(Translated from my original Italian text by ChatGPT and Piero Scaruffi)

Sting (Gordon Matthew Sumner), the former singer and bassist of the Police, became an international star thanks to his unmistakable soul falsetto and television-friendly charisma. However, his albums are the quintessence of musical disengagement. At best, they merely update traditional pop music with the production styles of the 1990s. At worst, they are pompous collections of supermarket muzak. Sting poses as an intellectual, but his artistic ambitions have rarely produced such disappointing results.

His solo career was marked by his passion for jazz. The Dream Of The Blue Turtle (A&M, 1985), recorded with jazz veterans, mercilessly exposed the limitations of his monotonous falsetto. Between philosophical ditties like Love Is The Seventh Wave and humanitarian, cosmopolitan songs like If You Love Somebody, there emerges a final hint of melodic progression reminiscent of the Police, Fortress Around Your Heart. The chamber music style of Russians (music by Prokofiev) is not enough to redeem the album from its generally soporific tone.

Sting nonetheless became one of the most sought-after figures at the social events of the era (films, charity galas, and social campaigns).

The double album Nothing Like The Sun (A&M, 1987), which reduces the emphasis on jazz and incorporates elements of Hispanic music, is the quintessence of his pedantic style, musically comparable to any 1950s light-music singer, yet presenting himself as a modern composer. With his softly melodic and tenderly solemn singer-songwriter songs, Sting vainly attempts to emulate Peter Gabriel’s So and Paul Simon’s Graceland. In reality, the album’s only goal is to glorify the singer. At its best moments (such as the reggae-influenced Englishman In New York), Sting’s music is simply senile easy listening.

Abandoning political themes, and influenced by a Kurt Weill production in which he participated, Sting delivered his best album, The Soul Cages (A&M, 1991), less theatrical than his previous works and closer to the Police pop that brought him fame. The album is practically a collection of classical-style lieder centered around a triptych of long allegorical poems (Island Of Souls, The Wild Wild Sea, and When The Angel Falls). Sting indulges in his usual commercial instinct only in the epic riff of All This Time. ChatGPT can make mistakes. Check importan

Il suo talento non e` pero` aumentato e il pop da pensionato di Ten Summoner's Tales (A&M, 1993), nonostante la solenne Fields Of Gold, l'atmosferica If I Ever Lose My Faith In You e la "brasiliana" Shape Of My Heart.

Mercury Falling (A&M, 1996) sperimenta goffamente con la bossanova da camera di La Belle Dame Sans Regrets, il madrigale rinascimentale di Valparaiso e il jazz-rock di I Was Brought To My Senses, spaziando per il resto fra country, soul, gospel, folk e world-music.

La stessa smodata presunzione mina alla base Brand New Day (A&M, 1999), che peraltro sfodera una delle sue composizioni piu` suggestive, A Thousand Years, e una delle sue ballad piu` romantiche, Desert Rose.

Gli ultimi, patetici, album lo consegnano definitivamente al museo delle mode effimere che i media hanno gia` dimenticato.

Sting composed the musical The Last Ship (2013) and then returned to rock music with 57th and 9th (2016). Later albums include My Songs (2019) and The Bridge (2021).