depict. His cinematic eye for small details and colors keeps the characters in the listener’s view, though they may only for sketched for a short time.
Musically, with a solid group of players all around him, Knopfler shadows his words with changes in tone and touches of horn, accordion, piano flourishes, and a very solid rhythm and bottom. He simmers but doesn’t overcook the musical stewpot. The album is “comfortable” sounding. Knopfler builds the atmosphere in an easy listening (easy-to-listen-to) fashion and Kill to Get Crimson is sonically pretty. It works for background listening or as a late-night headphone pity party equally well. Knopfler remains understated, which is not the same thing as underwhelming. His tone is just right. He puts just enough grit into the details and could have opened up more without any overkill.
Kill to Get Crimson, in keeping with his interior tales and a swash of color here and there is just about right. Not perfect, but right all around (four stars).
Highlights True Love Will Never Fade, The Scaffolder's Wife, Heart Full of Holes, Punish the Monkey, and In the Sky
Sources
www.mark-knopfler.com, www.allmusic.com,
See also an interview he did with Jesse Kornbluth at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jesse-kornbluth/mark-knopfler-talks-about_b_65809.html [turns out he had a red scooter (Lambretta is a brand) after all].
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