| | Mark Knopfler Shangri-La CD Mark Knopfler Discography of CDs
 (6 Customer Reviews)
 |
|
Our Price: $21.35  CDFor Sale Usually ships in 1-2 days
|  |
There's a wealth of unusual topics on offer here; "Boom, Like That" is a first-person monologue by Knopfler in the voice of Ray Kroc, the man behind the McDonald's fast-food empire. The bluesy "Song for Sonny Liston" chronicles the famed boxer's brushes with the underworld. "Donegan's Gone" laments the passing of British folk/skiffle pioneer Lonnie Donegan, a key influence on Knopfler and scores of other British rockers. Departing from the more folk-oriented sound of its predecessor, THE RAGPICKER'S DREAM, SHANGRI-LA more fully develops the detail-oriented, irony-laced songwriting style Knopfler first hinted at in Dire Straits tunes like "Money for Nothing."
His fourth solo album is perhaps his most rocking since his halcyon days in Dire Straits. The CD features 15 tracks. The DVD-A includes 96 KHZ/24-bit Surround, 96 KHz/24-bit Stereo, Dolby Digital, and Dolby Digital Stereo, and a 50-minute EPK including 4 videos
Mark Knopfler's first excursions outside of Dire Straits were film soundtracks, where his guitar mastery served him well. Starting in the mid-1990s, he embarked on a proper post-Straits solo career. By the time of 2004's SHANGRI-LA, Knopfler had almost entirely left behind the expansive instrumental textures of his former band in favor of a more straight-ahead singer/songwriter approach, which works wonderfully here. Knopfler keeps things low-key throughout most of SHANGRI-LA, with quietly intoned, often drolly sardonic lyrics, supple finger-picked guitar lines, and songs full of subtly crafted surprises.
Personnel: Richard Bennett (guitar); Paul Franklin (pedal steel guitar); Guy Fletcher , Jim Cox (piano, organ); Glenn Worf (bass instrument); Chad Cromwell (drums).
Rolling Stone (p.102) - 3 1/2 stars out of 5 - "Mark Knopfler has grown into one of rock's more mature and sharp-eyed writers....[The album] mixes sunniness and darkness in artful ways."
Mojo (Publisher) (p.96) - 3 stars out of 5 - "There is genius in here....It also serves up three beguiling gasps of Tyne/Delta blues bewitchery." Shangri-La Music Review Average Rating: (5 out of 5 stars)   List All Reviews Better with age
Mark Knopfler seems to get better and better with each record he puts out.Amazing songwriting and that magical touch on the guitar. Speaking of getting "better with age", it can be said for the album itself. It grows on you with repeated listenings. After a while it becomes clear to you what this really is; a genuine heartwarming record that may be Mark's best. Credit also goes to a wonderful band that really understands what's needed for accompanimenting these songs. Favorites include: Boom,Like That.Back To Tupelo and Our Shangri-La.
Submitted by Kenneth B (Stavanger,Norway)
Was This Review Helpful? Yes No This is one of the Mark's best CD's
Initially I listened to the CD and I thought "Fine, Mark has written so many beautiful songs and I can understand he has ran out of ideas for new ones".
Then I listed to the CD again for 3 or 4 times; it is beautiful. You have no less than 7 'hits' on this CD. Sucker Row, Tupelo, Boom Like That, Postcards from Paraguay and others. Note that all songs are unique, by no means repetitive or similar melodies.
Mark has proven that - in my view - he is one of the very best musical artists in our history.
By the way, I went to see him playing live at the Shangri-la tour here in Seattle.
Submitted by R (Seatlle, WA)
Was This Review Helpful? Yes No songwriting excellence
This collection of brooding tunes really grows with repeated listenings. It's such a quiet collection that it almost has more power when you lower the volume. Excellent surround mix on the DVD Audio portion - mostly ambient but it really brings out the stellar playing. "Everybody Pays" gets my vote for the most beautiful song I've heard lately! Way to go Mark!
Submitted by Bruce (Lenexa, KS, USA)
Was This Review Helpful? Yes No MK is awesome!
I am a big fan of Mark Knopfler and own all his albums. With every new release as a solo artist he seems to get better...
MK fans...You will love Shangri-La!
Submitted by tanjavur (Denver, CO, USA)
Was This Review Helpful? Yes No I Agree!
Really good! I especially like the Trawlerman and Tupelo cuts! I think he's at his best in the Folksy/Bluesy range rather than the Rockabilly range! Would like to see him do more songs about the sea like Lightfoot! Would also like to see him do an all instrumental like Eric Johnson or Steve Morse!
