October 2003 - Police - mailman.xmission.com

first reaction to the cd
by Sweetmomb＠cs.com 07 Oct '03

07 Oct '03

David Lucky <dlucky711(a)yahoo.com> wrote: "Although this is the songwriter's strongest collection of melodies since "Ten Summoner's Tales" a decade ago, it's smothered by a studio sheen that is so smooth, so urbane, so bloodless that this record is destined to be piped into Pottery Barn stores everywhere. Several glorious tunes do manage to rise above the gloss: Sting's meditations on love - in both the personal and global realm - shine brightest on "Never Coming Home" and "Send Your Love." ...and that is my reaction to the first listening in a nutshell. Perhaps if it were a bit less overproduced, one could actually make out the words/hear his voice/enjoy the songs more. I'll re-post after I see the TV shows, all of which I had my long-suffering family tape while I moved my daughter to her new place across the state; I understand that the live performances are very different due to the lack of overweening production. Hopefully, Holly

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Re: Sacred Love
by M 07 Oct '03

07 Oct '03

Despite what certain people have said about the negativity, it doesn't change the opinion that this album is not very good. Myself as well as others on this list agree. This is a forum for us to share this view. __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? The New Yahoo! Shopping - with improved product search http://shopping.yahoo.com

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Re: [Police] reviews of hammerstein
by Steve Roberts 07 Oct '03

07 Oct '03

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reviews of hammerstein
by David Lucky 07 Oct '03

07 Oct '03

Has anyone seen any reviews of the sting Hammerstein concert yet? I wanted to read a few. I saw on in the New York Post yesterday but couldnt get an online copy. I saw Fred Schneider singer of the B52's at the gig as well as Trudie. I am sure there were other interesting folks as well. I thought the place was packed though.

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RE: [Police] reviews of hammerstein
by Fred Berthelot 07 Oct '03

07 Oct '03

Everyone at the Hammerstein will tell you that Whenever I Say Your Name was one of the highlights of the show. Joy Rose takes it to a new level that Mary J. Blige never could. Though most of the audience might not have known the new material, WISYN got one of the biggest responses of the night. This is so not a "tedious gospel-lite composition" as the NY Times reviews. Anyway, any reviewer who uses "lithe" and "urbane" in the same sentence is just full of it! -----Original Message----- From: StingUs [mailto:frotri@panafonet.gr] Sent: Tuesday, October 07, 2003 11:16 AM To: David Lucky; police(a)mailman.xmission.com Subject: Re: [Police] reviews of hammerstein Here you go: New York Post PageSix Gossip/Celeb INTENSE LOVE SONGS FROM STRIPPED-DOWN STING Mon Oct 6, 3:58 AM ET By DAN AQUILANTE FEW entertainers have it. And, in fact, quiet power wasn't always a quality that Sting possessed. The brashness of his misspent youth has been recast over the years into a take-it-or- leave-it confidence that no longer has to shout to be heard. Saturday night at his Hammerstein Ballroom gig, Sting displayed that power in a smoldering set of love songs that explored the multi-faceted concept of devotion. There was lusty, passionate pillow talk, like what was dished up in "Whenever I Say Your Name" and "Let's Forget About the Future," and the longing for innocence in "Never Coming Home." Other than the pleasing eye candy of the videos projected behind the band, the show had a stripped- down, no-frills quality that would have been as comfortable in any jazz club as it was at the Hammer. Sting looked buff in a black tank top, like a spinach-fed Popeye. Still, this was a show all about the music. Sting sang, mostly played bass and sometimes picked an acoustic guitar. There were no antics, shenanigans or tricks. He was a songwriter singing from center stage, offering his music like a shopkeeper shows off his best apples. As gripping as it was to watch the intensity in his furrowed brow and the tautness of his body as he sang tunes such as the very personal "Book of My Life" and the heartfelt "This War," it also felt natural to close your eyes and just listen to the concert as if it were radio in a darkened room. At times, the show actually demanded that kind of close listening because the program ignored most of the man's hits, and instead was gleaned from his new album, "Sacred Love," which was released last week. For an established musician to ignore his best-loved, best-known material is the bravest, most foolhardy, thing he could do. You have to wonder why anyone - even Sting - would take a chance when they have so many sure-fire hit songs. A quick answer is the satisfaction of the risk itself. Between the quality of the new "Sacred Love" compositions and Sting's steely delivery, the concert was a success. He took a blind leap of faith, both on the songs themselves and his audience's openness to the new, and landed squarely on the ledge of greatness. A Sense of Self and of the World By KELEFA SANNEH Published: October 6, 2003 Perhaps you've noticed, at some point during Sting's quarter-century of music-making, that the singer is more than a little bit full of himself. Perhaps you've noticed, too, that he has become one of pop music's most thoughtful multiculturalists. And perhaps you've wondered whether there's a connection. On Saturday night Sting came to the Hammerstein Ballroom to play an elegant, appealing set celebrating his new album, "Sacred Love" (A&M/Universal). He was supported by a small band, a roomful of diehard fans and enough casual self-confidence to put a dozen shrinks out of work. If Sting enjoys being Sting, it's not hard to see why. He's a remarkably subtle singer, tossing off one jazz-inflected phrase after another, adding new twists to familiar vocal lines. And all night he nudged the music forward with coolly propulsive bass lines (occasionally switching to guitar), admirably resisting what must have been an overwhelming temptation to take a solo. Sting's music updates the tradition of the blues-obsessed British rocker: he pioneered punky reggae with his band the Police, and since then he has broadened his scope, taking in everything from American R&B to Algerian rai. "Sacred Love" includes collaborations with the flamenco singer Vicente Amigo, Mary J. Blige and Anoushka Shankar - Ravi Shankar's daughter and Norah Jones's half-sister. Most pop stars ignore the music of the rest of the world, not because they think other musical traditions have nothing to offer, but because they don't dare dabble. To acknowledge the vastness of the world's music is to risk feeling insignificant or unworthy. And so lots of pop stars stick to what they know, humbly declining to wander too far afield. By contrast Sting is self-possessed enough to acknowledge so-called world music without getting lost in a multicultural quagmire, and his albums are proof that arrogance and generosity aren't incompatible. I'm one of the world's great singers, he seems to be telling his collaborators, and so are you. On Saturday night not all of the musical voyages were worth the trip. There was a tedious gospel-lite composition called "Whenever I Say Your Name." And his new protest anthem, "This War," didn't quite work: Sting's style is too lithe, too urbane, to conjure up political fervor of any sort. But most of the new material succeeded, even though the audience members hadn't yet gotten around to learning the lyrics. The songs on "Sacred Love" tend to be verbose (the title track, for example, has 57 lines of lyrics) and gently propulsive; many sounded lighter and less solemn onstage. He dedicated "Dead Man's Rope" to two friends who had recently died, but when he sang it he sounded almost sprightly, his voice dancing around a guitar ostinato. The night ended with a handful of old favorites, including "If I Ever Lose My Faith in You," a love song that also finds time to address the state of the world. And why not? Sting may be self-satisfied, but he's certainly not complacent. It's clear that he has spent lots of time pondering his place in the world, and who can blame him if he thinks he has figured it out? Source: The New York Times ----- Original Message ----- From: "David Lucky" <dlucky711(a)yahoo.com> To: <police(a)mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Tuesday, October 07, 2003 5:53 PM Subject: [Police] reviews of hammerstein > > Has anyone seen any reviews of the sting Hammerstein > concert yet? I wanted to read a few. I saw on in the > New York Post yesterday but couldnt get an online > copy. > > I saw Fred Schneider singer of the B52's at the gig as > well as Trudie. I am sure there were other > interesting folks as well. I thought the place was > packed though. > > > > _______________________________________________ > Police mailing list > Police(a)mailman.xmission.com > http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/police

