Dire Straits: Graceful Strengths

By most of the yardsticks of pop music in 1984, Dire Straits are so conventional as to be practically invisible. No exotic dancing, no men in frocks, no million-dollar videograms gratifying adolescent fantasies: unlike the preeners and the poseurs, the members of Dire Straits exude the simple, almost stolid, slightly dated aura of men getting on with a job of work.