Making Movies is the third album by British rock band Dire Straits, released in October 17 1980. And yes, it is an LP. Rolling Stone ranked the album #52 in their survey of the "100 Best Albums Of The 80s".The album clocks in at 37 minutes and 19 seconds which is not bad for 7 songs, since all the songs are average of around 5 minutes. All the songs are written by genius Mark Knopfler except for intro on "Tunnel Of Love".
--- The Review ---
1. Tunnel Of Love
This song starts off with a kind of circus music then the whole thing shuts down and brings out the rhythm of the song straight away after 30 seconds. I must warn you that the guitaring here on this song is so damn good as always as the way that Mark plays it is just unbelieveable, its like hes talking to the guitar!! Moving on, the whole song is beautifully constructed with the music being very nice and vocals are really good. The drums are very good at the bridges before the solos and I can't complement the guitaring enough on the solos, it just gets better as the song progresses. The whole song is about a place called "Spanish City" which is located somewhere in the UK, not in Spain. It is a fairground and the song resembles about meeting a girl and how she is like the Tunnel Of Love in the "Spanish City". Pretty emotional stuff. The Outro is goddamn amazing as always with the beautiful guitaring and piano playing. The song is a brilliant way to start an album.
Rating: 5/5
2. Romeo and Juliet
It starts off with an acoustic guitar playing and piano as well. It is a kind of ballad this song. Obviously this is about Romeo and Juliet but in Romeo's perspective. The chorus is very powerful with percussion banging away on it. The verses can get boring which is the bad point of this song, but the chorus is uplifting so it draws the problem away. Mark's voice can get dreary also. This song is a bit like "Tunnel Of Love" in a logic way it is constructed, but it is nowhere near as good. But don't get me wrong, this song is ok and nice to listen to. A relaxing song. The outro consists of lead guitaring which is so good but it is too short which is a shame.
Rating: 3/5
3. Skateaway
The song kicks off with a very rhythmic drums and keyboards. The lead guitaring brings out the melodic part of this song. Mark talks on this song which suits this very well. He sings on the chorus which are powerful on drum wise. The verses are very cleverly constructed so it is like an interlude to the chorus which is a very thoughtful way to construct a song. The guitaring is excellent again and solos are perfect again. This song has a bit of catchiness in it with the beat it has. A very good song.
Rating: 4.5/5
4. Expresso Love
Kicks off with the mainstream rhythm on the guitar with power chords on a clean effect so it gives that dirty sound. Drums come in after a while and lead guitaring is added to the rhythm guitaring as a booster to give it a more melodic feel. The song has no sense really but I like the song very much because it has really good beat and a good solo. A very good song.
Rating: 4.5/5
5. Hand In Hand
This song has a nice piano piece as it is so relaxing and the guitar in this is beautiful. Mark's voice is amazing on this talking about how sorry he is to people he has been hard on and wants to make peace "Hand In Hand". Another emotional song and such lovely guitaring on the bridge with slide guitaring. This song is beautiful at times which shows what emotion is put on this song.
Rating: 4.5/5
6. Solid Rock
The most rock song here and it has some beat to it! The guitaring is just great and the whole music has a good movement to it. This is a short song you can't say much about it really. IMO it is an ok song, not up to standards to the songs but it does have a brilliant short solo on it, but there isn't much special spark on it.
Rating: 3.5/5
7. Les Boys
This is the worst song on the album. It is very boring at the start with just guitaring and Mark singing. It is a bit flawed this song as it dosent motivate you like the others which makes you not want to listen to it. Its not my cup of tea, it is also very corny as well with its very old fashioned singing and music which does get annoying. But the strong point of this song is the guitaring, when a Dire Straits song is not up to standards, you always find the guitaring excellent so thats what saves the song. Disappointing end to an album.
Rating: 2.5/5
Overall this album has moments at the first 5 but the standards drop exceedingly which is very disappointing as if the they cut off the last 2, this album would get a 4.5, but it won't now which annoys me. But don't get me wrong, this is still worth getting but not if you want to get into this band first time round, but if you are a fan of Dire Straits, its worth getting as it is only 7 Pounds.
Best of Album:
- Tunnel Of Love
- Skateaway
- Expresso Love
- Hand In Hand
Overall Rating: 3.5/5
