My Songs

Speaking on his approach to the album, Sting says: “‘My Songs’ is my life in songs. Some of them reconstructed, some of them refitted, some of them reframed, but all of them with a contemporary focus.”

‘My Songs’ boasts modernized recordings, faithful to the original arrangements and celebrates Sting’s illustrious musical career as one of the world’s most distinctive and influential artists. Since forming The Police in 1977 with Stewart Copeland and Andy Summers, Sting has evolved into one of the world’s most iconic artists, selling 100 million records and earning the highest accolades along the way. Fans can expect to hear Sting’s own fresh approach to hits including “Englishman In New York,” “Fields Of Gold,” “Shape Of My Heart,” “Every Breath You Take,” “Roxanne,” “Message In A Bottle” and many more.

The album will also be accompanied by new liner notes written by Sting, in which he shares the personal stories behind each song and provides insight into how some of the most enduring songs of all time were written.

Never one to stand still, in the summer of 2018, following his collaborative album release with Shaggy - the Grammy Award-winning chart-topping record ‘44/876’ – the iconic duo launched a world tour through North America, South America, Eastern Europe and this year will extend to the UK for a series of intimate shows from May 19th - 25th. These collaborative performances will be followed by Sting’s own, solo ‘My Songs’ tour this summer - a dynamic show featuring the most beloved songs written by Sting spanning his prolific career, accompanied by an electric, rock ensemble. Tour itinerary and tickets can be found at www.sting.com.

‘My Songs’ was produced and A&R’d by Martin Kierszenbaum (Sting, Lady Gaga, Robyn), Dave Audé (Bruno Mars, Selena Gomez) and Jerry Fuentes (The Last Bandoleros). The album was mixed by Robert Orton (Lana Del Rey, Mumford & Sons) and engineered by Tony Lake (Sting, Shaggy). 

‘My Songs’ will be released on CD and vinyl, and a deluxe edition will be available including live recordings of ‘Synchronicity II’, ‘Next To You’, ‘Spirits In the Material World’ and ‘Fragile’. An exclusive edition for Japan will also feature a live recording of ‘I Can’t Stop Thinking About You’, and an exclusive for France is set to include an extended version of ‘Desert Rose’.

Review from The Arts Desk

Mr Sumner updates his impressive back catalogue... slightly

Some say that every successful rock star's career can be divided into three phases. First comes the youthful exuberance. Next, there's mature experimentation. Finally, the artist goes back over everything he's done. That's where Sting is now.

His last solo album was a homage to the Police, and now he's "re-imagined, refitted, and reshaped" a selection of his greatest hits. Or, at least, that's how he puts it. In truth, you'd need a magnifying glass to tell the difference between most of these and the originals.

You're not, for instance, going to find "Roxanne" rearranged with lutes. Nor are there any new or unreleased songs. Instead, we find a series of re-recordings and remixes. The Tantric One has teamed up with a trusty bunch of old collaborators and together they have conjured up a series of subtly alternative versions of songs. To be fair, you probably wouldn't have wanted to tamper with them too much anyway.

Ironically, the new recordings sound more like demo tracks. "So Lonely" has been pulled down half an octave, but guitarist Jerry Fuentes still manages to reproduce Andy Summers's guitar part note for note. "Message in a Bottle" is fractionally slower and a little gruffer. "Walking on the Moon" is most notable for how drummer Josh Freese manages to outdo Stewart Copeland's original stick-work. 

The remixes are a little more varied. The least successful is "If You Love Someone Set Them Free", which has been fitted out with the kind of beats you might have heard in Ibiza in 1996. "Fields of Gold", by contrast, finds new depths in its more pastoral arrangement. And "If I Ever Lose My Faith in You" has been made bouncier and brighter. There's also one live version, "Roxanne".

Of course, with so little that's new here many will question the point of this record. Partly, it's to herald a world tour and Las Vegas residency. Really though, it's just an excuse to revisit some great tunes. And why not.

Review from The Times

It isn’t clear why Sting felt the need to take old Police and solo favourites and re-record them in slightly different versions, but they are indeed his songs and many are fantastic.

Reggae/pop-punk gems by the Police such as Message in a Bottle and Walking on the Moon are as beguiling as ever, while Englishman in New York is a reminder that, while he may forever be threatening to play the lute in the lotus position in a rainforest, naked, Sting remains a nuanced and literary songwriter.

Occasional attempts to update the back catalogue prove unfortunate, particularly a cheesy dance-pop version of If You Love Somebody Set Them Free, but for the most part this is a pleasant if unnecessary reminder of Sting’s finest moments. 

