Song List
A Thousand Years
Desert Rose
Big Lie, Small World
After The Rain Has Fallen
Perfect Love...Gone Wrong
Tomorrow We'll See
Prelude To The End Of The Game
Fill Her Up
Ghost Story
Brand New Day
Brand New Day(all Sting quotes throughout this review can be found at sting.com)
"I didn't set out to write lyrics just above love, yet almost all the songs have the theme of broken lives that can be mended by love. My challenge was to write a happy love song without being banal or smug. For example, 'Brand New Day', the last song, begins with a jaundiced view and then moves toward acceptance, to diving back into love. It's basically the thought that falling in love is an act of optimism - and I think if the album has that tone, for me... it's an optimistic one."
Brand New Method
Sting is an artist driven by his passion for music, and the intricacies of the craft seem to fascinate him completely. As I mentioned in my reviews for Ten Summoner's Tales and Mercury Falling, Sting composed and recorded these albums in his home, bringing his studio, all his equipment and his band into his dining room to aid him in the creation of the music. After purchasing another home, a beautiful old villa in Tuscany, Italy, Sting decided that this new home would be the location for the recording of his next album. However, he wasn't feeling up to the job...he decided to take a new approach: he tricked himself into it.
"I started last summer, but I pretended I wasn't working on a record. I pretended I was just gonna get some musicians together and have fun in the house and jam a little, and then pick the bones out of the jams in the mornings, and then adapt them a little bit."
By June of 1998 Sting had renovated an old barn on his property, a true Italian barnaio with high ceilings and lots of space, into his new recording studio, and he began to work on the music without any lyric at all. He invited his bandmates to join him, to help fill in bits and pieces of this new creation, and he allowed the music to develop on it's own, just for the sake of being music.
"I composed, finessed and even sequenced the music before I'd even written a word. I had to trust that the music would tell me stories, begin to create characters. It's a much more mystical process. You have to be more patient. It's a little like sculpting a piece of wood - you begin to see faces in the wood.
Eventually, Sting had over an hour of music to inspire the lyric process. He took long walks listening to the music, letting the stories of the characters come to him as he listened to the soundtrack of their lives. Brand New Day was created in a brand new way, bringing fresh vitality to yet another recording. As always, the music was widely varied and carried Sting's signature, which by now had matured into more of a presence than a sound, a palpable feeling of connection to the artist that the listener can enjoy. I find this feeling to be similar to physically viewing a painting - I can appreciate the artist's talent, critically assess the work, and find satisfaction in doing so, even if I am looking at the painting in a book or online. But when I come face to face with the actual work, I can feel the age of the piece, notice the fine brush strokes, and gain a completely new appreciation for the artist's skill and craftsmanship. The music of Brand New Day carries some of this feeling for me; of course, going to hear Sting play live in concert is even better, but that's another review for another time...for now, I will limit myself to a selection of my favorite songs from Brand New Day.
A Thousand Years "I suppose reincarnation is something that I find a very creative idea. Intellectually I don't buy it. Artistically, poetically and emotionally, I like the idea. So this is a story about a love, a relationship that transcends many lives, many lifetimes.."
As the opening song of the album, A Thousand Years may seem an odd choice - many albums start with an uptempo bang, and this one begins with a long drawn out note eventually becoming a thickly textured soundscape which many find baffling. Some find this song long and tedious, monotonous in the single-mindedness of the chords in the verses, and a prime example of what they do not like about Sting's music. I have to disagree with these persons and argue that they may be missing the point of the song. The repetitiveness of the melody and the drone of the chords supporting the verses throughout provide a sonic glimpse of the unending cycle the singer describes. It is the perfect beginning, it starts the thematic cycles of the album, presenting the themes of eternal love, broken and mended, lost and found.
I still love you
I still want you
A thousand times the mysteries unfold themselves
Like galaxies in my head
On and on the mysteries unwind themselves
Eternities still unsaid
'Til you love me
The song fades out but not completely, as it crossfades into the second song...for somewhere, lost in the myriad tales of a thousand years, is the story of the Desert Rose...
Desert Rose "The song is about longing... sexual longing, romantic longing, within a larger context, which is philosophical longing for meaning or God or whatever."
