A few discs ago I reviewed an album called "Seventh Son of a Seventh Son". Now, a song featuring a seventh son of a seventh son. Of course that and the fact that they are both British is where the similiarities end.
Disc 243 is...Ten Summoner's Tales
Artist: Sting
Year of Release: 1993
What’s Up With The Cover?: Sting sits thoughtful at the edge of some medieval well. Sting is supposed to be a handsome guy, but this picture makes him look positively homely. Also, he doesn't look too healthy - check out that unhealthy yellow pallour.
How I Came To Know It: This album was a pretty big record in the day, so I'd have had to be deaf and blind to miss it. Even if I had, Sheila owned it when we met, so she introduced me more formally.
How It Stacks Up: As I noted when I reviewed "Nothing Like The Sun" back at Disc 125, we have three Sting albums, and I only really like one of them. Thankfully, this is it!
Rating: Just barely makes it to 4 (see below)
As I noted earlier, "Ten Summoner's Tales" was a very big deal in 1993, and many of the songs on here have seen more than their fair share of radio play. Fortunately, I rarely listen to the radio, so this hasn't 'jaundiced' me to them as yet. (Yes, another yellow filter joke).
For the most part, this is a good album - it has almost none of the excessive jazz noodling that made "Nothing Like The Sun" so unbearable. These songs really benefit from not having Branford Marsalis get all 'look at me' throughout them.
Instead, Sting's guest musicians play artfully, but generally within the confines of the song's melody. Whether it is a well placed violin, or the sound of Northumbrian Pipes in the distance (I checked on this one), the right amount of instrumentation has been added, without becoming too busy. I guess what I'm saying is, I like the production.
The songs themselves are also good for the most part. The up-tempo "Love Is Stronger Than Justice" is a clever retelling of the Seven Samurai legend, where at the end of the battle we learn that there is only one maiden of marriagable age to pay off seven brothers who defended the townsfolk from bandits. The seventh and youngest son murders the others to have her, justifying his actions by stating that "love is stronger than justice/Love is thicker than blood."
"Fields of Gold" is a much slower, thoughtful song, evoking an image of a lover looking back to a golden time when he was with his beloved. This song strongly reminds me of the Robert Browning poem, "Love Among the Ruins". In that poem, Browning compares the two lovers' connection as more meaningful than old ruins dotting the pastoral countryside where the couple meet.
In Sting's "Fields of Gold" he looks back to an image of his lover running through fields of barley in the sunshine. It doesn't relate directly, but both have lovers meeting in fields (one of barley, one of grass) and both hold the idea that the memory of love will endure. Even if the similarities end there, I can't help being reminded of the poem every time I hear the song.
The album is also tastefully restrained to eleven songs (although a minor quibble; the title is Ten Summoner's Tales - not eleven). Maybe Sting was simply trying to channel Spinal Tap. Memo to Sting: If you want to channel Spinal Tap, you need more rock guitar; pop music doesn't go to 11.
There are songs that are stinkers, like the annoyingly self-indulgent "Saint Augustine in Hell" which has a mid-song oration that makes a point of putting music critics in Hell. It is meant to be funny, but it struck me as self-satisfied and defensive. The same goes for the eleventh track, "Epilogue (Nothin' 'Bout Me)", which is Sting's indictment that no one really knows him, regardless of what they think they know. Um...then write about it, Sting, but don't write about how you won't write about it - that's just self-referential silliness.
For these reasons, I was going to hold this record to three stars, but any record that encourages me to go back and read Browning's "Love Among the Ruins" deserves a pass, so I went with four. Give it a read yourself right here and remind yourself once again, that love is best.
Best tracks: Love Is Stronger Than Justice, Fields of Gold, She's Too Good For Me, Shape of My Heart
Disc 243 is...Ten Summoner's Tales
Artist: StingYear of Release: 1993
What’s Up With The Cover?: Sting sits thoughtful at the edge of some medieval well. Sting is supposed to be a handsome guy, but this picture makes him look positively homely. Also, he doesn't look too healthy - check out that unhealthy yellow pallour.
How I Came To Know It: This album was a pretty big record in the day, so I'd have had to be deaf and blind to miss it. Even if I had, Sheila owned it when we met, so she introduced me more formally.
How It Stacks Up: As I noted when I reviewed "Nothing Like The Sun" back at Disc 125, we have three Sting albums, and I only really like one of them. Thankfully, this is it!
Rating: Just barely makes it to 4 (see below)
As I noted earlier, "Ten Summoner's Tales" was a very big deal in 1993, and many of the songs on here have seen more than their fair share of radio play. Fortunately, I rarely listen to the radio, so this hasn't 'jaundiced' me to them as yet. (Yes, another yellow filter joke).
For the most part, this is a good album - it has almost none of the excessive jazz noodling that made "Nothing Like The Sun" so unbearable. These songs really benefit from not having Branford Marsalis get all 'look at me' throughout them.
Instead, Sting's guest musicians play artfully, but generally within the confines of the song's melody. Whether it is a well placed violin, or the sound of Northumbrian Pipes in the distance (I checked on this one), the right amount of instrumentation has been added, without becoming too busy. I guess what I'm saying is, I like the production.
The songs themselves are also good for the most part. The up-tempo "Love Is Stronger Than Justice" is a clever retelling of the Seven Samurai legend, where at the end of the battle we learn that there is only one maiden of marriagable age to pay off seven brothers who defended the townsfolk from bandits. The seventh and youngest son murders the others to have her, justifying his actions by stating that "love is stronger than justice/Love is thicker than blood."
"Fields of Gold" is a much slower, thoughtful song, evoking an image of a lover looking back to a golden time when he was with his beloved. This song strongly reminds me of the Robert Browning poem, "Love Among the Ruins". In that poem, Browning compares the two lovers' connection as more meaningful than old ruins dotting the pastoral countryside where the couple meet.
In Sting's "Fields of Gold" he looks back to an image of his lover running through fields of barley in the sunshine. It doesn't relate directly, but both have lovers meeting in fields (one of barley, one of grass) and both hold the idea that the memory of love will endure. Even if the similarities end there, I can't help being reminded of the poem every time I hear the song.
The album is also tastefully restrained to eleven songs (although a minor quibble; the title is Ten Summoner's Tales - not eleven). Maybe Sting was simply trying to channel Spinal Tap. Memo to Sting: If you want to channel Spinal Tap, you need more rock guitar; pop music doesn't go to 11.
There are songs that are stinkers, like the annoyingly self-indulgent "Saint Augustine in Hell" which has a mid-song oration that makes a point of putting music critics in Hell. It is meant to be funny, but it struck me as self-satisfied and defensive. The same goes for the eleventh track, "Epilogue (Nothin' 'Bout Me)", which is Sting's indictment that no one really knows him, regardless of what they think they know. Um...then write about it, Sting, but don't write about how you won't write about it - that's just self-referential silliness.
For these reasons, I was going to hold this record to three stars, but any record that encourages me to go back and read Browning's "Love Among the Ruins" deserves a pass, so I went with four. Give it a read yourself right here and remind yourself once again, that love is best.
Best tracks: Love Is Stronger Than Justice, Fields of Gold, She's Too Good For Me, Shape of My Heart
1 comment:
Maybe I should give this one another listen at some point, but at some point I remember getting really tired of this album.
I do like She's Too Good For Me.
Nothing Like the Sun is still better IMO, Vive le Difference!
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