Review from SuperDeluxeEdition by Paul Sinclair

Sting tinkering with his old classics is a pointless exercise...

Of all the things Sting could do these days, putting out a solo album filled with new compositions doesn’t appear to be high in his list of priorities. Whilst he’s been quite busy in recent years, he has sought creative and personal satisfaction from his The Last Ship project, which was by nature rather collaborative, he’s made a record with Shaggy (which was actually a lot of fun) and even on tour Sting has teamed up with others to keep him company (Paul Simon and now Shaggy). 2016’s 57th & 9th is his only solo album in the last 15 years and after its somewhat tepid reception, Sting may well have thought ‘what’s the point?’

But hey, even if you easily sell out tours largely on the strength of your greatest hits, chances are your marketing ‘team’ will advise that you still need something new-sounding to hang it on, and if you haven’t got fresh songs or perhaps a reissue to promote, what other options are available to you? Step forward the idea of ‘revisiting’ old songs!

Sting’s My Songs is exactly such a project. He has re-recorded some of his old numbers, and it seems ‘deep cuts’ isn’t in his vocabulary – at least for this initiative. It includes massive Police hits like ‘Every Breath You Take’, ‘Message In A Bottle’ and solo favourites such as ‘Englishman In New York’ and ‘If You Love Somebody Set Them Free’. Some songs are complete re-recordings, while others are a Brundlefly fusion of new and old. Describing the approach, Sting picks his words carefully, although not carefully enough to avoid sounding like a double-glazing salesman: “Some of them reconstructed, some of them refitted, some of them reframed, and all of them with a contemporary focus.” Remember that last phrase.

So what are these new versions like? It varies, but if there’s one thing these recordings have in common it’s that none of them improve on the originals. That need not render the My Songs initiative a pointless exercise, because there’s much pleasure to be had from creative explorations or getting to a finished song via an alternative route, but Sting really isn’t interested in that at this juncture. He’s eschewing any twisty musical B-roads and opting for the sitting-in-the-middle-lane of a straight and direct motorway. He’s has typed ‘contemporary focus’ into his sat nav and isn’t going to risk not reaching that destination.

This goal, that destination, is about maximising the appeal of his back catalogue to a much younger, streaming-dominated generation. He’s really shoving a needle into the temples of some great pop songs and injecting a bit of botox; filling out what he perceives as some cragginess and making them (in his eyes) fit for purpose for young listeners.

To be fair, Sting’s arguments are thoughtfully presented. He told Billboard earlier this year that “sometimes songs are identified by the technology they were recorded with – recording techniques, the sound of synthesizers or the drum sound. They all date a song, so we just want to re-contemporise the stuff.” In other words, he feels that some of the production is dated and getting in the way of people hearing or enjoying his old Police and solo hits. Millennials scared off by the punky rawness of the late 1970s or the reverb and bombast of the 1980s.

The problem is, while I accept that no one is denying us access to the originals, Sting is effectively creating a marketplace with two versions of these songs, the songs as released and these ‘reframed/refitted/
reconstructed’ versions. That could be confusing. Also, has anyone ever actually said “I really like ‘Every Breath You Take’ but I wish it didn’t sound so old-fashioned”?

Let’s talk about some specifics. As far as I’m concerned “If You Love Somebody Set Them Free” is one of Sting’s most enduring solo songs and should be left well alone. Alas, Mr Sumner is doing the opposite of leaving it alone. He must really hate how the original sounds, because he’s constantly fiddling with this track. It was subjected to at least eight awful dance remixes back in 1994, was remixed for the 25 Years compilation/box set back in 2011 and he’s tinkered with it again for My Songs. This new version is effectively a mild dance mix that surgically removes most of the song’s personality. Something like a ‘Tin Tin Out’ remix from the late 1990s. The vocal sounds like the original to these ears, but the drums are now programmed. Who’d want to replace Omar Hakim with a drum machine? Kate Bush chose to do the opposite with Director’s Cut, replacing soulless programmed rhythms with Steve Gadd. You listen back to the original version of ‘If You Love Somebody Set Them Free’ and absorb the wonderful organic arrangement with that Hammond, and the loose drums and the world class list of musicians (including Kenny Kirkland, Branford Marsalis) and can only shake your head in exasperation when you hear the new one.

