Fields of POLL: The Best of Sting

That whole album is great, peak adult contemporary. Yes, even the song Soto hates.

"Seven Days" is indeed very intrguiging, I just hate the lyrics so much I can't listen to it. the chorus is fine at least.

Has Sting ever written great lyrics? I want to say no, even with the Police, and I love their singles (as well as a good portion of their catalog - Zenyatta Mondatta especially). I kind of wish he was paired with a gifted lyricist because whenever he does anything with the written word, whether it's lyrics or liner notes, it can be pretty awful. I probably pay far less attention to the words of his songs than the actual music for that reason. Jon Pareles argued that "If You Love Somebody Set Them Free" is a terrible song on the basis of its lyrics: "a postgrammatical, T-shirt sentiment and a denunciation of possessiveness that would be a lot more convincing issued by someone other than a millionaire." Maybe, but musically it's pretty engaging and would have sounded right at home with the Police.

I think he's written some great lines

to me the thing he's most guilty of is using a lot of dumb filler words and nonsense phrases which makes his lyrics come off like shitty childrens books. "so they danced for his pleasure/with a joy you could not measure". like what does that even mean? congrats on making the rhyme though

a denunciation of possessiveness that would be a lot more convincing issued by someone other than a millionaire

It’s about “possessiveness” in a relationship (not in a material sense), right? Not sure why a millionaire can’t express that sentiment…

xp LOL

One exception (at least for me): I know "De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da" got trashed in the Police thread, but lyrically it's kind of the perfect Police song for me. On some level, it's acknowledging his deficiencies as a lyricist and having a laugh on him.

Re. Ten Summoners Tales, I think the fact that it was a warm, unpretentious record (for Sting anyway) with two very big singles led a lot of people to overrate it at the time and overlook that a lot of the writing was pretty lightweight (tho I’d argue “It’s Probably Me” is a cut above a lot of the material here). Jazzers really loved the playing, particularly Vinnie Colaiuta’s. So the combo explains why Downbeat rated it so highly.

I hear ya, but you'd think there was a better consensus pick in the jazz world. Joshua Redman's debut came out the same year - maybe they didn't want to pile on the hype for someone who just got established as a big name star, but I think it would've held up as a much better mainstream pick.

(same month actually - just a few weeks later)