Sting, Mercury Falling
Featured Album
Sting's globe-spanning spiritual opus
As always, the value of Sting's many gifts remain in the ear of the beholder. One test: Listen to the last line of the opening song. "The hounds of winter, they harry me down." If you stop at the word "harry," used correctly, but out of place in a pop song, this is probably not for you. If you find it a sign of intelligence, dedication to painstaking craftsmanship, you and Sting are on the same page. This may be Sting's most "international" record in its adaptation of styles. The spiritual ballad "Let Your Soul Be Your Pilot" (a first cousin to Elton John's "Take Me to the Pilot") gets vocal reinforcement from a gospel choir; the jazzy "I Was Brought To My Senses" gets its mojo, as so many Sting solo tracks do, from saxophonist Branford Marsalis' eloquence and touch. But "I'm So Happy I Can't Stop Crying" is supposed to revel in blues wisdom, bringing universal truths to a tale of modern divorce, but the humor falls flat and the lessons are dubious. "I Hung My Head" is a Johnny Cash-style ballad of murder and guilt that really needs Johnny Cash in order to work. Way out on other continents are "Valparaiso," of stars and seas in the southern hemisphere. "La Belle Dame Sans Regrets," written with longtime guitarist Dominic Miller, is sung entirely in French, which makes the salsa flourish at the end seem peculiar.
