Originally Released September 28, 2004 or December 7, 2004
CD+DVDA Edition Released January 11s collarbone, shoulder, and seven ribs in a motorcycle crash in March 2003, finds the eternallybulance" aside -- he uses his warm baritone and effortless guitar work to ruminate on everythin("Boom, Like That"). Knopfler has more or less abandoned the British folk and Celtic-influencedd bluesy, midtempo dirges that revel in their uncharacteristic sparseness -- one of the better his melancholic slow-burn tone is as peat-smoked as ever, and his penchant for wrapping Americ5:15 A.M." -- is evident throughout. Dynamically, Shangri-La loses steam about three-quarters oovers of Chet Atkins, Gordon Lightfoot, and J.J. Cale, as well as late-night poker players and Monger
Amazon.com Editorial Review
Mark Knopfler isn't afraid to drop names. The heavyweigass through Knopfler's fourth solo album. Recorded in Malibu with a tight crew of steadfast Knodelivered with the nonchalant grace that has marked Knopfler's music since Dire Straits emergedoose the thread, either. As a songwriter, Knopfler has a storyteller's eye for minutiae, which ulls off a few career highlights (the understated crime-drama opener "5.15 a.m."). --Steve Stol rocking album since his halcyon days in Dire Straits. A four- time Grammy winner who has sold im one of rock's most admired artists -- Knopfler offers an idyllic earthly refuge for the soph "Brian Archibald" (Louisville, KY)
Can't say enough about this album. I got it as traditionaln this format. The positive reviews on the mix were even more encouraging. I've got a dedicatedh-end system, but it'll hold its own.
I have to say that I was disapointed when I heard the a voice and instuments. The idea of 5 channel separation is a wonderful thing when done right -amay love it; to me, it's unbalanced and makes for a frustrating listening experience. -Brian
fine wine: Unappreciated by children.
Mr. Knopfler writes songs that examine the deeper thiheart is music that the majority of listeners overlook in their haste for a quick fix, for the lmost any other recording artist out there.
It takes a few listens to begin to gather what something new each time.
Music like this is wasted on the shallow and obtuse. For grown peog Rocker" (MD, USA)
As one who grew up in the UK with Dire Straits and still regards them as ooods and tastes and it's as if he knows where I am in my own aging process. It's his lyrics, alg melodies to carry around. Mark Knopfler has a way of making you "see" his music. "5:15 a.m." to both the late, great Elvis and Lonnie! Even if your political views don't quite mesh, "Don'tf place with the lyrics but somehow fits so perfectly. Add: "Everybody Pays," Shangri-la," "Whosiness, Success and Corruption, January 27, 2006
Reviewer: C U LADA (NJ, USA)
I was gifted th on the first of December. For some reason, the colder the morning, the better these songs soun that warmed my soul.
I am unable to articulate words and phrases that describe the music, for most others. Be alone, whether it's in your car or at home. And turn it up so you can feel
AMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW
No sir, I don't like it, January 2, 2006
Reviewer: Dr. Rock
approach to his guitar solos on his past few albums I felt that this one was lacking too much iITAR GOD and his work should reflect this.
As for the songs themselves only a few were ableatters" and "Stand up Guy" were all right; and the rest of the album didn't really do it for men
I'm sure the long-time fans will get something from this album, but if you're new to Knopfle with you more sir, when you say "MK sounds like MK and DS sounds like DS". My review, however,, which is quite clearly not true (with the possible exception of "BLT"). As I said before, "Gorry. This one takes its time., May 27, 2005
Reviewer: P. Microulis (North Providence, RI USA)
when you take a little time to relax with these songs, resist the impulse to be instantly judgeforget or dont always give him due for his storytelling. And the collection of riff-raff that i. And even though you know them, you find that he's telling you something new.
But how abou but when it does, you will know just who he is and how he feels. A nobody who will never be ana lot of overdone on this CD. There are some songs that you will like more than others, some yoeeds, and you will find you cant stop playing it.
AMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW
BOOM, LIKE THAsee as much in some veteran rockers. I was listening to KFOG San Francisco when "Boom, Like Tha Ray Kroc's hostile takover of the McDonald brothers business in San Bernardino) was rightly wr-La - He made the album right here in Malibu with a close knit order of musicians that Mark wanREVIEW
Hanging out with his brother...?, November 17, 2004
Reviewer: Sam Greenblatt
Three alit? As it turns out, a reasonable amount. I was expecting more of Mark Knopfler's country-infleopfler could not get more low-key than this without inviting his brother David around to write Telegraph Road, Sultans, Tunnel of Love, On Every Street) were minor-key epics. Now he seems ll that, there is always something on a Knopfler album to satisfy, and for me this came in the "une to criticism from those expecting him to reprise Dire Straits' rock-hero indulgences. As hehe afternoon go by, that's fine by me.
AMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW
Returning to what made hn-esque folk in Shangri-La, his fourth solo album. There is, however, a little of the old rock raits disbanded. Where "Ragpicker's Dream" was mostly thirties-style blues and folk, "Shangri-Lr's Dream." Where that album concentrated on the beaten-down working man, the Depression-era he who founded McDonald's, Ray Kroc, and how his original concept was turned into a sea of medioc. I think there's a kind of veiled reference to the founding of Las Vegas in there, too. The tifrom the traditional-sounding "Donegon's Gone" to the Ragpicker-ish "Stand Up Guy." There's som Knopfler songs, with their eye for dialog and atmosphere. I interpreted the last track, "Don'tKnopfler delivers his usual grace and musical skill to this effort. Well worth the price for hir 7, 2004
Reviewer: Clint Potts "Of course, that's just my opinion. I could be wrong." (Arizon clean chalkboards. He wouldn't even have to play guitar. Perhaps that is what he had in mind wg. On Shangri-La, he does little more than MK noodlings--the kind of thing that could be heard an amplifier and a herd of effects pedals. A prior editorial review listed prominantly here dem rocks. It does not. There is no powerful guitar as found on Sailing to Philadelphia. There isstablished that there is no rock here. Let's look at it in its proper place: Adult Easy Listenid from a busy day and don't mind if you pass out in the middle of track 7 and wake up with a puwork in the morning. "What it Is" rocks harder than any 6 songs on this CD combined.
All ina small taste of the Mark Knopfler you fell in love with in Dire Straits, perhaps you are bettesota)
In many important ways, music reviews are as helpful as screen doors on a submarine. Peo was so thoroughly 80's without sounding dated. The fundamental shortcoming of this view is thaolder brother, just about when they stopped making music. I remember feeling how tragic this loy out. Dire Straits became my favorite band and I have a deep love of every single album the bage volume of work that is stylistically very similar to his new music. For example, the Brotherest Trick; Why Worry; Ride Across the River; The Man's Too Strong; Brothers in Arms
None ofhe radio despite its sleep walking mood).
Go back to any album from Dire Straits and you wive Over Gold; Portobello Belle; Six Blade Knife; Telegraph Road; On Every Street... the list goration into American folk music was for the love of the craft.
Mark Knopfler is widely consl guitar into guiding the emotion of his music, not just merely playing the notes on the page. s no different.
If you enjoyed all the music of Dire Straits and not just the radio hits, yr has taken a seat amongst modern music's hall of fame elite. He has matured into an adult's museem effortless, Mark Knopfler's work, and Shangri-La is no exception, is an honor to experienc its tropical album art (the ugliest I have seen since the cover of JJ Cale's "Travelog"), "Shabout Mark Knopfler's aging voice - its harrowing echo like a call for help from mountains in thto these songs that surfaced only occasionally on his great but somewhat more eclectic previousment in "Shangri-la."
It seems that Knopfler's mature and broadening departure from the Dirbum description" above that this is Mark's "most rocking album since his halcyon days with Direin "What It Is" and "Why Aye Man" respectively, here we start with the tender and narcotic "5:1ng For Sonny Liston," the grungey blues dirge inspired by Nick Tosches's fabulous biography, imatomic explosions.
I admit that Mark gets a bit dull at times (especially on the sporadical have been. Mark's guitar licks smack of a subtlety unprecedented even in his own remarkable castener (as on the distinctly Dylanesque "Whoop De Doo" or "The Trawlerman's Song"). For a guy f wide-ranging collection of albums that achieve a depth and maturity rarely heard during the mo's most enviable legacies will be left behind.
Half.com Details
Contributing artists: Gle steel guitar); Guy Fletcher , Jim Cox (piano, organ); Glenn Worf (bass instrument); Chad Cromwmid-1990s, he embarked on a proper post-Straits solo career. By the time of 2004's SHANGRI-LA, ch, which works wonderfully here. Knopfler keeps things low-key throughout most of SHANGRI-LA, usual topics on offer here; "Boom, Like That" is a first-person monologue by Knopfler in the vold. "Donegan's Gone" laments the passing of British folk/skiffle pioneer Lonnie Donegan, a key LA more fully develops the detail-oriented, irony-laced songwriting style Knopfler first hintedasps of Tyne/Delta blues bewitchery.
3 1/2 stars out of 5 - Mark Knopfler has grown into o
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