The beautiful “Shape of My Heart” (surprisingly, not a hit back in 1993) has a percussive ‘click’ not in the original and in this instance does have a new vocal. It is sung perfectly well, but I’m sorry, it’s simply not as good as the original. While fashions in production and musical styles may change for the better over time (or maybe not) what rarely improves is the human singing voice. Artists like Sting have a habit of trying to convince us that their voices are ‘more interesting’ in their later years (George Michael once said he found his singing voice in the 80s ‘boring’) but they’re surely kidding themselves – the unbridled range and power of the ‘early years’ is always going to be preferable. There’s no shame in losing some of your range when you get to your 50s or 60s but let’s get real… it’s not normally ‘better’. Apart from the inferior vocal, Shape Of My Heart doesn’t sound a whole lot different, which begs the question, why?

‘Every Breath You Take’ is fundamentally the same, although it now has a drum sound like someone hitting a cardboard box. Also, to the point above, the original had a very relaxed vocal during the verses, 35 years later Sting has to try harder and you can hear the effort. It’s not as relaxing a listen. Rather like watching your kid perform in the school play. You’re worried it’s all going to go wrong. This song exhibits the worst attributes of My Songs. It’s a new recording – and therefore ‘different’ – but is so similar as to be utterly pointless. There is literally NO reason to listen to this version above the original.

‘I Can’t Stand Losing You’ is similar to ‘Every Breath You Take’. The youthful exuberance is sucked from the song as a bloke in his mid-sixties tries to recreate his youth. Meanwhile ‘Fields of Gold’ at least boasts a slightly different intro (and outro), although like ‘Shape of My Heart’ Sting is convinced the key to streaming success is to change the snare sound. Not a click this time but more of a ‘pfft’ sound. Other than that, it all sounds fairly similar.

And the album continues in the same vein. Sting rather over enunciates the lyrics to a facsimile ‘Englishman In New York’ and throws in some car horns beeping over that booming drum break (for no apparent reason), while ‘If I Ever Lose My Faith In You’ has lost all its balls; the synth pads and fat rhythm section are the skilled veterans made redundant and replaced with work experience team of light skipping percussion and ambient styling. ‘Faith’ is actually quite bad, to be honest.

It’s sad that, as with Paul McCartney – who recently worked with Ryan Tedder for a few tracks on the Egypt Station sessions – Sting apparently wants to sound MORE GENERIC to ‘fit in’ with modern musical landscapes. Neither man, it seems, can switch off the desire to be a pop star and therefore they are driven to stay ‘popular’ and will do whatever is required, even if it means messing with rock/pop classics (in Sting’s case) or releasing new material that’s close to embarrassing (McCartney).

There’s another element to all this. Re-recording your old material is often financially an astute move, if your label retains rights to the original recordings. It’s not clear if this is Sting’s motivation, but potentially, if a Sting-penned track is up for being used for a movie or TV, Sting’s representatives will be sure proffer the ‘My Songs’ version and potentially earn more for ’sync’ rights than if they used the original. Blondie re-recorded their old hits for similar reasons back in 2014, with their Greatest Hits Redux, but at least they had the decency to bundle it as a freebie with their new album at the time (Ghosts of Download). With Sting ‘My Songs’ IS the new album!

Good for Sting, he’s a canny operator, but it starts to dawn on you that this project is rather inward looking. It is all about Sting, what suits him, what works for his tour what gets him a (perceived) leg-up in the world of streaming and the yoof of today. Sting is the angler who buys his wife a fishing rod for Christmas, and expects her to be thrilled. We don’t really get what we want (new songs, or at least interesting rearrangements of old songs) but rather we have to force a smile as he hands over what he actually wants. Thank you for my present Sting, I really hope you enjoy it.

Review from Spill magazine by Taylor Hodgkins

Sting hardly needs an introduction, but if one is necessary, listening to My Songs would serve this purpose as to where the singer-songwriter and former frontman of The Police is at this point of his career.  For anyone even remotely familiar with Sting’s work, My Songs will make the listener think, “Yeah, these are his songs, alright.”

Sting seems to be out to prove he has control of his career and the ability to secure any point of relevancy in the year of our Sting, 2019. The reworked version of “If You Love Somebody Set Them Free” exhibits this thought pattern. The original version served as an introduction to Sting’s solo career after the breakup of The Police, he wanted you to know he was HERE, and if you loved the “old” Sting, set him FREE! The reworked version seems to say “If you loved anything about Sting’s sound, set it free, too. The idea of a club-friendly Sting sounded odd back in 1985, and the thought is difficult to digest now.

The idea of Sting’s reworkings being difficult to digest continues throughout the record. The versions of beloved cuts by The Police are slightly better; “Walking On The Moon” makes an attempt, albeit a slight one, to acknowledge the influence of Stewart Copeland’s drumming. “Every Breath You Take”, however, is a parody of its original cheeseball nature; your friend’s wedding band did a better job!

Overall, if you love your back catalogue, please set it free!