With four and a half decades of hindsight, Communique (released 6/5/79) now more than ever stands as the great lost Dire Straits album. In part, that’s because, except for “Lady Writer,” the overly obvious evocation of the modern update of country blues that dominated its predecessor, the prevailing mood is one of abiding languor.
Consequently, the LP’s charms are somewhat difficult to grasp. The deceptively torpid atmosphere is an undercurrent throughout the album, arising most pervasively (and fittingly) on the ever-so-hazy closer, “Follow Me Home.” It quite probably proceeded directly from its recording locale: the pastels in Geoff Halpin’s front cover illustration appropriately evoke the tropics of Compass Point Studios in Nassau, the Bahamas. The cover art was yet another point of criticism/comparison between this album and its predecessor.
As if in the overt embrace of the cinematic quality within in his best combinations of words and music, chief songwriter and guitarist of Dire Straits Mark Knopfler invokes the muse with his instrument to open “Once Upon A Time in the West” (the title of a 1968 spaghetti western directed by Sergio Leone). The languid mumble of Knopfler’s vocal delivery only enhances the prevailing pace of the track, a tempo that nevertheless sets off in stark relief how instantly recognizable is his sinuous guitar work.
Likewise, the economy of Knopfler’s supporting cast—sibling guitarist David, bassist John Illsley (a stalwart comrade throughout the group’s existence), and drummer Pick Withers—offsets the literacy in the narratives of “Where Do You Think You’re Going.” The quartet is too genteel to qualify as a bar band. Still, with the emotional expressions of the material couched in deep reflection, the earthy undercurrents in the musicianship complement such tunes as the wry title track, where co-producer Barry Beckett plays a jaunty piano.
Meanwhile, character portraits like that of the “Single Handed Sailor,” “Angel of Mercy” and “Portobello Belle” are the stuff of movie treatments waiting to be developed (the latter a swinging contemporary take on ageless traditional tunes). Notwithstanding its brisk forward motion, the aforementioned cull of a single recounting a media interview interrupts the pervasive mood of Communique generated by the otherwise quiet percolation of the foursome.
It took Dire Straits five months to become a hit after the 1979 breakthrough wrought by “Sultans of Swing.” Consequently, that lapse found the ensemble recording its sophomore album later in the same year as its debut, which was supervised by Muff Winwood (brother of Steve). Produced by Jerry Wexler and Beckett, veterans of Muscle Shoals Sound Studio, Communique would be the last Dire Straits album to feature the group as a quartet.
The younger brother Knopfler departed shortly after sessions began for the third album that would become Making Movies. Replaced for the duration of the project by Roy Bittan, the keyboardist for Springsteen’s E Streeters, this abrupt transition subsequently led to more emphasis on production than ensemble interaction for future Straits projects like Love Over Gold and the 1985 blockbuster that was Brothers In Arms.
The latter’s success was largely courtesy of the popularity of “Money for Nothing” (MTV-wise and otherwise); the title was the first to outsell its vinyl counterpart in the compact disc format (with a million tally). That breakthrough in technology was emblematic of Mark Knopfler’s abiding interest in excellent sound as an indispensable component of his records.
Such was his desire in that regard that expert remastering of the entire Dire Straits’ studio work took place in 1996; like its counterparts, Communique was issued sans any scholarly historical analysis, but given the immersive nature of the music itself, any such academic addenda would’ve been superfluous.
The pristine audio of the longplayer is certainly not the only reason to listen to it (or remember) it, but it certainly renders vivid the virtues of Mark’s songwriting and how the instrumental action and production of Communique brought his compositions to life. The results were so picturesque, they still carry a deep resonance forty-five years later.
