release date: Jun. 1, 1985
format: vinyl (393 750-1) / cd
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,62]
producer: Sting, Peter Smith
label: A&M Records - nationality: England, UK
Track highlights: 1. "If You Love Somebody Set Them Free" - 2. "Love Is the Seventh Wave" - 4. "Children's Crusade" - 6. "We Work the Black Seam" - 9. "Moon Over Bourbon Street" - 10. "Fortress Around Your Heart"
Studio solo debut by Sting released prior to the disbandment of The Police at a time when all three members were occupied on solo projects. In this regard, the album follows two years after Synchronicity (Jun. '83), the final album by The Police.
Stylistically, the album represents a huge mix with jazz pop as the overall thematic style. The album is more or less labelled as Sting's jazz album, primarily because of all the acclaimed musicians of the genre he collaborates with on this. There's a strong influence of world music, which in the end turns out as sophisti-pop, and then it shares some pop / rock-influence with bonds to the final album by The Police, who at times incorporated jazz fusion and fusion rock elements but this is less apparent here, and I suspect that it was primarily The Police guitarist Andy Summers who incorporated those elements in the music by the band - something he would dig much deeper into in his solo works.
The album was met by critical acclaim world-wide, and it sold more than well. It reached number #3 on the UK albums chart list and number #2 on the US Billboard 200, and it went number #1 in a number of countries.
Personally, I embraced this and played the album quite a lot during for the rest of '86, but in retrospect I don't enjoy it fully as much. Yes, Sting understood how to make a fine fusion of styles, blending jazz and world music all founded on harmony-driven pop - the end result is, however, a thin glace of smooth sophistipop.
The Police hiatus gave Sting grounds to realize himself as a solo artist, and the success he experienced with this first solo effort probably didn't help in regaining the forces of the trio, and despite some efforts of meeting in the studio in 1986 to record what should have been a follow-up to the band's '83 album it only resulted in the disbandment of The Police late 1986.
[ allmusic.com, Rolling Stone, Record Mirror 4 / 5 stars ]
