With new group members Alan Clark and Hal Lindes on board, Dire Straits embarked on tours of Europe, North America, and Oceania [6] from October 1980 until July 1981 to promote the album. Making Movies Is A Rock Masterpiece After Dire Straits second album was criticized as more of the same, Mark Knopfler responded with a rock masterpiece titled Making Movies. The songs spark with a mélange of poetry, passion, and cohesion that engages the senses and begs to be experienced again and again. Having turned his back to superstardom after Dire Straits' _On every street_ album has done Knopfler's music a lot of good, and as he didn't have to play "Sultans of swing", "Money for nothing" and "Walk of life" anymore on his tour with Emmylou Harris it seems people are finally seeing him as a solo artist instead of that man from Dire straits.

But whatever will happen in the future, he'll never sound as inspired and brilliant again as on this wonderful album. Well just received today from Music Direct and it sounds absolutely stunning on my system (Mofi Studiodeck, Outlaw Audio RR2160MKll, 2 Pioneer CS99-A's 2 Dahli Zenzors, Outlaw Audio M8 Subwoofer, everything under Herbie's tenderfoot except Dahlis on the wall) Perfect pressing! It appears mine was done at the Toronto plant and have seen decent pressings from there on occasion.Objectively speaking, it's nothing revolutionary but it's a neat collection of songs that are somewhat different in tones and moods. He seems to be putting Roy Bittan's piano playing in the spotlight instead of his own guitar on most of the other tracks. Then the album takes a noticeable decline in quality, which is extremely noticeable but those songs still suffice.

Side two of the vinyl disc is a bit of a letdown following three strong tracks but the instrumentation does make up for that shortcoming. A slightly noisy sound floor on the lead in on side one is the only production issue I noticed, not enough to complain about and hardly noticeable in the songs. Ask critics what their favorite Dire straits album is, they'll always tell you it's their titleless debut. You know you're in the presence of sonic greatness as soon as the first few seconds of the opening "Tunnel of Love" pass, as the introductory passage built on organ and piano – new additions to Dire Straits' palette – intertwine with the unmistakable coil-spring twang of Knopfler's guitar. Crisp, rich, and balanced, the sound brings Knopfler's Fender Vibrolux and Music Man HD130 amplifiers into your room.I've compared all of these vinyl releases with clean copies and I can definitely say the Mofi beats them all. In his retrospective review for AllMusic, Stephen Thomas Erlewine noted that Making Movies "ranks among the band's finest work. Iovine had also worked on Springsteen's Born to Run and Darkness on the Edge of Town albums, and he was instrumental in recruiting E-Street Band keyboardist Roy Bittan for the Making Movies sessions.