Best of both worlds

Who've said that pop music can't be experimental and risky? Sometimes, it does. This CD is equaly commercialy oriented, with sweet pop clasic gems ("If you love...", "Love is the seventh wave"), and bravely pushed into new ground, with the invaluable contributions of a selection of some of the best musicians of the new jazz generation (by then), especially B. Marsalis (sax) and K. Kirkland (keyboard). With them on fold, Sting gets into his most deep and complex stuff: in songs like

"Children's crusade", "Shadows in the rain" (Police did that before, but this version is better) and "Consider me gone" you can hear a lot of jamming coming to surface. Anyway, my absolute favorite is "Fortress around your heart", an essay on the terrible efects of carrying a jealous way of life. And of course, the lyric are, once again, oustanding.

If I was written a review for the former audio edition, I'd rate it only 4 stars, because the sound was really thin on that. But this new version put the levels where they should be, taking back power to the music. So you have a total classic, don't waste your time and get it. Take care yourself, Bye

Completely Satisfying and Challenging

It has been almost twenty years, and this record works just as well now as it did then. This is without question one of the peaks of Sting's career, a major professional and perhaps personal risk that triumphed spectacularly.



I confess that I still don't know exactly what the dream of the blue turtles actually was, but its end result is clearly quite affecting. Sting songwriting has never been more lucid and tasteful, the arrangments more fluid, and the playing more skillfull and energetic. Everything about this record just rocks. This is an album that combines the energy and positive insistence of youth with the best of highly literate, tasteful, and skilled songwriting. At its best, this record sounds like poetry put to music.



Highly recommended.

Didn't Cha Know

Didn't you just know when Sting came out with this solo debut that he didn't need no Police! How many gems can you have on one album: If You Love Somebody, Love is the Seventh Wave, We Work the Black Seam, CONSIDER ME GONE (!), Moon Over Bourbon Street, FORTRESS AROUND YOUR HEART (!). Come on now ... this is an undeniable classic, hands down. If you don't have it, get it: it is never too late. I'm going to repurchase it to replace my old worn one.

Fantastic album

This was one of the first albums I ever bought when, as a high school student, I was becoming interested in contemporary popular music in the years 1984-85. Sting had been enormously successful before this time with The Police (1978-84) and reappeared after a year or so away with this fantastic album in July 1985. Its first single was If You Love Somebody Set Them Free, which was a groovy somewhat jazzy uptempo track. Second single Fortress Around Your Heart was terrific - an evocative lyric about chasms, walled cities and dangerous, barren landscapes as metaphors for difficult emotional entanglements. This US #8 hit was one of my favourite tunes of the year. The jolly Love Is The Seventh Wave was a lighthearted fun song that I also liked - it reminds me of the summer of 1985-86. Sting toured widely at this time and scored a fourth hit with the classic song Russians. This was a famous tune about the then-pervasive Cold War divide between Russia and the West. Also dealing in political/social comment on First World War lament Children's Crusade and evils-of-mining lyric We Work The Black Seam, Sting managed to balance the shade with some light too: the rollicking Shadows In The Rain and the weird jazz instrumental title tune The Dream Of The Blue Turtles (complete with the band dissolving into laughter at the end !!). Sting howled at the Moon Over Bourbon Street in this interesting song, while Consider Me Gone was a good mid-paced song with a darker lyric.



Overall, this is really good, demostrating Sting's musical abilities and also showcasing fabulous jazz-world collaborators such as Omar Hakim, Branford Marsalis and the late Kenny Kirkland.



Highly Recommended.

How to ruin a great CD

I expected a lot from a remastered CD. This engineers version is terrible, or should I say treble. If remastered means add some reverb and boost the treble through the stratosphere then this is a work of art. After I leave here I'm ordering the original.

Underrated, But Not Forgotten

When The Police disbanded, Sting came out with a shocker of an album. "If You Love Somebody Set Them Free" is an A+ single, albeit without Sting's deepest lyrics. Unfortunately, some of the other tracks are sometimes overlooked. The follow-up single and closing song on this album, "Fortress Around Your Heart" may be one of the best songs about the dissolution of a relationship ever written, essentially comparing it to a war. "Children's Crusade" is a comparison between the horrors that children faced at that time, and what they faced in 1984 (This album is 20 years old). "Russians" can also seem dated unless you respect the time frame in which this album was released. Many of the tracks dabble into a jazzy-type of feel (i.e. "Shadows in the Rain"--bless the late Kenny Kirkland's sparkling keyboard, "Moon Over Bourbon Street", and the title track. ...and it all works brilliantly! The only thing that was wrong concerning this album was the fact that it lost out for the "Album of the Year" Grammy award to the good, but not great "No Jacket Required" by Phil Collins. This album will always remain a classic.