Sting [Mercury Falling]
This is Sting's best album by far, though it doesn't contain his best song [Fields Of Gold], it's such a consistent album, plus so varied too, lots of styles are on show, and the lyrics are always thoughtful, a disc featured in my Blog fairly regular [27th December 2010 & 21st February 2013].
Sting is English, he's now 63, hard to imagine how he got so old, i really like the black & white cover shot [by William Claxton], a grainy shot which works really well, and a close cropped side portrait, really nice natural light.
I played this disc on random, and just recently it seems that the best track always comes last!, i really liked tracks 2, 6, 8 & 11, and my favourite track is 'I Hung My Head', it's one of Sting's most touching and forgiving songs, it has a real 'reverse' happy ending to it, a story of a guy who accidentally shoots a horse rider, and is condemned to hang, but after death is where the real magic happens, i love the opening rhythmic drive, the percussion is tremendous, lovely knocking sound throughout, it's in 9/8 time, very off beat, with the drum beats hitting on the 3rd and 8th beats, a whole off kilter feel to it, Sting knows how to build up a song, the second verse has that little extra that builds things up [1:04+], after the second verse / chorus, the thing really explodes into life [1:47-2:09] with a tremendous instrumental interlude, lovely organ swirls, and jazzy brass, which throws the third verse into more power when it comes in, and the meaningful words 'i orphaned his children, i widowed his wife', and another instrumental interlude between the third and the fourth verse [2:58-3:20], this time the organ swirls are harder, the last verse is really poignant, the dead rider's ghost comes back, and together they ride off into the distance after the hanging, the ultimate forgiveness from the very person he wronged, Sting is a genius.
Here's Sting singing 'I Hung My Head' on YouTube.
Sting is English, he's now 63, hard to imagine how he got so old, i really like the black & white cover shot [by William Claxton], a grainy shot which works really well, and a close cropped side portrait, really nice natural light.
I played this disc on random, and just recently it seems that the best track always comes last!, i really liked tracks 2, 6, 8 & 11, and my favourite track is 'I Hung My Head', it's one of Sting's most touching and forgiving songs, it has a real 'reverse' happy ending to it, a story of a guy who accidentally shoots a horse rider, and is condemned to hang, but after death is where the real magic happens, i love the opening rhythmic drive, the percussion is tremendous, lovely knocking sound throughout, it's in 9/8 time, very off beat, with the drum beats hitting on the 3rd and 8th beats, a whole off kilter feel to it, Sting knows how to build up a song, the second verse has that little extra that builds things up [1:04+], after the second verse / chorus, the thing really explodes into life [1:47-2:09] with a tremendous instrumental interlude, lovely organ swirls, and jazzy brass, which throws the third verse into more power when it comes in, and the meaningful words 'i orphaned his children, i widowed his wife', and another instrumental interlude between the third and the fourth verse [2:58-3:20], this time the organ swirls are harder, the last verse is really poignant, the dead rider's ghost comes back, and together they ride off into the distance after the hanging, the ultimate forgiveness from the very person he wronged, Sting is a genius.
Here's Sting singing 'I Hung My Head' on YouTube.
