“Dire” implies something urgent, desperate, grievously troublesome, or of a nature that invokes fear or suffering.
A “strait” is a narrow passage of water connecting two large bodies of water.
I’ve listened to this album literally hundreds of times in my life. Not once have I ever felt any indication of “dire” anything. In fact, this has been one of my favorite albums over the years.
I come back to it every now and then, and the only memory I can find that contains even a tiny hint of danger or trouble was when I was sitting on the hood of my car in front of a cliff (for the view, NOT for any other reason!), calmly listening to “six blade knife”. I guess the mention of a knife, especially one with so many blades, could be anxiety inducing for some, but not me.
I might have driven on a bridge over a “strait” when I was filling my world with sound from this album, but I doubt it.
I guess maybe my point is, the only way “dire” or “straits” could apply to this is that if you don’t love this album after even one listening, you’ll be in dire straits for the rest of your life by not recognizing top shelf music, destined to wallow in the greasy, foul mud of pop music, or even worse, country/western. So “strait-en” up and love this.
Or else.