Thursday 21 February 2013

Sting [Mercury Falling] 

My favourite Sting album, i notice lately he's gone downhill, but this album was a real surprise, he's had an up and down career, it was only because of the excellent photography that i thought i'd give it a go, and it's amazing how Sting blends many genres of music together on one album, whether it's Reggae, or Country, or Folk, or whatever, i found myself enjoying all the tracks, even those that i feel are a little below par [Valparaiso & Let Your Soul Be Your Pilot for instance], one of the joys of compact discs, is the ability to just press 'random / shuffle', and enjoy a stream of tracks where you just don't know what you're going to get next, i played this at the end of 2010 [27th December 2010].

Sting [Gordon Sumner] is English, he's now 61, how time flies, i remember when he hit 50, he recorded this album in 1996, the photography throughout is fantastic [by William Claxton & Febrizio Ferri], the front cover picture is a great pose, black & white really says something, an atmospheric and grainy pic, and yet really sharp too, the back inlay photo is great too.

Well it was tracks 2, 4, 6 & 8-9 that i loved the best,  and again like last time it was track 2 that really moved me, here's a synopsis,
2 I Hung My Head - The song has this tremendous drum clap throughout, a nice sharp crack, and yet earthy and a dull thud at the same time, Stings vocal is nice and lyrical, i love the moment that the brass kicks in [1:46+], the whole thing livens up, and the way the organ really swirls in a solo [2:58-3:19], the lyrics are great too, and the morale of the story is touching, about a guy he accidentally shot, and condemned to die for, but the ending is one of real forgiveness, as the very guy he shot dead comes to collect him once he's dead, a truly great song.