Brand New Day - Sting (CD 1999)

There are albums that you know you can always come back to. Brand New Day is one for me. It is amazing that Sting would deliver such masterpiece at the time most people had written him off as an 80s/early 90s pop icon whose stardom days were counted. Maybe they changed their minds when in 1999 most TV stations of the world closed their news briefly showing Sting perform his new songs with the Pyramids behind him, like some ancient prince, risen to rule the world of pop again. Mesopotamic disco of Desert Rose had already firmly stuck in all rotations by the same time. Sting had returned, and in the most effective of ways at the turn of centuries, with an epic pop album, huge tour, and a resurrected personality. There could hardly have been a more appropriate song to open Brand New Day, both the album and the tour, than A Thousand Years




Lying in my bed last week, temperature just below 40, I was thinking of all the things I had planned for the week (and there were things I wished badly that I would participate at), but alas, it was all ruined. The worst thing about a sickness or a failure is that you are being knocked out of the line, and, since the world never waits for you, left there. Then, once you re ready to fight again, you always have to do the double job twice as much to catch up with your regular life.


Sting had to do the double job when he started working on his 6th LP. Stamped by the critics as getting older and having delivered the first lackluster of his career with Mercury Falling he had to reinvent the character, there was no talking about choice. Blame it on the love of yoga and tantric sex, for reinvent it he did




At only 9 songs, this album tells a story. You can sense something special is coming your way the very opening seconds of the first song, when Kipper casts some magic on his computer and the creepy sound effects make you wonder if indeed you hear wind blow through your room, or it is just your imagination painting a tower of souls and a newborn spirit, preparing to ascend it again


A THOUSAND YEARS is hands down, one of the most amazing songs ever. Calling this Eastern mantra pop is so not fair, I mean it is pop of course, but at the same time this is SO much more Listening to the song you may not notice that, but try singing it you will feel how Sting has been doing some yoga for the first time in his career here s a song that takes such work on a performer s breath, breathe wrongly and you won t finish the next line.


A thousand years, a thousand more
A thousand times a million doors to eternity

I may have lived a thousand lives, a thousand times
An endless turning stairway climbs to a tower of souls


Most lines end with an s and Sting always stretches the sound, which even adds to the song s creepiness. Now mark you, I m not buying it myself, but this nevertheless is one the most thrilling love songs ever people are born again and again, one endless turning stairway on a tower of souls, in each new life there is only one goal: He must meet Her again.


I may be numberless, I may be innocent
I may know many things, I may be ignorant
Or I could ride with kings, and conquer many lands
Or win this world in cards and let it slip my hands
I could be cannon food, destroyed a thousand times
Reborn as fortune s child, to judge another s crimes
Or wear this pilgrim s cloak, or be a common thief
I ve kept this single faith, I have but one belief

I still love you



Mesopotamic disco of DESERT ROSE catches up with another Eastern motif, this time more surging and violent, and together these two songs mark a glorious success in Sting s quest for a world sound, which was given a somewhat clumsy start on Mercury Falling. A naked prayer for love, Rose burns with longing. Forget the Jaguar ad folks, just think of your lovers during this song, and you will realize how gorgeous it is.



The song also wouldn t be what it became without the backing vocals of Cheb Mami, singing in Arabic. And, like with every Sting album, Brand New Day wouldn t be what it is without a truly gorgeous band, of who I will mention but some:

Dominic Miller: guitars
Manu Katche: drums
Chris Botti: trumpet
Kipper: keyboards, drum programming
Jason Robello: piano

Sting: lead/backing vocals, bass, lyrics, music



This actually is a record for the lonely. Longing for love unites Desert Rose with the following three songs, first of them is a wonderful (albeit often maligned) bossa nova bit BIG LIE SMALL WORLD, about a man whose girl has found herself a richer boyfriend. The story s very similar to the one told in Seven Days (10 Summoner s Tales), but this time slightly more hopeless. The lyrics breathe irony


The place you live looks opulent
And obviously a higher rent than our cozy little room

I have this sense of doom

The landlord says you re out of town
That your new boyfriend s always round
The hour was getting late
So I sit down and wait



The song flows into AFTER THE RAIN HAS FALLEN, which is probably a dream. Another of Sting s best songs ever, this is perfect pop, like If I ever Lose my Faith. In his sleep the dreamer becomes a thief, who climbs the city walls at night to steal the love of a princess.


