Dire Straits - The Studio Albums 1978 - 1991 (6 CD Box Set) (2020)

UMC/Virgin has announced today, Mark Knopfler’s 71st birthday, that it will release a six-CD box set of all Dire Straits’ studio albums on October 9, 2020.

Dire Straits – The Studio Albums 1978-1991 includes of all the seminal British band’s studio LPs released during that time, all of which are certified multi-platinum. The sequence began with the self-titled set of 1978 that included their early signature song “Sultans of Swing,” and continued with 1979’s Communiqué and the 1980 release Making Movies.

That was followed by 1982’s Love Over Gold, the record-breaking 1985 classic Brothers In Arms and the group’s final album together, 1991’s On Every Street. Dire Straits’ split was retrospectively confirmed in 1995 by Knopfler, who had already made several film soundtracks and officially embarked on a solo career with the 1996 release Golden Heart.

The Dire Straits albums will be presented in a deluxe clamshell box with the CDs housed in mini-vinyl style cardboard wallets. Each disc will include a poster and faithful reproductions of the original sleeve artwork, including lyrics and credits.

Also on October 9, UMC/Virgin will release a repressing of the hugely popular eight-LP vinyl box set of 2013, also titled Dire Straits – The Studio Albums 1978-1991.

The band’s influence continues to reverberate on rock music, and on millions of aspiring guitarists and songwriters, to this day. Dire Straits’ impact can also be seen in their spectacular and ongoing sales. In the UK, their albums have spent a collective 385 weeks in the top 40 and 874 in the top 75. The compilation Private Investigations, indeed, continues in the top 100 now. Brothers In Arms is one of only 20 albums in UK chart history to spend an entire year in the top ten without a break.