Favourite songs?

[Guitarman1972]

@LE

Though I must say I don't like the first 21 seconds of the song (intro). I am going to cut those away from the song with an audio editor. The violin part sounds very amateur like. As if someone is playing during his first violin lessons with a cheap violin. 

Hmmm. Your post indicates that you are maybe capable of playing violin or at least know a lot about it, which I don't do. But could it be that there is a certain difference in looking at the instrument as "violin" or as "fiddle"? And that John McCusker seems to know what he is doing here? This song has (for me) a certain French Occupied Zone 1943 - DJANGO REINHARDT feel to it. And a proper violin would not fit in my opinion. Do you think John McCusker is a good player?

LE

LE I don't play violin myself, but I do listen to alot of violin music. Mainly bluegrass fiddle, jazz and classical. My favourite violinplayer is the classical violinplayer Maxim Vengerov. But I have also alot of CDs with jazz violinplayer Jean-Luc Ponty. John McCusker is a very good player, but not a great player in my humble opinion. Stuart Duncan is what I call a great player when it comes to folk/bluegrass fiddle. John McCusker is on the other hand a multi-instrumentalist (violin, fiddle, cittern). So it's logical in some area's he compromises.
Also a good or great player doesn't have necessarily a good sound. There are many great technical guitarplayers, but who have actually a horrible guitar sound. I don't know if in this case John is to blame or the one who did the micing/recording of the violin. Maybe  it's a matter of taste, but personally i find the violin part of Occupation Blues sounds horrible.

[Rail King]

[/quote]
Rail King - I always find that those songs I like least, at first, on an album, eventually become firm favourites - they just need a lot of listens!     Don't give up on them yet!   
[/quote]

No worries, I never give up on ANYTHING Knopfler related!

[Marikablue]

Hi,

In my opinion the new album is a big positive surprise. For me the best since the outstanding STP record. Yes, there is a lot of blues tracks, but I really like the turn from much folk to much blues. It's hard to find a weak song on the album, but " Radio City Seranade " and " After The Beanstalk " will never be big hits for my taste.

It's also hard to mention some favorites, because of the high number of quality songs.

At the first disc I really love " Redbud Tree ". What a fantastic little solo in the middle of the song 
The song " Corned Beef City " is great. Allways like these faster songs made by Mark 
I'm what you can call a typical DS fan, so " GO Love " and " You Two Crows " are at the top for me 

At the second disc the song " Dream Of The Drowned Submariner " is the best.
Also best at the whole album. Love it 
My other faves are " Gator Blood ", " Bluebird " and " Blood And Water ". Pretty MK guitar on these 

[PixelPerfect]

I love it too but I thought maybe it was just because I'm American and it's a song about NYC. Glad to know it has more universal appeal. I just think it is a really complex song.

Hold on. You live in America and were able to listen to the album? HOWHOWHOWHOWHOW? Amazon's telling me that it doesn't come out here 'till September 11!

[Kilgoretrout]

The album has been leaked since last Thursday - available to all (incl. all bonus) if you know how.

[The Privateer]

By far, the best one is... "River Of Grog"...!!!

Cheers,
Eric

[foma]

Yes, it's amazing song, Eric! I've already even transcribed and learned it, thanks again shangri la 1 for lyrics!

Maybe I'll record cover of it sometime.

I wondering when MK has wrote it... sounds like 1000 years old song

[The Privateer]

Yes, and I'm still wondering if it was MK seeing double that particular night...

And still, I'm also wondering HOW and WHY such a song didn't make the record! It's a complete shame!

Foma, some years ago I used to cover some special MK songs, like "Marbletown" (i.e. on youtube), but this time I will wait for your try on this one...

[ingridswing]

Funny how taste differs, for me it's one of the weakest 
I like it that all people find something different in all songs 

[dmg]

You know usually with Mark's albums/songs, the more I listen to them the more they grow on me.  This one is different though because listening to the songs today I seem to be starting to like them less and less.

Now don't shoot me down here because they're still far better than anything else out there, but I'm just getting a little disappointed in some of them.  I think he struggles to find a decent melody these days for one thing.  Miss You Blues has a nice melody (coincidence) imo but in this one it's the lyrics that are awful.  The lyrics of Seattle are very cheesy and the melody is staid to say the least with the guitar sounding like it's about to start the outro of You Don't Know You're Born.

