手足情深 (1985)

Brothers in Arms is the fifth studio album by the British rock band Dire Straits, released on 17 May 1985, by Vertigo Records internationally and Warner Bros. Records in the United States. It was the first album in history to sell over one million copies in CD format. The album was produced by bandleader Mark Knopfler and by Neil Dorfsman, who had engineered Dire Straits' 1982 album Love over Gold and Knopfler's 1983 soundtrack album Local Hero.

Brothers in Arms spent a total of 14 non-consecutive weeks at number one on the UK Albums Chart (including ten consecutive weeks between 18 January and 22 March 1986), nine weeks at number one on the Billboard 200 in the United States and 34 weeks at number one on the Australian Albums Chart. It was the first album to be certified ten-times platinum in the UK and is the eighth-best-selling album in UK chart history. It is certified nine-times platinum in the United States by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and is one of the world's best-selling albums, having sold more than 30 million copies worldwide. To promote the album, Dire Straits embarked on the Brothers in Arms Tour, which ran from 1985 to 1986.

The album won a Grammy Award in 1986 for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical and Best British Album at the 1987 Brit Awards; the 20th Anniversary reissue won another Grammy in 2006 for Best Surround Sound Album. In 2020, Rolling Stone magazine ranked Brothers in Arms number 418 on its list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time". Q magazine ranked it number 51 on its list of the "100 Greatest British Albums Ever".

In 2025, to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the album’s original release, the album was re-released in several formats, including a five-LP box set and triple CD. This box set included the full studio album as well as a previously unreleased full-length live concert from the band’s Municipal Auditorium, San Antonio show during the world tour.

Recording

Initial recording sessions (and departure of Hal Lindes)

The initial recording sessions for Brothers in Arms took place between 2 November and 21 December 1984 at AIR Studios on the island of Montserrat, a British overseas territory in the Caribbean. Before arriving at Montserrat, Knopfler had written all the songs and rehearsed them with the band; which, at the time of recording, was himself (vocals, guitar), John Illsley (bass, backing vocals), Hal Lindes (guitar), Alan Clark (piano, organ), Terry Williams (drums) and new member Guy Fletcher (synthesisers, backing vocals).

The studio itself was small, with a 20-by-25-foot (6 m × 8 m) recording space that offered virtually no isolation. "It was a good-sounding studio," Dorfsman later recalled, "but the main room itself was nothing to write home about. The sound of that studio was the desk," referring to the Neve 8078 board. Knopfler and Dorfsman utilised the main studio's limited space to best effect, placing the drum kit in the far left corner, facing the control room. They placed the piano in a tight booth in the far right corner, miked with AKG C414s. The Hammond B3 was placed nearby, with its Leslie speaker either wedged into the soundproof entryway to the control room or even set up outdoors. Illsley's bass amplifier was recorded inside a small vocal booth with a Neumann FET 47 and a DI unit. Knopfler's amplifiers were miked with 57s, 451s, and Neumann U67s. Fletcher's synths were placed in the control room.

Brothers in Arms was one of the first albums recorded on a Sony 24-track digital tape machine. The decision to move to digital recording came from Knopfler's constant striving for better sound quality. "One of the things that I totally respected about him," Dorfsman observed, "was his interest in technology as a means of improving his music. He was always willing to spend on high-quality equipment." However, they encountered a defective batch of recording tape at AIR Studios, which would result in the loss of part or all of three album tracks.

Hal Lindes left the band early in the sessions. According to Illsley, this was due to social disagreements, with Lindes spending too much time with his girlfriend (and future wife) and not enough with the rest of the band, leading to questions about his commitment. As had been the case with the earlier recording of Making Movies, Knopfler then took on the recording the majority of guitar parts himself.