Mark Knopfler - One Take Radio Sessions
|
List Price: Our Price: $4.58 You Save: $3.40 (43%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $3.73 (click here) Category: Music CD See more new music releases 
|
|---|
Buy this Music CD at online store in your country
Canadian Music Store
Canadian Music Store
Free Music Notes for One Take Radio Sessions
Free Music Review: Knopfler fanatic.
Hit: 5 Stars
The CD is one that everyone who loved "Shangrila" will love. My only complaint is that the CD skips. Not sure if this is someone getting rid of second rate pressings or whatever, but I've never had a CD that is brand new skip out of the case.
Free Music Review: one of his best
Hit: 5 Stars
This and Ragpicker's Dream are my two favorite Knopfler albums. A lot of roots-based, memorable, well written songs. Down-home themes, character pieces, more electric guitar than Ragpicker.Free Music Review: Great !! Amazing !!
Hit: 5 Stars
great live of some titles of "Shangri-la" and the song "Rüdiger" which is very special !!!Free Music Review: A dose of great music for a low price
Hit: 4 Stars
When I saw the announcement for this CD, I thought, "What's the point?" The songs already exist on other CDs, and there is not even that one "never been released" song to be used as a justification for those that have to have every song from an artist. The fact that this CD cost so little made me pick one up from the local Best Buy.
I have the Shangri-La CD and listen to it often, so when I put this CD in my player I didn't expect much in the way of a change or difference from what I have come to expect from these songs.. I was wrong. These songs being performed live are great! There are some subtle differences in things like tone or prominence of voice versus instruments, nothing earth shattering, but enough to notice, and more importantly enough to have a preference as to which disc to play when listening to a certain song.
This EP will be my choice to listen to "The Trawlerman's Song", "Back to Tupelo", "Song for Sonny Liston" and "Everybody Pays", while the others are just as good as those on the Shangri-La CD. The aforementioned songs are just so much better in terms of clarity and tone, over the previous renditions. Maybe it is intangible, but for me they are more enjoyable on this disc. One nice addition to this EP that did not come from the Shangri-La CD is "Rudiger" which is a song about a stalker that Knopfler wrote after John Lennon was killed (according to his introduction to this song on his "A Night In London" DVD), and this version is much better than the one from his "Golden Heart" CD.
I give this disc 4 out of 5 stars only because they put the weakest track from Shangri-la on it, "Donegan's Gone". Given the limited space for an EP, they could have made the tract list better with one of the other great tunes from that first CD, and not this throw-away shuffle based on hero worship from Knopfler's boyhood.
If you like Knopfler, the price is right for this collection that is just right for when you have a spare block of time for a mini-dose of great music.
Free Music Review: A good teaser for a real live album
Hit: 4 Stars
This is a slightly tricky release to review. On one hand, if you're a big fan of Mark's solo work like myself; you're going to really dig this EP. I still play Shangri-La (the album which 7 of these songs came from) regularly and to hear these tunes in a "live" setting is a refreshing change. However, if you are new to Mr. Knopfler, you'd be better off picking up his Shangri-la album.
On to the actual content- the songs here are remarkably faithful to their original versions. While that is an impressive feat, the music here is almost too close to it's original form. The sound quality is fantastic, with just enough ambience to let you know that this was recorded live. Mark himself said much of the Shangri-La album was recorded in a live setting, so like I already said- don't expect too much variation here.
There are three songs that stand out to me as being `better' than the original album cuts. The opening "Trawlerman's Song" really benefits from Mark's excellent guitar tone cutting through a little louder and clearer than on the Shangri-La album. Mark gives a great vocal performance on "Song for Sonny Liston"- you can almost hear him smirking as he delivers the lyrics... very nice. Last but not least, "Donegan's Gone" manages to swing even better than the album cut- it just really comes to life here. It's something you have to hear to understand.
All things considered, I really dig this release. Excellent sound quality, great performances and a really strong vocal and guitar performance from Mark. The rest of the band sounds great as well, with the drums really coming through nicely with this live mix. I really wish this was a full album release rather than an EP (it's just too short), but hopefully Mark is saving the full live experience for an upcoming live album/dvd.
If you loved Shangri-La, buy this EP. If you're new to Mark, check out Shangri-La or any of Mark's other solo albums first (I strongly recommend Sailing to Philadelphia).