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In recent days, Sting has imposed a healthy self-punishment on himself for having sought too much easy sales success with records that do not live up to his fame and especially his musical knowledge. A collection of ballads by John Dowland, an English composer from the 16th and 17th centuries, has been released, theoretically an almost unsellable genre of music, but with his Midas touch, you never know. To be honest, even the tumble that saw him fall from the somewhat polished but smart jazz-pop of "The Dream Of The Blue Turtles" to the mediocrity of "Sacred Life" is full of footholds, protruding stones, and bushes to which the former Police could cling before falling. One of these is called "The Soul Cages" (1987) and corresponds to a difficult phase in Sting's life, full of tragic and traumatic events. This also explains the unusual spontaneity of this album, which contrasts with the coldness of the character, well known even to his admirers.
Sting has not lost the habit of surrounding himself with excellent jazz musicians: here we find Manu Katché's drums, Kenny Kirkland's keyboards, Dominic Miller's guitars, and Branford Marsalis's sax, with the addition of the Celtic touch of Northumberland's bagpipes, his region of origin. All this guarantees a record played impeccably. However, Sting has not entirely lost the habit of capturing the easy-going audience, and "All This Time" is built for this purpose, the classic radio rock, with a rather clichéd refrain. But the ways of the Market are endless, and at least as far as Italy is concerned, the hit that will drive the album sales will be the pleasant ballad "Mad About You", with its clear acoustic guitar resonances, and the best part is that all this is thanks to a translation by Zucchero ("Muoio per te"), so nonsensical and ungrammatical that it seems made by a child who doesn’t know English. Mysteries of the Market, to which we bow respectfully.
There is much better in "The Soul Cages", starting right from the initial "Island Of Souls", a true hidden gem in which the icy Sting succeeds in the feat of moving. The story of Billy, the son of a shipyard worker in Newcastle (Sting's hometown), who dreams of sailing towards an island of souls with his father, recently deceased in "what they call an industrial accident," is one of those you don't expect from a dashing cynic like the former Police. The image of work in the shipyards, with men "hanging like flies on the scaffolding" is remarkable, and even more inspired is the music, from the bagpipe introduction to the hypnotic jazzy bass cadences that sustain the entire piece, with the ending fading again into the sinister wail of the Northumberland instrument, as piercing as a ship's siren.
Another gem that remained virtually unnoticed is the evocative, impressionistic "The Wild Wild Sea", a real tidal wave of sensations related to the difficult relationship with the sea, with a dramatic crescendo, swirling like a rogue wave, which also in this case ends by merging with the alarming final siren of the bagpipe. Also notable is "Jeremiah Blues (Part 1)", which has been waiting for 19 years to be completed by a possible "Part 2". It's called blues but is loose and danceable like a soul, and it gives its best in the final part, with Dominic Miller's electric guitar solo standing out sharply against the stubborn beat of Sting's bass. The stubborn "The Soul Cages" seems more typically blues, which has the only flaw of stretching out a bit too long, although it must be said that halfway through the piece it incorporates a reprise of the poignant melody of "Island Of Souls".
"Saint Agnes And The Burning Train" is a pleasant instrumental interlude placed right in the middle of the album, a sort of ideal sequel to "Fragile", but without lyrics. It is the acoustic guitar of Dominic Miller speaking, engaged in fine evolutions in the manner (only in the manner) of Paco De Lucia. Completing the picture are "Why Should I Cry For You" and "When The Angels Fall", two majestic and somewhat ambitious melodic ballads, not really too inspired to be honest, especially the second one, with its ending stretched beyond measure, perhaps just to close the album solemnly. Despite their evident limitations, Sting's interpretation, and especially that of the jazz musicians accompanying him, manages to make them not unpleasant, which applies all the more to the aforementioned "All This Time", the other blot (the most evident) on an album that is excellent and worth reevaluating, along with poor (so to speak) Sting, harshly criticized well beyond his faults.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
02 All This Time (04:54)
I looked out across the river today
I saw a city in the fog and an old church tower
Where the seagulls play
I saw the sad shire horses walking home
In the sodium light
I saw two priests on the ferry
October geese on a cold winter's night
And all this time, the river flowed
Endlessly, to the sea
Two priests came 'round our house tonight
One young, one old
To offer prayers for the dying
To serve the final rite
One to learn, one to teach
Which way the cold wind blows
Fussing and flapping in priestly black
Like a murder of crows
And all this time, the river flowed
Endlessly, to the sea
If I had my way, I'd take a boat from the river
And I'd bury the old man
I'd bury him at sea
Blessed are the poor, for they shall inherit the earth
Better to be poor than a fat man in the eye of a needle
And as these words were spoken, I swear I hear the old man laughing
"What good is a used-up world, and how could it be worth having?"
