After the rather muted public response to Kill To Get Crimson one would have thought that Mark Knopfler would have thought a little more carefully before releasing what appears to be KTGC part 2.
This is an album that continues the same folksy back to my roots material and I feel that it would have been better to have broken away from that theme and given the fans what they wanted to hear and not what MK wanted to give them.
Mark Knopfler is loved and respected for his guitar work -his vocals are acknowledged to be more adequate than outstanding-and it is that side of the man that the fans want to hear. He has confessed that he writes for himself and not the fans and that I am afraid that is what shows in the material on this album.
Unhappily, with a few exceptions ,the track list does not contain enough songs of the calibre that made Sailing To Philadelphia , Golden Heart and Ragpickers Dream such great albums.
Golden Heart is , for me , still the best solo album he has made and should be the benchmark. Listen to it again when you have heard Get Lucky and you will find that every track was a masterclass is songwriting.
So what is good about Get Lucky ?
The highlights ,for me ,have to be the title track , Border Reiver, Cleaning My Gun, So Far From The Clyde , Remembrance Day and Piper To The End.
Get Lucky really should have been the choice for release as a single€a nice bouncy song with a feel good factor. The acoustic version is fantastic.
Border Reiver reminds me of What It Is with its driving beat€ideal for motorway driving!
Cleaning My Gun is a rather clever song delivered in a vocal style reminiscent of Private Investigations.
So Far From The Clyde seems to be written from the heart. MK really suffers on this one as he tells the tale of a ship that it is beached and stripped when it`s sailing days are done.
Remembrance Day and Piper To The End are both about war and are very touching in again what is a personal way.
The remainder may yet endear themselves to me but at present they appear to be "skippers".
Don`t get me wrong-Get Lucky is not a bad record€far from it€but it is self indulgent.
The celtic influence is heard rather too much for my liking and why oh why is there this format of a having a long and repetitive intro into the song and then again on the outro.
It is almost as if there was indecision on how/ when to finish.
In summary I would recommend you buy it if you like your Knopfler music to be warm and cosy a la Ragpickers Dream but not if you like your Knopfler music to have that raw edgy sound that makes you want to crank up the volume.