I lost Sting's thread many years ago; I consider The Soul Cages probably his last listenable album, though admittedly I gave up and haven't really heard anything since giving Brand New Day a single, painful spin—and on checking that seems to have been fourteen years ago; how time passes! I see the occasional digests from this group in a secondary email account that I browse occasionally. The Last Ship is the first thing I've actually been curious about in twenty years. I'm not sure whether it's the nautical theme, but from what I see and hear it sounds like it finally gets back to building on a promising musical and thematic thread started with Soul Cages. Here's hoping that a singular voice from my youth and early adulthood can speak to me once again in middle age (I turned fifty just a week ago!).

Cheers,

Chris