Canter Bridge

If I did not hold Sting’s 2006 Deutsche Grammophon recording of the 16-17th centuries’ John Dowland’s lute-accompanied music in my hands, I would not believe that the British rock star had truly attempted to pull this one off.

But I do, and he has.

And not to bad effect, either. Unlike may Sting critics who seem to think the man should stay in his rut, I admire his constant rebellion against the artistic expectations to which we admirers of his art may want to hold him. I like his audacious impertinence.

I just didn’t expect this. (more…)

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If he had never played another note, Ten Summoner’s Tales would by itself have cemented Sting’s stature as one of the late 20th century’s premier song writers. The music on this 1994 release still beguiles and satisfies, neither one stingily.

‘If I Ever Lose My Faith in You’ proves Sting the past master of the oblique love song. He approaches his object in a circling pattern, canvassing all things that might serve as the existential center of the universe but fail to do so before the tenacious matter of his love for this woman. Though the Police hinted at the genre with the mildly obsessive ‘I’ll Be Watching You’ and Sting himself would crown it with ‘I’ll Still Love You’ on the Brand New Day CD, ‘Lose My Faith’ is the real flower in mature bloom. It is exquisite song-writing, performed unforgettably by what Sting has elsewhere called his ‘unschooled tenor’. (more…)

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The unhurried pace of `When We Dance’, the opener to a decade’s anthology of Sting’s best work, could serve as an icon for the artist’s contribution to serious popular music. Pensive, elegant, emotionally resurgent, the song captures the burden of the man’s music. Perhaps the highest compliment this reviewer can pay the collection and the reservoir from which it was drawn is just this: unlike the figures in Sting’s balladic poetry, the music refuses to grow old. (more…)

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