In his fifth solo album after the Dire Straits era, Mark Knopfler doesn’t show anything new… and that’s the best news. The mood is still as lazy as it used to be, and his trademark voice still tells us stories. Most of the true Dire Straits fans don’t approve the solo efforts of the bold and always smiley mister. God bless the uninitiated! Mr. Knopfler set a new way in his career going solo and returned to the roots, using as a main inspiration the Scottish and Irish folk music. In “Kill to Get Crimson” we can find almost everything we have expected: a classical 3/4 waltz, traditional Scottish bagpipes, pure acoustic ballads. Of course, he didn’t ignore the classic electric sound that caressed the ears of his fans over the last 20 and more years. The level of sound recording is perfect as always, due to the work of his long-time partnerm keyboard player and friend ever since Dire Straits existed, Guy Fletcher. The names of the tracks are a bit weird - “The Scaffolder's Wife”, “Heart Full of Holes”, “Secondary Waltz”, “Punish the Monkey”... We don’t have much to do than wonder how Mark has chosen them, enjoy the nice Vespa on the front cover, and wait for June 2008 when we’ll have the opportunity to see him live.