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Sacred love review
by David Lucky 07 Oct '03

07 Oct '03

I thought this review was interesting. MUSIC REVIEWS: Bowie and Sting's latest, Warren Zevon's last E-mail Story to a Friend Printer Friendly September 27, 2003 The Christian Science Monitor (CSM) - Here's a challenge: Try getting past the opening track on David Bowie's new album without hitting the repeat button. Sting - Sacred Love (A&M): There's plenty of stubble on Sting on the cover of "Sacred Love." The album, however, is too clean-shaven for its own good. Although this is the songwriter's strongest collection of melodies since "Ten Summoner's Tales" a decade ago, it's smothered by a studio sheen that is so smooth, so urbane, so bloodless that this record is destined to be piped into Pottery Barn stores everywhere. Several glorious tunes do manage to rise above the gloss: Sting's meditations on love - in both the personal and global realm - shine brightest on "Never Coming Home" and "Send Your Love."

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Re: [Police] In defence of Sacred Love, enough negativity
by Stingfan222＠aol.com 07 Oct '03

07 Oct '03

Thanks for coming out of lurk mode... I agree with you wholeheartedly! Yes, I loved the Police, they're gone. Yes, I loved some of Sting's other work more. So what? I have found that the more I listen to Sacred Love, the more I love it. Experiencing it live last weekend only made it better (no drum machine during Never Coming Home----yippee!) Sting's changed, I've changed. I hope I keep changing. How awful it would be for people to expect you to be the same all your life. Some changes I like about Sting, some I don't (the beard, the drum machine)! I try to focus on the stuff I like. If it were that offensive to me, I'd probably take a hike for a while. Happened to me w/U2 during the zooropa phase! Can't wait to see how it evolves when the real tour comes around in '04. Michelle

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Did Sting cut his beard?
by Giovanni 07 Oct '03

07 Oct '03

Am I wrong or Sting cut his beard? It seems like that seeing the 4 pics on wireimage.... Ciao ciao Giovanni http://www.stewartcopeland.it http://www.illegaltales.it

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Re: [Police] In defence of Sacred Love, enough negativity
by DtmrCls＠aol.com 07 Oct '03

07 Oct '03

I'm not the reviewer who wrote that but I can understand that. The album is just getting the reviews it deserves. > A let down to me was the reviewer who was "glad that it was getting > negative reviews". Why?

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In defence of Sacred Love, enough negativity
by Morgan Jolly 07 Oct '03

07 Oct '03

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