Author: Peter Podbrežnik
Artist: Sting
Label: A&M Records / Interscope
Release date: 2016
Running time: 37:05
Rating: 2.5/5
»57th & 9th« is Sting’s latest studio effort, and it landed after a long wait under sky-high, maybe even overblown expectations, since it was billed ahead of release as his first rock/pop album in more than a decade. As tends to happen in cases like this, Sting’s newest project sadly doesn’t live up to the hopes of everyone who jumped too quickly on the media hype train that surrounded its release. The ‘pop rock’ label is at least partly justified, as Sting’s twelfth studio album, after a really long time, does have a few more rock rhythms than we’ve been used to from him over the past fifteen years. But that’s still not what fans of his best creative output, meaning what he made on his first three solo records and with The Police, were really hoping for. Why even bring up The Police? Because before »57th & 9th« came out, some people were spreading false claims that a few of the new Sting songs were back on The Police’s level.
Once again, the legendary musician has surrounded himself with an enviable crew, the standouts being his two longtime collaborators, guitar virtuoso Dominic Miller and one of the greatest drummers of all time, Vinnie Colaiuta, who have been working with Sting since the early nineties. Sadly, Sting, who found inspiration for »57th & 9th« while walking through a part of New York once known as the notorious ‘Hell’s Kitchen’, where his studio is located, didn’t know how to make full use of their exceptional talents. On most tracks you can barely notice them, and their parts are mostly handled by some less gifted musicians. Honestly, there’s very little real rock on the album, and not a whole lot of quality pop either. Even the ballads in the second half of »57th & 9th« are nothing special.
The first letdown is already the opening track, »I Can’t Stop Thinking About You«, which came out as the album’s lead single and was clearly built to be Sting’s next big hit, since it sounds a lot more like some modern indie pop rock band than The Police. Sadly, the rest of the album isn’t much better for anyone who truly believed the talk about a return to ‘the glory days’. The next track, »50,000«, even more in an indie pop rock vein and at a slower tempo, is dedicated by Sting to the many music icons who left us too early in 2016, with David Bowie, Prince, Lemmy and Glenn Frey singled out in particular. The solid »Down, Down, Down«, one of two songs on the album co-written by Sting, Miller and Colaiuta, is one of the few tracks on »57th & 9th« that could have turned out really well, since its melody does tug a bit at Sting’s early, best solo days, if only it had a bit more life in it.
On »One Fine Day« Sting once again slips into his environmental activist shoes, warning in the lyrics about the consequences of global warming, while the main melody is totally forgettable. On the somewhat livelier, let’s call it more rocker-ish »Petrol Head«, the iconic singer ‘wakes up’ a little again, but it won’t earn anything more than a “decent” from us. As it goes on, in its second half, the album gets even duller than before and loses the last few rare rock elements, as rather anemic ballads take over (the worst of them being the acoustic »Heading South of the Great North Road«), where Sting just can’t recapture past glory anymore, partly because his vocal range has dropped noticeably over the years. Without his distinctive ‘reggae’ tone of voice, you honestly wouldn’t be able to recognize the guy at all.
So instead of the stunning ambient beauty of past hits like the unforgettable »Nothing Like the Sun« (1987) classic »Fragile«, the new ballads sound more like the grumbling of a rich old grouch who lacks for nothing in life, and the accompanying arrangements are mostly nothing special either, not to mention the very simple rhythms. The slightly jazz-leaning ballad »If You Can’t Love Me«, co-created by Sting, Miller and Colaiuta, does have a bit more rhythmic variety (you can finally hear Colaiuta’s distinctive drumming technique), but as a whole it still doesn’t leave much of a lasting impression. The album becomes seriously exhausting with the rather annoying »Inshallah«, which features an Arabic prayer and sounds like the lament of a religious zealot. On the final track, the markedly sleepy ballad »The Empty Chair«, Sting recalls in the lyrics the American journalist John Foley, who was beheaded by religious fanatics from the notorious terrorist organization ISIS.
»57th & 9th«, despite the big expectations, sadly isn’t the Sting ‘comeback’ rock album that some folks have been waiting on for years, after getting thoroughly fed up with his orchestral and Renaissance projects that have left a good few longtime fans scratching their heads lately. It’s really no fun being critical of such a music giant, since all of us who deeply value his output from the late seventies, the eighties and the early nineties would have gladly forgiven him a much better album than »57th & 9th«, which will only excite the most devoted fans, the ones who don’t care about the music itself as long as Sting’s name is on the record. It’s becoming more and more obvious that the legendary musician just can’t find his way back to that past magic anymore and, with a chronic lack of real inspiration and a weaker vocal range, is running into the same total loss of inspiration as his old friend David Gilmour, as both have been drifting in recent years toward the dreaded ‘dad rock’ label.
Lineup
Sting – vocals, bass guitar, piano, percussion
Dominic Miller – guitar
Vinnie Colaiuta – drums
Rhani Krija – percussion
Martin Krieszenbaum – keyboards
Rob Mathes – piano
Lyle Workman – guitar
Josh Freese – drums
Jerry Fuentes – backing vocals, guitar
Diego Navaria – backing vocals, bass guitar
Derek James – backing vocals
Zach Jones – drums
Razan Nassreddine – backing vocals
Hazam Nassreddine
Marion Enacheschu – violin
Jean-Baptiste Moussarie – guitar
Salam Al Hassan – percussion
Accad Al Saed – percussion
Thabet Azzawi – oud
Nadim Sarrouh – oud
Nabil Al Chami – clarinet
Production
Martin Kierszenbaum
Track list
1. I Can’t Stop Thinking About You
2. 50,000
3. Down, Down, Down
4. One Fine Day
5. Pretty Young Soldier
6. Petrol Head
7. Heading South On The Great North Road
8. If You Can’t Love Me
8. Inshallah
9. The Empty Chair
