It's kind of hard for me to compare Knopfler's current stuff with old Dire Straits material, as his songwriting has gotten much more personal over the years. I like the Brothers in Arms album very much, but most of the songs were very large in scope. My take on most of his solo stuff (there are 5 proper non-soundtrack albums now plus the 1 with Emmylou Harris) is storyteller-type songwriting, and every song is filled with characters and evokes a time and place. Most of the subject matter is about day to day people and their lives and problems, although there's still a lot of humor mixed in--a new song is called "Punish the Monkey" and the main chorus is "Punish the monkey but let the organ grinder go". No political overtones there.

Musically I guess there is still a lot of similarity to the more acoustic/subdued of the Dire Straits work, and his guitar playing is as sharp and precise as ever, with Mandolin and some Dobro thrown in, along with some subtle horns, accordian, and such in the background.

If you want to get a little bit different side of Knopfler, root out a copy of The Notting Hillbillies "Missing But Presumed Having a Good Time", which was basically a group of English (I think) singer-songwriters doing folk and light rockabilly tunes. Knopfler also did an absolutely stellar album with Chet Atkins, which anyone who plays guitar (or wants to) should hear a few thousand times.