To paraphrase Kenneth Tynan on Eugene Ionesco, once you’ve heard all of Mark Knopfler’s solo albums, you’ve heard one of them.
There’s one or two reflective world-weary ballads, a couple of reflective world-weary toe-tappers, and some finely wrought reflective world-weary character studies that are self-contained short stories.
Because the thing about Knopfler’s solo albums – of which this is the tenth, if you don’t count soundtracks – is that it doesn’t matter that they’re all cut from the same cloth, because it’s a brilliant cloth, part Dylan, part folk, part stadium melancholy.
One Deep River is one of Knopfler’s best. These are gorgeous songs, sung in a voice that sounds like it’s lived a life that’s full, and the character songs – which Knopfler has excelled at since Sultans Of Swing – are as poignant as ever. Roll on album number 11.
