British guitarist and singer / songwriter Mark Knopfler was never the man to be the frontman of a mega-band. Yet his Dire Straits with their modest DDD soft pop grew into one of the greatest bands of the eighties and the album Brothers In Arms (1985) sold a whopping thirty million. This yielded more than enough reserves for Knopfler to do whatever he wanted for the rest of his career. And he does,
… like on Tracker. This is another introspective album full of small and dry songs. It has folk, but also country and Celtic music and as a whole it feels especially pleasant and sympathetic. As a guitarist he does not profile himself in any way, he prefers to sing lightly mumbling about bygone days. At best, Tracker is sometimes reminiscent of Dire Straits' still rough-sounding debut album, but the introverted Knopfler no longer knows how to fascinate an entire album. (MR)more
