Now, I like Sting. I've always liked him for his powerful tenor vocals, his unusual combinations of different musical forms (jazz, reggae, punk, soul), and his willingness to do something out of the ordinary, like showing up in cowboy-drag to perform "Love is Stronger Than Justice" on Saturday Night Live. So what's out of the ordinary about his new album? Almost absolutely nothing.
Mercury Falling for the most part fails to hook the listener because of its pop-meets-elevator music sound and dearth of original or well-written lyrics. Many of the cuts incorporate cheesy horns and synthesizers that distort and clutter the beauty of the music. This trend starts with the first song, "The Hounds of Winter," a dull, dry tune that tries to achieve melancholy with its lyrics of loss and emptiness, but really just ends up as one of many filler tracks between the two or three decent tunes on the record. Fortunately, the next song, "I Hung My Head," is ironically one of the few ditties during which Sting can hold his head up; the piece's easy flow complements Sting's bard-like voice as he relates the tale of a man convicted of murder.
Such a high point cannot be sustained, however, and the album dips again into the corniness of "Let Your Soul Be Your Pilot." This inspirational-speaker-from-hell piece comes complete with gospel choir and Hammond organ, two fine ingredients that somehow make the song even more irritating. "I Was Brought to My Senses" is nice enough without the annoying synthesizer that appears late in the song; the first few verses only contain Sting's vocals and an acoustic guitar, a fine combination by itself. The song incrementally adds more accompaniment with Irish folk fiddle and a keyboard that produces bubble-like sound effects. "You Still Touch Me," yet another song of loss and desire, just goes to show that what John Quincy Jones said is true: a bad song can make any singer look horrid. Weak lyrics and guitar progressions frame Sting's desperate attempt to make the song passable by virtually pouring his voice into every syllable of every word-nice try, but no cigar.
Likewise, with "I'm So Happy, I Can't Stop Crying"-opening with a pedal steel guitar and easy country rhythm, the narrator wallows in the depths of his own misery before experiencing one of those George Bailey moments and realizing that it's a wonderful life after all. "All Four Seasons," an ode to an inconsistent lover, is not a step forward either; the trumpets, organ, and bass form a conspiracy to make this by far the poppiest tune on the album, but achieve nasty undertones of wannabe reggae. That pop sound takes on a Euro-techno twist when Sting decides to tackle a French lyric in the Keats-referencing "La Belle Dame Sans Regrets," which involves cute piano tinklings that made me want to sip cappuccino and fast-forward to the next song.
The last track, "Lithium Sunset," employs a harmonica, acoustic guitar, and steel pedal guitar (again); it's the perfect song to accompany a drive through Texas. Its gentle backroads rhythms make it an easy listen- a strong finish to a not-so-strong album. As the sun sets on Sting's latest creation, I begin to wonder why Mercury Falling took the direction it did. The album's theme seems to be how cold life can get without love-hence the mercury dropping-but it lacks the general sarcasm for life of "All This Time," off The Soul Cages. Sting hasn't put much into his latest work, and so allows the bottom to fall out of Mercury.
You are visitor
since this page was designed on January 13, 1999.
Index 
The Web's Too Big Without You! Items For Sale Who
Am I? What's New?
Again, thanks for visiting my homepage. I hope you will come back and visit soon.
For questions, comments or information on this home page, please send e-mail to blueturtles01@hotmail.com.
This page hosted by 
. Get your own Free Home Page.
Copyright © 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 , 2001 by blueturtles01@hotmail.com. All rights reserved.