Sting, …Nothing Like The Sun
Featured Album
Sting explores romance, loneliness and emotional dislocation
If Sting's solo material has always been cerebral, there is a reason. Describing the songs on this album (title courtesy Shakespeare), Sting wonders: "Why does tradition locate our emotional center in the heart and not somewhere in the brain?" Perhaps he answers his own question in the first two songs: "The Lazarus Heart" and "Be Still My Beating Heart," both of which feature on guitar his former bandmate Andy Summers. In addition to Kirkland on keyboard and Marsalis on saxes, the leader's world music credentials are burnished by percussionists Manu Katché and Mino Cinelu. The emotional dislocation of the "legal alien" is the theme of "Englishman in New York." A vigorous supporter of human rights organization Amnesty International, the key song here is "They Dance Alone." A star-loaded indictment of Chile's barbarous 1980s military dictatorship led by General Pinochet, the song is an eloquent balance of mood and message. Eric Clapton and Mark Knopfler are among the guitarists on the track, and salsa singer Ruben Blades delivers a verse in Spanish. In the year of Michael Jackson's Bad, there are also party songs like "We'll Be Together" and "Rock Steady," the torch song "Sister Moon," and a version of Jimi Hendrix's "Little Wing" based on jazz arranger Gil Evans' big band rendition.
