Opinions very widely on Sting, aka Gord Sumner of Newcastle. A lot of Britons consider him the anti-Christ, and equate him with Phil Collins. North Americans have a different perception of him, but there's also a sense that he lost his way many years ago. I've lost touch with his recent recordings (I did hear the medieval album once), but here's my own impression -- first, I'll rate his LPs on the ol' five-star scale: Police **** Outlandos D'amour ***** Reggatta de Blanc **** Zenyatta Mondatta **** Ghost in the Machine **** Synchronicity Solo **** The Dream of the Blue Turtles ***** ...Nothing Like the Sun **** Bring on the Night (live) **** The Soul Cages ***** Ten Summoner's Tales ** Mercury Falling * Brand New Day Everything else: can't be bothered to hear it. (I did see his live DVD from a 1999 concert -- it was bad.) So, yeah, as far as I'm concerned Sting lost it big-time after 1993. His stuff for sixteen years up to then was almost universally great, to my ears, and both The Police and his 'solo' touring bands in 1985-86 and 1988 were superb. The bands he used after that were less interesting, and there is a touch of blandness about the style of The Soul Cages, but the songs are almost all good. Ten Summoner's Tales is non-challenging musically, but is just an incredible record of incredible songwriting, with a great deal of wit. I think, maybe, that last one's success, combined with Mercury Falling's (a dour record) cool reception maybe convinced the Sting-ster to make more witty, funny, in-character songs. The result was the wretched Brand New Day, an album so bad I garbaged it after a girl bought it for me as a gift. When/How did Sting lose it?
After Synchronicity. Truth is 1985's "The Dream Of The Blue Turtles" was a decent Sting solo effort and that it was released a year after Sting left the Police. Never really got into his solo material it was always like here's Sting but where are Stewart and Andy. IMHO
Mercury Falling was when I had the epiphany, "Why am I still buying Sting albums?" I still like a few songs on each of his earlier solo efforts, though I don't often revisit them.
His Christmas CD was the death knell for me. I am a huge Christmas music fan but I could only make it through the CD once.
I’m basically with you although I think Mercury Falling is *slightly* better than you give it credit for. I completely went off him after that tour, though. I gave him one more chance, on the “Back to Bass” tour... here’s what I made of it. http://giggingforever.blogspot.com/2012/03/20th-march-2012-sting-hammersmith.html
I would say he went from consistently good to erratic at about Soul Cages. There are good moments on Mercury Falling and Ten Summoner's Tales but, like Soul Cages, they are not compelling as albums. I thought the stuff before that stood as a nice counterpoint to the Police stuff.
Funnily enough, at a place were I used to work, the elevator would automatically play the intro portion of "King of Pain" every time someone would use it!
I saw him on the Summoner's Tales Tour I think and it was a yawn. There were a couple of good tracks after that but nothing more. I think Dream of the Blue Turtles (which I like) had a lot of re-worked Police era stuff and Nothing Like The Sun is terrific but his muse seems to have gradually left him after that.
I’m with you 100%. TST is an amazing record, one of my favorites, but he fell off the cliff hard after that.
Here you just because I don't care for Sting solo music many others are still very fond of it. I do like 1985's Dream Of The Blue Turtles a solid effort.
Oh, I don’t care for it either. But some might, and I won’t insult them by saying they appreciate an artist who has lost it.
I have always admired and respected Sting as a musician. Synchronicity to this days is a remarkable record, and though I never saw Police, I did see his Blue Turtles tour, and was taken with it--a good, entertaining show indeed, with top notch talent. But the drag with Sting was a 'shroud of too serious' if you will, not much humour that I sensed, and that collided with his music. Could have been a funny guy to hang with, but I didn't pick that up and the music became a dirgeful bore.
Panther I agree 100% on the ratings...Ten Summoners was decent but then Mercury Rising was a bag of ****e, and everything just got worse IMO....such boring commercial crap.