Dire Straits followed up their successful debut album with another release just a year later. That album, Communiqué, didn’t make as big a splash as its predecessor but it did go Platinum in the UK and Gold in the U.S.
Recorded in Nassau, Communiqué offers an interesting blend of blues rock and what can only be described as reggae. That island flair doesn’t show up on every track but when it does it gives a new and unexpected dimension to the record.
It’s a bit early to roll out New Year’s resolutions, but I know one of mine will be to do more Deep (and Shallow) Dives on the blog. So far this year I’ve given that treatment to just one musical artist: Jason Isbell (I also explored the filmographies of David Lynch and Vincente Minnelli).
Last year, I dove into the five-album catalog of Jim Croce and did my first Shallow Dive, covering selected works by Barbra Streisand. Those were all rewarding (for me, at least) and I’m determined to add several other names to the list over the next year.
Following Love is the Answer, Barbra Streisand’s last 15 years as a recording artist have been unremarkable. She has released just four studio albums during that time, along with several live albums.
2011’s What Matters Most was a tribute to the songs of her friends, lyricists Alan and Marilyn Bergman. In 2014, Partners was a collection of duets with male singers. That album did well enough to spawn 2016’s Encore: Movie Partners Sing Broadway, which found Streisand singing show tunes with such unlikely collaborators as Melissa McCarthy, Antonio Banderas, and Alec Baldwin.
I’ve noticed a pattern when digging into the catalogs of major artists. They all seem to have a burst of activity for the first decade or two before tapering off. Maybe it’s because they’re too comfortable to put in the hard work, or perhaps their muse has just run out.
Barbra Streisand is no exception. After averaging more than an album a year for the first 23 years of her career, she hit the brakes. After The Broadway Album in 1985, she released just four more albums before the turn of the millennium.
Barbra Streisand’s output slowed down in the 80s. After averaging more than an album a year since the start of her recording career, she waited four years after 1980’s Guilty to release her next one.
That was Emotion (1984), a return to the middle of the road pop material she put out in the 70s. The album sold decently but earned a collective shrug from critics. Streisand decided it was time to go back to her roots.
Meet Me In Montauk 