Word: stings
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...FEEL LIKE summertime, but it sure sounds and looks like Stingtime. The Police(front)mar, is everywhere--gracing rock mag covers (and even GQ)--to proclaim the release of his first solo album to the world. The media barrage comes with the golden-boy territory, but Sting's musical and acting endeavors have, with the exception of the Dune debacle, always justified the hype. Unfortunately, The Dream of the Blue Turtles is less than a revelation. The album certainly is no nightmare, but there's plenty of Sting and not much bite...
...comrades on his solo debut, Sting chose top-flight young jazz players around the world to spur him to new heights. Seasoned by stints with such jazz luminaries as Miles Davis, Art Blakely and Weather Report, these trained-reflex young masters are fresh and brash enough to try playing with a pop star. But while the move to wed pop-rock/reggae with jazz may be conceptually daring, none of Sting's tunes foster the lyricism, relentless drive, or direct passion so potent in the best of both worlds...
Where are Sting's contagious melodic hooks? The best Police songs--and there are countless best Police songs--stimulate the mind a bit as they ensnare you with danceable rhythms and singalong-able choruses. Most of the Blue Turtle tunes sit on the turntable self-satisfied, making little effort to ensnare. These tunes have the same tempered, careful energy level of most of Synchronicity (the last Police I.P), but at least that album contained manic cuts like Synchronicity I and Mother to keep everything out of a too-even kilter. Surely the musical dexterity and spontaneity of Sting...
While Police fans know that Sting's vocal vocabulary is extensive; ranging from smooth soulful falsettos and calypso lilts to yelps and fierce warning tones; the dominant Sting style on this album is a plaintive ethereal, no doubt sincere, chant-singing. It becomes a trifle tiresome, especially on the preachy first side. Here, he casts himself as a minister/sage, eager to dispense his wisdom. But Sting's poetry is most often second-hand or simplistic...
...vacation sting was part of an eleven-week Florida roundup in which the marshals and local police forces successfully tracked down 3,816 fugitives. Although most of the arrests resulted from more conventional police tactics, the Puno ploy and similar lures helped to collar violent criminals without anyone being injured. "Scams usually work very well with this type of fugitive," said U.S. Marshal Jerry Bullock, "because their entire lives are devoted to getting something for nothing...