Sting - The Soul Cages (1991)

Note: this release was originally purchased as a cassette tape, later replaced by a CD.

A concept album, I'm told (for more on that, click here). In 1991, I bought a tape of this album hoping for another Dream Of The Blue Turtles, but instead got a group of bland, melocholy, poorly-written pop songs. Of this album, The Chicago Tribune wrote, "Sting purges himself of his angst, as well as his ability to write a memorable tune." I guess if you're in just the right sullen mood for these introspective tunes, they might speak to you, but I've never been there. Thank goodness Sting came back strong in 1993 with Ten Summoner's Tales.

Press of the time:

• Rolling Stone (★★★★): "Sting's most ambitious record yet - and maybe his best."
• RPM: "a personal retrospective that is well worth the wait."
• Billboard: "an absolute smash"
• Stereo Review: "Easier to admire than enjoy, it's nevertheless an important work."
• CashBox: "an introspective and deeply personal work reflecting on self and family"
• Robert Christgau: Dud.
• Entertainment Weekly (C): "rarely have songs about feeling awful sounded so stillborn and unmoving."

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: #2 (March 23, 1991)

Tracks: While I'm not a fan of the album, there a two decent songs here: All This Time (if you ignore the depressing lyrics which don't really fit the music) and the beautiful Why Should I Cry For You? which could be the best ballad Sting ever recorded. The last minute of Jeremiah Blues is good because Sting gets out of the way and lets his all-star band jam a bit. If I was playing in a band with Branford Marsalis, Kenny Kirkland, Dominic Miller, and David Sancious, I'd just sit back and enjoy as much as I could. The title track is interesting only because Sting took melodic and rhythmic ideas from the song, revised and improved them, and recycled them on Ten Summoner's Tales in the tunes Something The Boy Said and Heavy Cloud No Rain. Ah, well. There's nothing wrong with a little recycling, is there (Symphonicities, anyone)?

For more information on the brief life of the CD longbox,
go visit The Legend of the Longbox.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD:  Why was I buying cassettes in 1991? I have no idea and it really doesn't matter. I wasn't looking to replace a cassette I never listened to with a CD, but this disc was $1 in a clearance rack so I picked it up, hoping I'd somehow missed something 20 years earlier. (I don't think I did.)

Previously revisited for the blog:
Sacred Love (2003)
Brand New Day (1999)
Roxanne 97 (Puff Daddy Remix) (1997)
Mercury Falling (1996)
Ten Summoner's Tales (1993)
...Nothing Like The Sun (1987)
Bring On The Night (1986)