New personnel change in 1981 for Dire Straits: Englishman Alan Clark brings his Hammond organ and Californian Hal Lindes his guitar for the recording of "Love Over Gold", the band's first number one album in England. The endless and lyrical "Telegraph Road", half-ballad half-blues that opens it, is the perfect vehicle for its guitar parts scattered throughout, supported by organ swaths that have aged well, but we remain charmed by the impeccable instrumentation and the ear-flattering flourishes like its crescendo finale (even more spectacular live, as evidenced by the version included in "Alchemy"). The song was inspired by a highway of the same name located in Michigan, heading from Detroit to the north of the state. Some critics (in bad faith, of course...) declared at the time that Dire Straits was veering into Progressive Rock; one of them feeling like they were hearing Emerson Lake & Palmer with Blues roots. An exaggerated remark but not false... when you stay with the impression of the closing track "It Never Rains".Because the whole produces an excellent musical backdrop for other activities like doing the dishes or grocery shopping. Twice as short but just as lengthy follows "Private Investigations", whose Hispanic-sounding piano/acoustic guitar intro made lighters flick on and arms wave in concert halls. "Industrial Disease" marks a hint of social conscience in this former reporter turned millionaire: chopped guitar riffs over organ swaths to tell the decline of British industry under the Thatcher era, and its quota of factory closures and strikers. The line "...you've got smokers cough from smoking brewer's droop from drinking beer" winks at Mark Knopfler's first band, Brower's Droop.