She said
Take me to the danger, take me to the life of crime
Take me to the stars, take to the moon while we still have time



The dream s over and we get more ironic again. PERFECT LOVE GONE WRONG is a wonderful mix of a French chanson and funk, and one of the two moments on the album where the jazz entity of Sting s band, Jason Robello gets to shine. The lyrics are half-English half-French (the latter part sung by a girl Ste), and show wonderfully how everything she tries to explain is, pardon, French to him (in this funny song he is a dog, and she his mistress). On Brand New Day Sting easily recaptures the playful feel of 10 Summoner s Tales


He won t love you
Like I love you
Won t be long now, before that puppy goes astray
And what I like about this guy the most
He ll be my favorite lamppost
Devil take the hindmost



Next Sting leaves the theme of longing for a while and turns to his usual thing, tells a story or two. The first of the two stories on this album is TOMORROW WE LL SEE and it s one of a prostitute. Swingy, laid back musically yet painfully emotional lyrically, this song is something Frank Sinatra might have liked to perform perhaps, and perhaps not. Either way, yet another of Sting s best moments.


The second story is called FILL HER UP and even though probably my least favorite on the album, it is nevertheless better than most country songs I ve heard. Yeah, it s country. At least, one half of it. First half of the song is a country-ish duet with James Taylor, the second a gospel choir urging a boy who stole money at work for a romantic escape with his girl to fill her up the right way In the closing part of the song Jason gets to shine once more, with Sting on the bass helping him turn what 30 seconds ago was gospel into total jazz.



I watch the western sky
The sun is sinking
The geese are flying south
It sets me thinking

I did not miss you much
I did not suffer
What did not kill me
Just made me tougher


So begins GHOST STORY. The acoustic guitar gives an almost medieval feel to what is one of the most healing, and exorcising songs I ve ever sung. Along to I mean. Of all the songs on the album, this is the one that makes me cry.


If this was all correct, the last thing I d expect
The prosecution rests
It s time that I confessed
I must have loved you



Have you ever met sunrise on a roof? Then you will relate to the sheer musical beauty opening BRAND NEW DAY, the title song and the closer of the album. Just really, close your eyes and listen to this. Soon Stevie Wonder will kick in on harmonica and the song will start the way you may have heard it on the radio. How many of you people out there, been hurt in some kind of love affair, and how many times did you swear that you d never love again?






Final thoughts
On Brand New Day Sting does not simply return with a good album. And he does not just reinvent himself, or become some kind of a tantric yoga maniac. Yes, on Brand New Day he is a musician who manages to rise from ashes. And a storyteller who never ceases to surprise you with his wit and wisdom. Or, if you wish, a bard at a campfire, who will sing a good song about what you most often cannot quite put in words yourself. And of course he is a little under the influence of that tantric sex thing or whatever it is that gave birth to such songs as A Thousand Years. Yes, on Brand New Day Sting is all that, but you should also dig just a little bit deeper.


Because first and foremost, he is a lover. And this is an album for all the lovers in the world, boys and girls alike, with a message na ve as can be that true love exists and is eternal. The day of that love is the real Brand New Day.


Wisely, the album doesn t close with a sweet song about a love found. Too many of us are still climbing the tower of souls. On the contrary, the album ends on the same note it opened to, before the final track fades out you hear a familiar motif from A Thousand Years




And you realize another listen of this album is over! It s 8.05 am!!! Guys, I gotta go to work.


Good morning world, and thanks for reading.






More on Sting by me
...Nothing like the Sun
10 Summoners Tales
Fields of Gold: The best of Sting - the Videos 1984-1994
Inside the Songs of Sacred Love DVD

..by other folks
Andrew - Sacred Love
Simon - Sacred Love
Ticktockman - All This Time DVD
Andrew - Brand New Day
Andrew - Mercury Falling
Andrew - 10 Summoners Tales
Andrew - the Soul Cages
Andrew - Nothing like the Sun
Tim - the Dream of the Blue Turtles
Andrew - the Dream of the Blue Turtles



More on the Police by me

Regatta de Blanc
Ghost in the Machine






Great Music to Play While: Whatever I do, I stop doing it and sing along