Sting: Nothing Like The Sun (MFSL UDCD 546) CD Track Listing

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Sting Nothing Like The Sun (MFSL UDCD 546) (1987)
1991 Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab\n\n\nOriginally Released January 1, 1987\nOriginal CD Edition Released January 1, 1987\nMFSL Gold CD Edition Released April 1, 1991\nDTS Surround CD Edition Released April 10, 2001\n\nAMG EXPERT REVIEW: If Dream of the Blue Turtles was an unabashedly pretentious affair, it looks positively light-hearted in comparison to Sting's sophomore effort, Nothing Like the Sun, one of the most doggedly serious pop albums ever recorded. This is an album where the only up-tempo track, the only trifle -- the cheerfully stiff white-funk "We'll Be Together" -- was added at the insistence of the label because they believed there wasn't a cut on the record that could be pulled as a single, one that would break down the doors to mainstream radio. And they were right, since everything else here is too measured, calm, and deliberately subtle to be immediate (including the intentional throwaway, "Rock Steady"). So, why is it a better album than its predecessor? Because Sting doesn't seem to be trying so hard. It flows naturally, largely because this isn't trying to explicitly be a jazz-rock record (thank the presence of a new rhythm section of Sting and drummer Manu Katche for that), and because the melodies are insinuating, slowly working their way into memory, while the entire record plays like a mood piece -- playing equally well as background music or as intensive, serious listening. Sting's words can still grate -- the stifling pompousness of "History Will Teach Us Nothing" the clearest example, yet calls of "Hey Mr. Pinochet" also strike an uneasy chord -- but his lyricism shines on "The Lazarus Heart," "Be Still My Beating Heart," "They Dance Alone," and "Fragile," a quartet of his very finest songs. If Nothing Like the Sun runs a little too long, with only his Gil Evans-assisted cover of "Little Wing" standing out in the final quarter, it still maintains its tone until the end and, since it's buoyed by those previously mentioned stunners, it's one of his better albums. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine\n\nAmazon.com essential recording\nSting's second and most conceptually dense solo album moved on from jazz to ideas picked up from Latin music. Even when he's not using Latin music's tricky polyrhythms, the melodies of the ballad "Be Still My Beating Heart" and the hit dance single "We'll Be Together" suggest he'd been listening to lots of salsa. If you can sting, you can cross-pollinate, too, and there are some other subtle hybrids here, notably the Gil Evans Orchestra's gliding arrangement of Jimi Hendrix's "Little Wing" and the reggae-in-a-Cole Porter suit of "Englishman in New York." Of course, the former schoolteacher has some lyrical messages to deliver and the three songs that originally made up the second side of a double LP are a bitter meditation on Latin American politics and history. --Douglas Wolk \n\nHalf.com Album Credits\nAndy Summers, Contributing Artist\nBranford Marsalis, Contributing Artist\nEric Clapton, Contributing Artist\nGil Evans, Contributing Artist\nHiram Bullock, Contributing Artist\nMark Egan, Contributing Artist\nMark Knopfler, Contributing Artist\nRuben Blades, Contributing Artist\n\nAlbum Notes\nPersonnel includes: Sting (vocals, guitar, bass); Fareed Haque (guitar); Ken Helman (piano); Kenny Kirkland (keyboards); Manu Katche, Andy Newmark, Kenwood Dennard (drums); Mino Cenelu (percussion, vocoder); Dolette McDonald, Janice Pendarvis, Vesta Williams, Renee Geyer (background vocals).\n\nProducers include: Sting, Neil Dorfsman, Bryan Loren.\n\nRecorded at Air Studios, Montserrat. \nIncludes liner notes by Sting.\n\nSting's double-length follow-up to his solo debut DREAMS OF THE BLUE TURTLE is very much in the same sophisticated, adult pop vein, although darker and less jazzy (notwithstanding a collaboration with Miles Davis's arranger Gil Evans on a cover of Jimi Hendrix's "Little Wing"). The songs are a generally varied lot, ranging from a tribute to victims of repression in Argentina ("They Dance Alone") to a tongue-in-cheek, sort-of-reggae tribute to famous eccentric Quentin Crisp ("An Englishman in New York"). The sort-of-funk "We'll Be Together"(originally written for a Japanese beer commercial) is the most upbeat and pop-ish thing here, and was deservedly a hit single, although Sting now disdains it.
This rock cd contains 12 tracks and runs 55min 12sec.
Freedb: ae0cee0c
Buy: from Amazon.com

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