...Nothing Like The Sun Arizona

...Nothing Like The Sun

Sting

A&M Records, 1987

http://www.sting.com

REVIEW BY: Michael Ehret

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 06/20/2007

Gone is much of the art-jazz pretentiousness of Blue Turtles and the dour and sullen tone of Soul Cages, Sting’s “death” album. What’s left are some of the most intelligent lyrics he’s ever written and the most emotionally satisfying music he’s ever composed.

From the lilting sweep of Branford Marsalis’ saxophone that levitates the opening song, “The Lazarus Heart,” to Ken Helman’s understated piano on the closer, “The Secret Marriage,” …Nothing Like The Sun never is less than listenable.

As a man trying not to fall in love, the narrator of “Be Still My Beating Heart” urges caution based on his past failed love affairs – even as he moves step by step closer to giving his heart again. He acknowledges the futility of running from love: “I sink like a stone that’s been thrown in the ocean / My logic has drowned in a sea of emotion.”

When I initially heard “Englishman In New York,” I dismissed it as a nice little trifle – and it is constructed to feel that way. But underneath the veneer of the song is an important message about being “yourself no matter what they say.”