Sacred Love - Sting (CD 2003)

Sting is one wild and crazy guy. Even here on the cover of his latest album Sacred Love, I almost imagine he's trying not to laugh... at how utterly right he is. Of course he would never actually say himself that he was right. That's why he's got us though, right?

Sacred Love is one of Sting's most ambitious albums yet, and from the raging gobbledygook of "Inside" to the intricate care taken with the softer songs, to the chaotic firestorm that is "This War", it shows. I particularly like the pictures of Sting in the CD liner across from the lyrics for each song; seems he picks the perfect picture to fit the mood of the song. The picture across from "Dead Man's Rope" (a true highlight) is especially ardent, and the one behind "Send Your Love" shows just how gracefully the Tantric One has aged.

Don't be misled by the 30 seconds of ambient sound that introduces "Inside", this may be Sting's most aggressive song ever. Like all great aggressive songs, though, it disarms you by starting off gently. As you will hear often on Sacred Love, the percussion makes a heavy entrance, offering a brief preview of the wildness to come. Love is the child of an endless war, Love is an open wound still raw, Love is a shameless banner unfurled, Love's an explosion, Love is the fire at the end of the world, Love is a violent star, A tide of destruction, Love is an angry star, the pain of instruction, Love is a violation, a mutilation, capitulation, Love is annihilation. The end of the song finds Sting haphazardly firing off several commands -- Radiate me, incubate me, subjugate me, incubate me. It's the kind of moment in music when an artist gets so caught up in the words that he starts to neglect the rhythm altogether. But it's pretty damn powerful. Especially when the strings in the background are replaced by electric guitars. And only Sting would sing a line like Impregnate me !!!

"Send Your Love" is finding its way onto the radio here and there, but it is still a pretty weird sounding song for a single. The defining moment is almost undoubtedly the recognizable burst of high notes, which plays for a short time before the percussion gradually eases its way back in. The Dave Aude remix of the song at the end of the album is surprisingly soulful for something that on the surface is just a techno track.

I didn't think "Whenever I Say Your Name" would grow on me at all... and now it's probably my favorite track on here. Mary J. Blige offers an assisting vocal that complements more than intrudes. The key changes allow for several occurrences of a similar mood, none of which sound anywhere near similar. Great slow stuff, and the nod to "We'll Be Together" is so Sting.

"Dead Man's Rope" is the most relaxing, pleasing little nugget of guitar-laden Stingness you could possibly ask for. And as days turn into weeks and years, and years turn into lifetimes, I just keep walking, like I've been walking for a thousand years. The first hint of something you'll see a bit more of later on comes with the regretful line With Hell below me, and Heaven in the sky above, I've been walking, I've been walking away from Jesus' love.

Just when he had your heartbeat back to an easy pace, Sting throws "Never Coming Home" in your face like a slab of raw roast beast to a pack of dogs. Percussion goes from 0 to 60 in no time at all, only to suddenly disappear again. It'll take at least six listens before you can actually point out the exact time that it returns. While it's not a long story, Sting spits it out like he's in a rap battle. Now in her imagination she's a million miles away, when too many of his promises got broken on the way, so she wrote it in a letter all the things she couldn't say, And she told him she was never coming home. Later he goes back and tells it from the guy's point of view. It's kind of funny how almost the entire song, he's singing it down low and suddenly on the line all the things she couldn't say he goes up high with it. Reminds me of that Marilyn Manson song "The Beautiful People", which if you've heard then you probably know what I'm talking about. Otherwise, there is absolutely nothing else that could substantiate a comparison between those two artists.

"Stolen Car (Take Me Dancing)" is more of an atmospheric song, reminds me of a lot of the Soul Cages stuff. Here, Sting's got another crazy story about a poor boy in a rich man's car driving off into the night and meeting with a girl whose richass husband is cheating on her. This is followed closely by "Forget About The Future" which is more of a midtempo dancey track and has a great chorus. She said you know I used to love you baby, but you're thinking way too fast, So forget about the future, and let's get on with the past. As a longtime lover of the past, I can definitely relate to this song, even if the superficial pleasure I derive from it pales by comparison.

I absolutely LOVE the way "Forget" segues into "This War", and Sting does his signature "OW!" as the band starts to jam relentlessly. Actually, "This War" might be even more aggressive than "Inside" but I guess that's debatable. Here, Sting and the band toss aside all need for a coherent melody (but even that can be found here if you listen closely enough) or a coherent beat for that matter, and just jam at the top of their proverbial lungs. With the exception of a 30-second bridge, "This War" is an allout noise fest, by Sting's standards anyway. It has a great guitar moment that fades in amongst all the chaos and starts to take it somewhere, then says "F*ck it" and just goes back to haphazardly jamming. It's so great. He really rips on the Prez here -- You've got the mouth of a she-wolf, inside the mask of an innocent lamb, you say your heart is all compassion, but there's just a flat line on your cardiogram. And then later on, You invested in this prison, from which you never got released, you may have won this war we're fighting, but would you tolerate the peace? Interesting question.

There are a lot of things about "The Book of My Life" that reveal themselves through multiple listens and make it one of Sting's most soulful ballads ever. Whether or not it is a reference to Sting's new book Broken Music: A Memoir, I don't know, but I love the following couple of lines -- There's a chapter on loss and a ghost who won't die, there's a chapter on love where the ink's never dry.

The title track, "Sacred Love" is an upbeat, jazzy kind of love song that seems to be half about love and half about religion. It has a great hook in the chorus but otherwise, probably ranks in the bottom three for me at this point. Something about the way he sings the Commandments in the song, with each word absurdly asserted. Thou! Shalt! Not! Steal! Thou! Shalt! Not! Kill! It's not really THAT loud, but enough that it grabs your attention and not in the greatest way. Fortunately, the gospel singers add a nice touch and bring the song to a great closing.

This is something you Sting fans definitely don't want to miss. Hard to believe it's almost been 20 years already since he went solo with The Dream of the Blue Turtles. Most of his previous work is reincarnated in one form or another here in Sacred Love, and as an artist, it would appear that Sting is still evolving even after all these years.