The similarities don't stop there either but they've been spoken of before.  The blues numbers promised much and delivered very little;  unoriginal sounding songs and uninspired performances.  Marks "solos" we've heard the same, and far better a million times before with the NHB.

I have 9 songs out of 20 ticked in my iTunes now, the rest I can skip.  There's only really 5 that get me going though.  I'd rather have quality over quantity any day of the week.  LOG had only 5 songs remember, and I wouldn't have minded if he'd just released that!  People wouldn't accept that these days though especially with the advent of the CD.

Or maybe it's just one of those days!

[Love Expresso]

I Used To Could
Bluebird
Dream Of The Drowned Submariner
Today Is Okay
Miss You Blues
Go, Love
Yon Two Crows
Follow The Ribbon

are my favourites at the moment in no particular order, which means, they are the ONLY ones that I listen to, the rest is skipped...

One thing starts to annoy me: The double album stuff: How can there be an album feel with so many songs? I think Kingdom of Gold bad as an opener for the second CD, right after Seattle, and a bad song in general, not as expected... Suggestion: Delete this song from the album and put Yon Two Crows as track one on the second album .... - that one has much more an "opener" feel... I still find less than nothing in Blood and Water and Beanstalk and would have thought of Follow The Ribbon as a perfect closer for the double album...

No album feel, as I said. Wonder if it will come along after more listens...
 
I like Miss You Blues very much and have a theory about the meaning of the lyrics. It has to do with
Knopfler/Atkins and Dylan/Cash...

LE

[dmg]

The ones I have ticked are:

Haul Away
Miss You
Corned Beef
Yon Two
Seattle
Radio City
Bluebird
Dream of the
Blood and Water

I still have all the bonus tracks ticked but Occupation Blues grabs me first as a nice one.  Like the solo in it too.

I think we underestimate the importance of melody in a song as we naturally tend to discuss what a song is about.  This is fine, but although it is nice to understand the lyrics it's not essential and the melody is an essential part of the listening experience - obviously!  Therefore, I would argue it is more important than a songs lyrics and Corned Beef City is probably the only one with a real groove that gets my feet a-tappin.'

[a visitor]

One thing that irritates me is that, even though Mark's voice has improved in that he has a wider range, he sounds pretty wimpy on some songs because he sings them in higher keys. Especially the blues numbers that require some growl and oomph. I truly miss the husky voice he had during the OES days. The guitar playing too could be more fiery at times.

By the way, I just listened to Dylan's new album (http://songs.to/#!s=Tempest&c=album), and you may say what you want about his voice, but he's got an intensity in his singing and music that is absent in Mark's work. And I'm not a Dylan fan.

[dmg]

One thing that irritates me is that, even though Mark's voice has improved in that he has a wider range, he sounds pretty wimpy on some songs because he sings them in higher keys. Especially the blues numbers that require some growl and oomph. I truly miss the husky voice he had during the OES days. The guitar playing too could be more fiery at times.

By the way, I just listened to Dylan's new album (http://songs.to/#!s=Tempest&c=album), and you may say what you want about his voice, but he's got an intensity in his singing and music that is absent in Mark's work. And I'm not a Dylan fan.

+1

[superval99]

I just received my Deluxe 3 CD a couple of hours or so ago and I have listened twice.  After the first listen, I was a bit disappointed, because I had got used to hearing the snippets and somehow the whole thing seemed not as I imagined it would be.   Then I went out for a walk and when I came back I listened for the second time.

I agree with a previous comment that it somehow doesn't seem like an album, because it is so diverse.  Also, having heard the bonus songs, all of which I think are really beautiful, I think it would have been great to have them on the main album istead of one or two of the weaker ones.

Just a few comments:

Got to Have Something - Mark's vocals sound a bit weak on this, but the band is great - I like Jim's piano on this one.
Gator Blood - ends very suddenly, but the song is OK
Today is OK - I love the outro - that train wreck sound is fabulous!
 
Not sure about:

Don't Forget Your Hat
Blood & Water

Both need more listens!

One surprise - having not really liked Miss you Blues from the snippets, I now like it very much!

I really like most of the rest of the album and after listening to Yon Two Crows, I actually clapped, even though I was alone!   

Need to listen many more times now!