The notoriously grumpy, "old" man from the danish tabloid "Ekstrabladet" is pretty harsh in his review of DtRW: (Hope my translation makes sense):
Oh no: Rock giant with a walking frameThe british veteran Mark Knopfler sounds like a sack of potatoes
[translation note: in Danish, it is commonly known that the only thing that rhymes on Knopfler is kartofler (potatoes)] on a hauling, boring album opus.
On the stylish tune ‘Slow Learner” Mark Knopfler mumbles “I do everything slow”.
By that he’s right.
The legend’s more than 70 minutes long album, “Down the Road Wherever” is so calm that it makes you feel time moving backwards.
More than ever, Knopfler changes sprawlingly between almost indolent and just leaned back tones, while his fundamental skills and craftmanship none the less are some guarantee for a certain quality.
Swinging his wooden legsThe old timer, turning 70 next summer, however seems to be using a walking frame, even making you fear for his health, as he with understated humour swings his wooden legs on “Back on the Dance Floor”.
Without any success, Knopfler discreetly experiments with a brass section and soul grooves, but somehow ends standing obdurately still in a weirdly edgy and flat sounding production.
His bone dry caprice is lukewarm and the inspiration only glows by exception in the dusty western-ballad “Nobody’s Child” and the jazzy “When You Leave”, where it - for once - seems something is at stake in his slumbering world.
A track like “Nobody Does That” would none the less make J.J. Cale swing a bit from his grave, but you end up with the empty feeling that Knopfler only went to the studio because he was bored.
That’s contagious. Tardily.
(Source:
https://ekstrabladet.dk/musik/intlalbum/aah-nej-rockgigant-med-gangstativ/7396311)
