Sting [Mercury Falling]Sting has had a chequered solo career, he has made poor albums [The Soul Cages & Brand New Day], and then great albums [Ten Summoner's Tales & Mercury Falling], i've had a tendency to lose interest in him, as i really don't know what to expect next, Brand New Day was especially a great disappointment, it's put me off keeping track with him, but Mercury falling is his best album of all, full of a wonderful variety of musical styles.
Sting is now 59, yes, he'll hit the big 6-0 at the end of next year, everyone seems to be getting old, he made this album in 1996 in his mid forties, the front cover shot [by William Claxton] is exceptional, a grainy black and white study of sting, a nice side shot with gentle shadows to show depth, this album just scrapes into my top 100 discs of all time [at 93, as of today].
I really enjoyed listening to this disc today, it has lots of different music styles to it, and Sting has this ability to blend it all into one convincing whole, on this listen i liked tracks 2 'I Hung My Head', and track 11 'Lithium Sunset', 'I Hung My Head' always moves me to tears, it's a tragic story of unforgiveness and justice, but at the end of the song it becomes a story of forgiveness and redemption and release, a story of a guy who accidently shoots someone, comes to realize the extent of what he has done,
I orphaned his children
I widowed his wife
condemned to death, at the gallows a moment of magic happens,
I see a lone rider
Crossing the plain
He's come to fetch me
To see what they done
We'll ride together
Til kingdom come
it's the same guy he shot come to collect him after he's dead too, a real moment of forgiveness from the very person he wronged, it's a touching story of the power of the hereafter, the music's great too, a nice sharp but quickly dying drum beat throughout, right at the end of the second verse the horns [trumpet & saxophone] really kick in [1:48+], a real lovely jolt here, plus the organ swirls [Kenny Kirkland i take it] in at the same time, and is a great feature in every chorus afterwards [2:51+ & 4:02+ for instance], making a sort of gospel feel to it, right after the third verse Sting shout 'oww' [2:57], another nice little touch, but the whole album is strong, not just this one track, i would recommend this album to anyone coming to Sting afresh, and not knowing where to start.
Here's Sting singing 'I Hung My Head' on YouTube.
