Mark Knopfler: Shangri-La : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Mark Knopfler has grown into one of rock's more mature and sharp-eyed writers; in an Ashlee Simpson world, he takes pages from Philip Roth and Joan Didion -- and still plays the guitar far better than any of the above. Shangri-La -- recorded in the famed Malibu studio of the same name that was once home to Bob Dylan and the Band, and featuring the same musicians who shined on 2000's Sailing to Philadelphia and 2002's ,I>The Ragpicker's Dream -- mixes sunniness and darkness in artful ways. Knopfler has crafted a short-story collection of tales about crime ("Postcards From Paraguay") and punishment ("Everybody Pays"), American icons ("Song for Sonny Liston" and "Back to Tupelo," a non-salute to Col. Tom Parker) and even franchise capitalism ("Boom, Like That" -- the tastiest tune ever inspired by late McDonald's chief Ray Kroc). Though it's less self-consciously epic than a Dire Straits masterpiece such as Making Movies, Shangri-La shows that Knopfler still knows how to super-size his ambitions.