August 19, 2013

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Sting has posted a couple of videos online that will help fans prepare for the release of his latest album, The Last Ship, which hits stores on September 24.

The recording was inspired by the former Police man's upcoming stage musical of the same name, which tells the story of a family's struggle to survive the decline of the shipbuilding industry during the 1980s in Sting's home area -- the Tyneside region of northeastern England.

One clip that's viewable at Sting.com features footage of the 61-year-old musician in the studio with various musicians who contributed to the album. In the video, Sting talks about the traditional music native to Tyneside, elements of which he incorporated into the songs on The Last Ship.

"I was born and raised in Wallsend on the river Tyne, and it attracted massive immigration from Ireland, from Scotland," he explains. "So, the folk music of Tyneside is an amalgam of Celtic music, local Northumbrian music typified by the Northumbrian pipes…which comes from where we live…It's a very rich area, musically."

Sting goes on to note, "A lot of music sounds like it was made in a pub -- you know, people drinking pints of beer and playing and singing. So, we tried to recreate that in the studio [and] that atmosphere will be part of the record."

In addition, Sting has posted a video on YouTube that gives fans get a taste of all 12 songs from the standard version of The Last Ship. Each snippet is a minute long and viewers can choose what tune they want to sample by clicking on a menu of titles located along the bottom of the screen.

Sting will celebrate the release of The Last Ship with a series of 10 intimate concerts in New York City. The shows will take place from September 25 through October 9 at the 260-seat Anspacher Theater and will benefit the city's Public Theater arts organization.

I really hope he makes a fantastic album. I love Sting's music and therefore I miss the time when each new album was a great work.

Sting is one of my favorite artists. I think he's one of the best songwriters we've had in our generation. But I'm a sit this one out. I just listened to the snippets and although a couple of tunes caught my ear, it wasn't enough to hold my interest.

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I'm sure when he put this project together he knew he would alienate some of his base. I give him credit for carrying out his vision though. Sounds like he kept its sound and theme cohesively together from start to finish.

The last Sting album I bought was Brand New Day.

purplethunder3121 said:

The last Sting album I bought was Brand New Day.

I bought Sacred Love. Listened to it once. It felt like the end of the road.

I think the sound of the record in general is interesting, but I wish he would've foregone the affectation of his voice that appears on some songs. It's distracting and sounds unnatural.

SchlomoThaHomo said:

I think the sound of the record in general is interesting, but I wish he would've foregone the affectation of his voice that appears on some songs. It's distracting and sounds unnatural.

I agree. It reminds me of Russell Crowe singing in "Les Miserables." Too much affectation. You can tell he's channeling this for Broadway. I'm not sure there's a hit song in any of this collection, but - it is new material from him and sounds better than, what was it - songs about winter or Gregorian chant music (?) he put out a few years ago. His output, despite being less in recent years (and nothing commercial in over a decade) is certainly more than, say, George Michael's. (And that's someone I would have thought would RUN to making songs for Broadway!)

great if you are on a pirate ship drinking a lot of beer but even then it might make me walk the plank

c'mon sting - make another Police record!!

I haven't heard the record (and won't do it until the CD is in my hands), but the cover seems disappointing to me. If it's a concept album, I would have prefered that he chose an image that reflected the themes of the record, and not just a photograph of Mr. Sting with nothing special to it.

Yikes! The snippets concern me. His style of vocal presentation and the artificiality are so alarming. I won't even consider buying this without listening to the full album.

Doesn't sound promising from these reviews...

3rdeyedude said:

great if you are on a pirate ship drinking a lot of beer but even then it might make me walk the plank

c'mon sting - make another Police record!!

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I would love that too but you know he probably think that's primitive now or been there done that at this stage.

SchlomoThaHomo said:

I think the sound of the record in general is interesting, but I wish he would've foregone the affectation of his voice that appears on some songs. It's distracting and sounds unnatural.

Could be worse - have you listened to "If On A Winter's Night"? He sounds comical on that one. Other than that, I can't believe he still has the capability to sing pretty much exactly, at 60, as he did 30 years ago. Like, his voice is completely unchanged and even better than ever - live!

I'm really excited about this one, though. "Soul Cages", which was inspired by the same scenery as this one, is probably his masterpiece. So I'm hoping something in the same vein. I'm slightly only worried about the it's-actually-a-Broadway-musical aspect of it.

SamSamba said:

SchlomoThaHomo said:

I think the sound of the record in general is interesting, but I wish he would've foregone the affectation of his voice that appears on some songs. It's distracting and sounds unnatural.

Could be worse - have you listened to "If On A Winter's Night"? He sounds comical on that one. Other than that, I can't believe he still has the capability to sing pretty much exactly, at 60, as he did 30 years ago. Like, his voice is completely unchanged and even better than ever - live!

I'm really excited about this one, though. "Soul Cages", which was inspired by the same scenery as this one, is probably his masterpiece. So I'm hoping something in the same vein. I'm slightly only worried about the it's-actually-a-Broadway-musical aspect of it.

I feel exactly the same as you. But my fear is that, although the inspiration is the same, the music may be very different, lacking the beautiful introspection of The Soul Cages.

Sting Chats Upcoming The Last Ship Album

Video