Submitted by mheinen3 (Oklahoma City, OK, USA)
Was This Review Helpful? Yes No List All Reviews | Have you heard this album? |  |
Purchase Shangri-La CD To buy, Click on price to add to cart | Mark Knopfler Sailing To Philadelphia CDs (2000) includes bonus DVD
Shangri-La album
 $21.79  
Having crafted such a singular sound for himself both in Dire Straits and as a respected film composer, it's gratifying to hear that Mark Knopfler's consummate musicianship has only gotten better on what is only his second solo album in a career that began in the mid- '70s. For SAILING TO PHILADELPHIA, Knopfler once again looks to America for inspiration, starting with the stirring title track that draws from Thomas Pynchon's fictionalized account of English adventurers/surveyors Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon and which finds James Taylor playing Mason to Knopfler's Dixon. Other numbers benefiting from this ...
| | Yes - 9012 Live DVD (1986) Full Frame
Shangri-La CD music
 $15.09 
| | Gram Parsons Complete Reprise Sessions CDs (2006) Remastered; Boxed Set
Shangri-La music CDs
$24.29
Taking the place of the obligatory cd two-fer of GP and GREVIOUS ANGEL, Gram Parsons's THE COMPLETE REPRISE SESSIONS covers it all and then some for Grampires of all stripes. Produced by Emmylou Harris and Parsons cohort James Austin, this beautifully designed three-disc set includes one disc devoted to each solo record and a third featuring outtakes from each album's sessions. With fewer overdubs and Gram and Emmylou's vocals front-and-center in the mix, the final disc brims with the emotive soul and earthbound angelic vocals the two perfected. Among the final discs many highlights are looser alternate takes of "She" and "Streets of Baltimore" from GP and a "Hickory Wind" unadorned by the ridiculous fake crowd noise that mars the GRIEVOUS ANGEL version. The latter is the best and most stirring recorded performance of Parsons's signature song and alone worth the box's sticker price. Other features scattered on the first two discs include radio interviews (with Parsons's southern hippie charm in overdrive); captivatingly raw acoustic performances with him, Harris, ...
| | Mark Knopfler One Take Radio Sessions CD (2005) Extended Play
Shangri-La songs
$6.15
As guitar gods go, Mark Knopfler is a guy whose mellow music-making approach is at odds with the over-the-top images generally associated with the aforementioned tag. That notwithstanding, Knopfler demonstrates on LIVE FROM SHANGRI-LA that his kind of subtle instrumental skill and deft wielding of musical textures make any kind of six-string histrionics moot. Drawing the bulk of material from this set's 2004 studio predecessor SHANGRI-LA means there's a rich trove of storytelling fare for Knopfler and his compatriots to trot out. "Boom, Like That," a nod to Ray Kroc sung in the McDonald's founder's voice, benefits from a snappy reading while "Donegan's Gone," Knopfler's homage to his skiffle idol, has a twangy ...
| | Mark Knopfler All The Roadrunning CD (2006)
Shangri-La album
$14.35  
Recorded intermittently over the course of seven years, ALL THE ROADRUNNING is the collaborative project between Dire Straits guitarist and vocalist Mark Knopfler and country music luminary Emmylou Harris. While Knopfler's bluesy slow-hand picking and minimalist, muttering vocals may seem an odd match for Harris's lush, full-throated soprano, the pairing works remarkably well.
Better still is the songwriting, with the breezy back-porch opener "Beachcombing" and the stately 9/11-themed "If This Is Goodbye" ...
| | Gong Camembert Electrique CD (1971)
Shangri-La CD music
$10.65
This 1971 release was the first "real" Gong album (1970's MAGICK BROTHER was really Daevid Allen and Gilli Smyth with friends, recorded before the band's official debut). It's a psychedelic/space-rock classic, hinting at the conceptual/musical heights reached by the forthcoming "Radio Gnome Trilogy" but characterized by harder-edged riffing and fewer ethereal moments (Steve Hillage and Tim Blake had not yet come aboard).
Allen's underground-oriented psycho-sexual, beatnik lyrics are a winning combination of wisdom and whimsy, but it's the music that makes CAMEMBERT. Allen's patented "glissando guitar" style (a spacy, flowing sound achieved with delay effects and ...
| | Ian McNabb Live At Life CD (2001)
Shangri-La music CDs
$16.29 
Recorded live at Life Cafe, Liverpool, England on December 13 & 14, 1999.
Ian McNabb's Live at Life is a pretty barebones affair -- just McNabb and his guitar recorded live at Liverpool's Life Café over two nights in December of 1999. It was originally released as a fan-club-only item in 2000 before being picked up for general release by Sanctuary/Castle a year later. However, Live at Life's origins as a fan-club item are still very evident in the track selection; certainly, many longtime fans would be pleased by McNabb's decision to forgo playing his best-known, most commercially successful songs, instead electing to troll through his and the Icicle Works' back catalog to offer up a selection of relative obscurities and underappreciated gems from virtually every stage of his career (going all the way back to the Icicle Works' first album for "Reaping the Rich Harvest"). Live at Life also bears the stamp of "fan club release" for a couple of other reasons: the already-converted fan base will be fine with the somewhat monochromatic tone of the album (always a danger with lengthy solo acoustic recordings) and the energy-draining decision to almost completely mix out the crowd reaction and applause will actually be preferred by McNabb acolytes who wanted ...
| | Hostile Omish One Horse Power CD (2000)
Shangri-La songs
$5.03 
| | Bruce Springsteen Darkness On The Edge Of Town CD (1978) Japan; Mini LP Sleeve
Shangri-La album
$26.39
| | Twin Sisters Soothing Sounds CD (2004)
Shangri-La CD music
$6.05
| | Wrzonance Journey-Rhythm-Pleasure CD (2006)
Shangri-La music CDs
$9.59
| | Aguila Coleccion Diamantes 20 Temas Inolvidables CD (2007)
$7.29 |
|
|
20444 
Email a Friend