From the swirling and ever-present synthesizer figure moving constantly in the background to the waves of Middle Eastern strings providing dramatic tension - from Cheb Mami's incredibly complex Arabic counter-melody to the impossibly deep bass harmonic derived from a combination of piano and bass guitar tones, Desert Rose is an enigma in modern music, a true fusion of styles rarely explored in popular Western music. The song grows from a dreamlike haze, a sonic trance woven in the interplay of passionate expressions in diverse languages, and transforms into a fiery statement of desire and sensuality. This is what music should be, the ultimate expression of connection between singer and audience, listener and performer, as they all respond to the common human elements of deep emotional triggers. (for those who wonder what Cheb is singing in Arabic, here is a translation)
It has been a long time,
And I am looking for myself and my loved one
My life is for you,
And no one other than you.
As the sun fades into the desert night, it rises over a lonely gas station somewhere deep in the forests of America...
Fill Her Up "It was actually inspired by a painting by Hopper. It was a famous painting of his of one gas station in a pine forest. I think it's a Mobil gas station with a guy holding a gas pump. And I just sort of climbed into the picture and invented this story about the guy. You know, he doesn't seem to have much going for him. And he's tempted to steal the cashbox and take his girlfriend to Vegas and have a good time. But something happens to him in the woods as he walks back home."
Sting has a thing for country music, and he indulges himself from time to time with the creation of a country flavored song. It is the perfect setting for this tale of a man who has an angelic visitation instructing him on the consequences of his actions upon himself and his intended lady love. The story of the plot to steal the money and take the girl to Vegas is told with country music; when he is stopped by the angelic choir, it shifts into glorious gospel, a full blown hallelujah tent revival, and Sting provides the required clever twist on the title phrase:
You gotta fill her up the right way, you gotta fill her up with care
You gotta fill her up with babies, you gotta fill her up and swear
You're gonna love that girl forever, you're gonna fill her up with life
You're gonna be a loving husband, she's gonna be your loving wife
You gotta fill her up with gladness, you gotta fill her up with joy
You gotta fill her up with love, you gotta fill her up with love
You gotta fill her up with love
The tent meeting isn't over - Sting steps up to the podium and delivers a sermon on the meaning of love in our modern society, as we find ourselves in a Brand New Day...
Brand New Day "Musically it felt like a celebration of some kind and a finale and I wanted the record to end on a very positive note. The album starts very darkly with 'A Thousand Years', but I wanted it to finish joyously. And this is about a new beginning, a new start"
and now for a truly unfortunate style of reviewing -
this song is fun! I like it a lot. It has Stevie Wonder playing harmonica. I like Stevie Wonder. I like Sting.
OK - enough of that - this song just makes me stupid giddy with all it's pop-ness and radio friendliness, but I like it despite myself. Sting is just too good at what he does, and even his obviously-targeted-at-pop songs are better than a lot of the other songs in American pop radio. If you didn't hear this one at any point before the year 2000 came and went, you must have had your head stuck in the sand...
Stand up, all you lovers in the world
Stand up and be counted, every boy and every girl
Stand up, all you lovers in the world
We're starting up a brand new day
The song fades out, but not before the opening theme of A Thousand Years appears briefly, and the cycle starts anew...
Brand New Album
With Brand New Day, Sting proved once again that he could make his music completely fresh and relevant. The songs are all excellent, the lyrics are up to his usual high standards, and the collection still sounds new four years later...four years...has it really been that long since we got a new album from Sting? Well the wait is over! Sacred Love became available worldwide September 30, 2003.
P.S.
If you shop around, you may be able to find two alternate releases of Brand New Day. The first is a DTS surround sound version that is reportedly quite good; you can read the lone Epinion.com review here. Also, the copy I own included a bonus disc with the following track list:
Windmills of Your Mind
A Thousand Years (Live)
Desert Rose (Live)
After The Rain Has Fallen (Live)
Desert Rose (Melodic Club Mix Radio Edit)
Great Music to Play While Not Listening To Sting's Newest Album, Sacred Love
With customary thoughtfulness and his usual verve, Sting is talking about Brand New Day, his sumptuous new album, a collection of songs exploring the ...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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