And all this time, the river flowed
Endlessly, like a silent tear
And all this time, the river flowed
Father, if Jesus exists
Then how come he never lived here?
The teachers told us, the Romans built this place
They built a wall and a temple, an edge of the empire
Garrison Town
They lived and they died, they prayed to their gods
But the stone gods did not make a sound
And their empire crumbled, 'til all that was left
Were the stones the workmen found
And all this time, the river flowed
In the falling light of a northern sun
If I had my way, I'd take a boat from the river
Men go crazy in congregations
But they only get better
One by one
One by one
03 Mad About You (03:53)
A stone's throw from Jerusalem
I walked a lonely mile in the moonlight
And though a million stars were shining
My heart was lost on a distant planet
That whirls around the April moon
Whirling in an arc of sadness
I'm lost without you
I'm lost without you
Though all my kingdoms turn to sand
And fall into the sea
I'm mad about you
I'm mad about you
And from the dark secluded valleys
I heard the ancient songs of sadness
But every step I thought of you
Every footstep only you
And every star a grain of sand
The leavings of a dried up ocean
Tell me, how much longer?
How much longer?
They say a city in the desert lies
The vanity of an ancient king
But the city lies in broken pieces
Where the wind howls and the vultures sing
These are the works of man
This is the sum of our ambition
It would make a prison of my life
If you became another's wife
With every prison blown to dust
My enemies walk free
I'm mad about you
I'm mad about you
And I have never in my life
Felt more alone than I do now
Although I claim dominions over all I see
It means nothing to me
There are no victories
In all our histories, without love
A stone's throw from Jerusalem
I walked a lonely mile in the moonlight
And through a million stars were shining
My heart was lost on a distant planet
That whirls around the April moon
Whirling in an arc of sadness
I'm lost without you
I'm lost without you
And though you hold the keys to ruin
Of everything I see
With every prison blown to dust,
My enemies walk free
Though all my kingdoms turn to sand
And fall into the sea
I'm mad about you
I'm mad about you
07 The Wild Wild Sea (06:41)
I saw it again this evening
Black sail in a pale yellow sky
And just as before in a moment
It was gone where the grey gulls fly
If it happens again I shall worry
That only a strange ship could fly
And my sanity scans the horizon
In the light of a darkening sky
That night as I walked in my slumber
I waded into the sea strand
And I swam with the moon and her lover
Until I lost sight of the land
I swam �til the night became morning
Black sail in a reddening sky
Found myself on the deck of a rolling ship
So far where no grey gulls fly
All around me was silence
As if mocking my frail human hopes
And a question mark hung in the canvas
For the wind that had died in the ropes
I may have slept for an hour
I may have slept for a day
For I woke in a bed of white linen
And the sky was the color of clay
At first just a rattle of canvas
And the gentlest breath on my face
But a galloping line of white horses
Said that soon were in for a race
The gentle sigh turned to a howling
And the grey sky, she angered to black
And my anxious eyes searched the horizon
With the gathering sea at my back
Did I see the shade of a sailor
On the bridge through the wheelhouse pane?
Held fast to the wheel of the rocking ship
As I squinted my eye in the rain
For the ship had turned into the wind
Against the storm to brace
And underneath the sailor�s hat
I saw my father�s face
If a prayer today is spoken
Please offer it for me
When the bridge to heaven is broken
And you're lost on the wild, wild sea
Lost on the wild, wild sea�
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