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Sting -- Mercury Falling 1996
Mercury Falling is a collection of beautifully produced songs that do not appear to be linked in any thematic or lyrical way. One song is about a man alone, contemplating the hounds of winter, another song is about a murder, another song personifies the human soul, another about a man whose visions in nature confirm he will be united with the woman he loves, another about a memory of a lover who has left, another upbeat song about the tears caused by a divorce, and several other tracks that continue this theme of having no common theme.
Once this is appreciated, the music and lyrics are dynamic. He exhibits pure poetry in "I Was Brought To My Senses":One thread that weaves through each song is Sting's emotion. We are not left wondering what is he feeling. Not only does he tell us, but the music and tempo join with the lyrics to communicate his feelings. For the most part, this technique makes each track interesting and unique.
The album is named after a lyric in the first and last song on the CD, "The Hounds of Winter" and "Lithium Sunrise". In fact, the CD begins and ends with the words "Mercury Falling". Lyrical Bookends? Perhaps, but I think Sting's writing ability on this CD allows him to get away with the cliche. "Mercury Falling" refers to falling temperature, and it may refer to the author's lonliness, depression, and pain. The CD ends with the writer's method of being released from this condition. In "Lithium Sunset", the author speaks about how lithium has helped him cope with his own depression. After taking the drug, he expresses "I'll get better, I feel your light upon my face". With this, he personifies the anti-manic drug, and the melody and the lyric indicate that he already feels better in anticipation of the drug going to work. After all, it is a lithium sunset, and tomorrow is a brand new day.
Sting -- The Soul Cages 1991
Sting's The Soul Cages is an album dedicated to his father. Most of the songs on the CD are about connecting with someone, or a yearning to connect with someone who is no longer present. The music is wonderfully written, each song is unique in its tone and interpretation. The lyrics are somewhat varied, with the theme of water or water travel present in many of them. Most of the songs are stories, with the climax near the end of the CD, with "The Soul Cages".
The CD is not dark, but Sting questions why love is elusiuve. "Although I claim dominions over all I see / It means nothing to me ... without love", and in another song, he asks "Why should I cry for you?" The first song on the CD tells about a boy whose father is killed in an industrial accident, while working on a ship. Then the boy dreams of a ship that would take him and his father away where they would never be found. In the final song on the CD he discusses what will become of us at the Resurrection. These are weighty subjects, but the author understands that life is mysterious.
The title track tells about a boy child locked in a cage by the sea, who makes a bet with the fisherman that guards the Soul Cages. The boy wants his freedom and proposes that if he can drink from the glass of magic wine, his soul will go free. The fisherman asks "what's in it for me", and the boy agrees that the fisherman can have his soul if he loses the bet. In the end, the boy dreams about a ship that would take him and his father away, to an island of souls, the same island he dreamed about in a previous track on the CD.
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