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Sting – Ten Summoners’ Tales
A little bit more manic than Blue Turtles, this album begat the singles “If I Ever Lose My Faith In You” and “Fields Of Gold”, but the fun doesn’t stop there. In fact, there are songs which are vastly superior to those singles, my favorites of which are “Heavy Cloud, No Rain” (possibly the closest Sting has ever come to returning to the jazz style heard on Turtles) and the starkly somber “Shape Of My Heart”. I strongly advise those who really liked Turtles to give this one a listen.
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- If I Ever Lose My Faith In You (4:25)
- Love Is Stronger Than Justice (The Munificent Seven) (5:09)
- Fields Of Gold (5:40)
- Heavy Cloud, No Rain (5:46)
- She’s Too Good For Me (2:30)
- Seven Days (4:39)
Saint Augustine In Hell (5:17)
- It’s Probably Me (5:08)
- Shape Of My Heart (4:38)
- Something The Boy Said (5:28)
- Epilogue: Nothin’ ‘Bout Me (3:41)
Released by: A&M
Release date: 1993
Total running time: 52:21
In quite a few ways, Sting has never in my mind surpassed his debut solo album. This very interesting synthesis of his mid-’80s Police style (which is to say, more mainstream and less of the endearingly outlandish style of the Police) and modern jazz is truly unique, and even Sting himself has never quite topped it. Most everyone will remember “If You Love Somebody Set Them Free” and “Fortress Around Your Heart” from this album, and the somewhat less successful single “Love Is The Seventh Wave”, but the album also contains the Anne Rice-inspired “Moon Over Bourbon Street”, “We Work The Black Seam”, 
and “Russians”, some of the best things Sting has ever done in or outside of the Police. I suppose he couldn’t have stuck to this style for fear of being accused of getting lazy, but so much of the follow-up albums Nothing Like The Sun and The Soul Cages failed to live up to the incredibly high standard of Sting’s solo debut, I can barely listen to his later work… well, maybe with one exception.