Sting's 'The Dream of the Blue Turtles'

White Noise · 12-23-2004, 08:09 PM

Who here has a copy of Sting's first solo album away from The Police, called 'The Dream of the Blue Turtles' where he teamed up with a band of top jazz players and had success with the singles 'If you Love Somebody Set Them Free' and 'Russians'. It was quite a departure for Sting. I'm quite interested in getting this first solo album but would like to hear some of your thoughts on it first.

Reverend Rock · 12-23-2004, 08:23 PM

I have a copy of it...it's a solidly great album, if you like Sting (which I do, very much). If you don't like Sting in general, you won't like this album in particular. I don't think you'd be disappointed, seeing you quote a Sting lyric in your sig. Just get it.

Seerix · 12-25-2004, 03:53 PM

Actually, I find it to be better than any of the other Sting albums, but maybe that's because it came out first...

There isn't a whole lot of solo Sting I find all that significant, but there are quite a few gems here. "Fortress Around Your Heart", with that subtle mid-verse key change, is a brilliantly designed song. Sting easily one of the best pop songcrafters around. He is very reminiscent of Paul McCartney in that respect, and I intend this to be a compliment. There is nothing worse than a badly screwed up pop song (listen to "Everlong" by the Foo Fighters for a prime example of how to screw up a hook).

smorgdonkey · 12-27-2004, 10:57 AM

I have to agree completely with Reverend Rock and Seerix's recommendation. I do find that there are a couple of decent songs on each Sting record but Dream Of The Blue Turtles is more complete so to speak. "Fortress Around Your Heart" is indeed a gem and lyrically brilliant. I just saw Sting live a couple of months ago and although there wasn't enough Police tunes in the set for my liking he played some great songs. All in all the set was quite good except for two somewhat extended jazz(ish) jams in a couple different places. He somewhat lost momentum during the show and he could have helped his own cause by playing a few more songs that were huge from the Police era. It didn't help that Annie Lennox opened the show and blew the entire crowd away for an hour...she was incredible.