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Track Listings
| 1. If You Love Somebody Set Them Free |
| 2. Love Is The Seventh Wave |
| 3. Russians |
| 4. Children's Crusade |
| 5. Shadows In The Rain |
| 6. We Work The Black Seam |
| 7. Consider Me Gone |
| 8. The Dream Of The Blue Turtles |
| 9. Moon Over Bourbon Street |
| 10. Fortress Around Your Heart |
| 11. If You Love Somebody Set Them Free (Cd-Rom) |
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
From one spin of The Dream of the Blue Turtles, Sting's first solo release, it's obvious that for him there would be life beyond the Police. Teamed with a band of top jazz players, he presents his musical visions that had gone unrealised while he was still constrained by his former ensemble. In style and subject matter, it's a decidedly diverse collection of songs and the playing is excellent throughout. The love songs are mostly focused on endings or escapes, and it's quite possible to interpret much of the imagery in reference to the bitter break-up of the Police. Sting's concern with history and politics is in evidence: he makes a father's plea for sanity and restraint in the nuclear age, takes up for the UK's much-abused coal miners, and relates the savage stupidity of World War I to the destructive effects of adolescent heroin addiction. Songs that seem elaborately constructed and recorded contrast with others that are presented as one-take jams. Seen as a whole, The Dream of the Blue Turtles is eclectic, ambitious--sometimes pretentious--but altogether worth owning. --Al Massa
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Okay, the Police were massive but to produce this gem which appeared to owe so little to his past and packaged in such an original sound is real genius... brilliant and timeless popular music
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
In his 2003 autobiography, 'Broken Music', Sting wrote, "That the band [The Police] would break up at the pinnacle of its career when our position seemed virtually unassailable, surprised everyone but me. I saw my own future very clearly outside of the band, because I wanted more freedom. ... I wanted to make music that wasn't tied to the limitations of a three-piece band, where I didn't have to compromise my own standards as a songwriter." 'The Dream of the Blue Turtles' was Sting's first attempt at achieving solo recognition in this way.
Sting's first album is an eclectic bag of decent songs with one outstanding gem. Intelligent lyrics rub shoulders with seasoned musicianship. He has an eye for pale landscapes - both internal and external - and historical atmosphere. Indeed, this album can be viewed in itself as a historic document of the 1980s with songs about the Russian threat, the coal strike, and child soldiers. It is, in my opinion, a cold album, a night album, full of shadows, but nevertheless burning intensely inside.
Four songs do not deliver on expectations - "Love is the Seventh Wave" is in calypso style, but Sting's voice is too deadpan; "Shadows in the Rain" is a bog-standard rocker; "Consider Me Gone" has a jazz-blues feel ('to look for heaven is to live here in hell'); and the album's title track is a short instrumental jazzy jam session of no relevance.
But there are five songs worthy of high praise - "If You Love Somebody Set them Free", the pop-rock hit; "Russians", a cold-war commentary to the beat of goose-stepping soldiers and sustained throughout by the sound of a ticking clock (bomb?), each verse interspersed with an ironic Prokofiev theme; "Children's Crusade" laments the loss of young lives, 'virgins with rifles'; "We Work the Black Seam" has a prescient pre-climate warming message; and "Moon Over Bourbon Street", an atmospheric eighteenth-century feel with excellent alto(?) sax playing by Branford Marsalis.
But the gem in the series is, for me, the final song, "Fortress around Your Heart". Astounding lyrics ('let me set the battlements on fire') sung with commitment sends shivers down my spine. It's a shame that it ends on a simple fade-out.
Sting's first album is an eclectic bag of decent songs with one outstanding gem. Intelligent lyrics rub shoulders with seasoned musicianship. He has an eye for pale landscapes - both internal and external - and historical atmosphere. Indeed, this album can be viewed in itself as a historic document of the 1980s with songs about the Russian threat, the coal strike, and child soldiers. It is, in my opinion, a cold album, a night album, full of shadows, but nevertheless burning intensely inside.
Four songs do not deliver on expectations - "Love is the Seventh Wave" is in calypso style, but Sting's voice is too deadpan; "Shadows in the Rain" is a bog-standard rocker; "Consider Me Gone" has a jazz-blues feel ('to look for heaven is to live here in hell'); and the album's title track is a short instrumental jazzy jam session of no relevance.
But there are five songs worthy of high praise - "If You Love Somebody Set them Free", the pop-rock hit; "Russians", a cold-war commentary to the beat of goose-stepping soldiers and sustained throughout by the sound of a ticking clock (bomb?), each verse interspersed with an ironic Prokofiev theme; "Children's Crusade" laments the loss of young lives, 'virgins with rifles'; "We Work the Black Seam" has a prescient pre-climate warming message; and "Moon Over Bourbon Street", an atmospheric eighteenth-century feel with excellent alto(?) sax playing by Branford Marsalis.
But the gem in the series is, for me, the final song, "Fortress around Your Heart". Astounding lyrics ('let me set the battlements on fire') sung with commitment sends shivers down my spine. It's a shame that it ends on a simple fade-out.
17 of 22 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
The dream of the blue turtles is Sting's debut first album, and what a debut!
Littered with catchy but intelligent pop songs, this album is a prime example of how it should be done. Sting's expertise as a musician is evident in contructing fun songs, even if none of them sound too technically difficult.
For intelligent songwriting, check this out: Russians is a song about the cold war, the concept taken from a book he had read. Children's crusade is about a childrens march across Europe that was supposed to have happened in the 1600's I believe. We work the black seam is possibly about Sting's heritage as the son of a working class family, although he was the son of a milkman and not a coal miner. Moon over Bourbon street is about vampires, taken from when he read interview with a vampire by Anne Rice.
Behind the words lies Stings unique voice. Able to reach high notes like few can, Sting is an exceptional vocal talent. Perhaps not put to best use on this album, still you really can't imagine anyone else singing these songs as fittingly.
You'll be missing out if you don't buy this album. But what do I know, I'm just another music fan...
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Mixed bag...
There are two songwriters on this album - the Sting who writes clunking all-too-obvious political songs - the awful "Russians" (lazy unpoetic rhymes like Precedent / President,... Read more
Published on 28 Oct 2008 by Mack Robinson
Dream on
After Police, Sting has managed to find his own identity and prove to be a solo superstar. He demonstrates a very wide range of styles, ranging from his solos to collaborations... Read more
Published on 16 Nov 1999
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