| Sting,
after disbanding the Police at the
peak of their popularity in 1984,
quickly established himself as a viable
solo artist, one obsessed with expanding
the boundaries of pop music. Sting
incorporated heavy elements of jazz,
classical, and worldbeat into his music,
writing lyrics that were literate and
self-consciously meaningful, and he was
never afraid to emphasize this fact in
the press. For such unabashed ambition,
he was equally loved and reviled, with
supporters believing that he was at the
forefront of literate, intelligent rock
and his critics finding his entire body
of work pompous. Either way, Sting
remained one of pop's biggest superstars
for the first ten years of his solo
career, before his record sales began to
slip.
Before the Police were officially
disbanded, Sting began work on his first
solo album late in 1984, rounding up a
group of jazz musicians as a supporting
band. Moving from bass to guitar, he
recorded his solo debut, 1985's The
Dream of the Blue Turtles, with Branford
Marsalis, Kenny Kirkland, and Omar
Hakim. The move wasn't entirely
unexpected, since Sting had played with
jazz and progressive rock bands in his
youth, but the result was considerably
more mature and diverse than any Police
record. The album became a hit, with "If
You Love Somebody Set Them Free," "Love
Is the Seventh Wave," and "Fortress
Around Your Heart" reaching the American
Top Ten. Sting brought the band out on
an extensive tour, which was captured on
a documentary called Bring on the Night,
which appeared in 1986, along with a
live double album of the same name. That
year, Sting participated in a
half-hearted Police reunion that
resulted in only one new song, a
re-recorded version of "Don't Stand So
Close to Me."
Following the aborted Police reunion,
Sting began working on the ambitious
Nothing Like the Sun, which was
dedicated to his recently deceased
mother. Working from a jazz foundation,
and again collaborating with Marsalis,
Sting worked with a number of different
musicians on the album, including Gil
Evans and former Police guitarist Andy
Summers. The album received generally
positive reviews upon its release in
late 1987, and it generated hit singles
with "We'll Be Together" and "They Dance
Alone." Following its release, Sting
began actively campaigning for Amnesty
International and environmentalism,
establishing the Rainforest Foundation,
which was designed to raise awareness
about preserving the Brazilian
rainforest. An abridged Spanish version
of Nothing Like the Sun, Nada Como el
Sol, was released in 1988.
Sting took several years to deliver
the follow-up to Nothing Like the Sun,
during which time he appeared in a
failed Broadway revival of The
Threepenny Opera in 1989. His father
also died, which inspired 1991's The
Soul Cages, a dense, dark, and complex
album. Although the album peaked at
number two and spawned the Top Ten hit
"All This Time," the record was less
successful than its predecessor. Two
years later, he delivered Ten Summoner's
Tales, a light, pop-oriented record that
became a hit on the strength of two Top
20 singles, "If I Ever Lose My Faith in
You" and "Fields of Gold." At the end of
1993, "All for Love," a song he recorded
with Rod Stewart and Bryan Adams for The
Three Musketeers, became a number one
hit. The single confirmed that Sting's
audience had shifted from new
wave/college rock fans to adult
contemporary, and the 1994 compilation
Fields of Gold: The Best of Sting played
to that audience.
Three years after Ten Summoner's
Tales, Sting released Mercury Falling in
the spring of 1996. Although the album
debuted highly, it quickly fell down the
charts, stalling at platinum sales and
failing to generate a hit single. While
the album failed, Sting remained a
popular concert attraction, confirming
his immense popularity. Brand New Day
followed in 1999. |
