Sacred Love (Remastered) Sting

• 1Inside (Album Version)04:46
• 2Send Your Love (Album Version)04:38
• 3Whenever I Say Your Name05:25
• 4Dead Man's Rope (Album Version)05:43
• 5Never Coming Home (Album Version)04:58
• 6Stolen Car (Take Me Dancing)03:56
• 7Forget About The Future (Album Version)05:12
• 8This War (Album Version)05:29
• 9The Book Of My Life (Album Version)06:15
• 10Sacred Love (Album Version)05:56
• 11Send Your Love (Dave Aude Remix Edit)03:16
• Total Runtime55:34

Info for Sacred Love (Remastered)

Sacred Love is the seventh studio album by Sting. Sacred Love arrives over four years on from Brand New Day and demonstrates that Sting--an artist often criticised for serving up slick yet soulless coffee-table precision--is now positively galvanised by soul. Symptomatic of an uncharacteristically intimate co-production job (courtesy of the man himself and Kipper), there's a degree of inclusive warmth here that's occasionally been lacking in his post-Police work. From the busy, insistent verbosity of spiralling opener "Inside", through "Whenever I Say Your Name"--a gospel-tinged, call-and-response collaboration with class-drenched Mary J Blige--and on to the sweeping Iberian soundscapes of "Send Your Love", Sacred Love compounds Sting's reputation as an authoritative singer-songwriter of incredibly broad stylistic scope.

"Sting scored a moderate comeback success greater than most had imagined possible with 1999's Brand New Day, reestablishing himself as a viable commercial artist instead of merely settling for "living legend" status. Part of this success was due to "Desert Rose," featuring vocalist Farhat Bouallagui's careening cadences that garnered attention, particularly when they were showcased in a car commercial that kicked the album into high commercial gear. Sting picks up on this, adding three guest vocalists to the ten-track Sacred Love album (the 11th track is a remix of the lead single, "Send Your Love" -- which happens to be better, since it eliminates the rather annoying Indian-styled hook) -- Vicente Amigo and Anoushka Shankar are paired with Mary J. Blige, who in this context is presented as a world music artist. None of the guests makes much of an impression here, but neither does Sting, since this is an album that puts sound over song or performance. Sacred Love is to Brand New Day what Mercury Falling was to Ten Summoner's Tales -- a fussy, overworked stab at maturity, one that has impeccable craft but is obscured by its own meticulousness. It is professional to a fault, using its maturity and preciseness to obscure the fact that the songs don't really work. Sting isn't always hemmed-in, even ending "Inside" with a hysterical rant that makes him seem like a madman, but it has the effect of making the rest of the album seeming too deliberate and far from adventurous. It's far from a bad listen, nor is it embarrassing, but it's entirely too predictable, coming across as nothing more than well-tailored, expensive mood music, which is certainly far less than what Sacred Love could have been." (Stephen Thomas Erlewine, AMG)

Sting, vocals, bass guitar, keyboards
Kipper, keyboards, programming
Dominic Miller, guitars
Jason Rebello, piano, Fender Rhodes piano
Manu Katché, drums
Vinnie Colaiuta, drums
Mary J. Blige, lead vocals on "Whenever I Say Your Name"
Vicente Amigo, flamenco guitar on "Send Your Love"
Anoushka Shankar, sitar on "The Book of My Life"
Rhani Krija, percussion
Jeff Young, Hammond organ
Chris Botti, trumpet
Clark Gayton, trombone
Christian McBride, double bass
David Hartley, piano and choir arrangements
Joy Rose, featured and backing vocals
Donna Gardier, backing vocals
Katreese Barnes, backing vocals
Ada Dyer, backing vocals
Aref Durvesh, tabla
Jacqueline Thomas, cello
Levon Minassian, duduk
Valerie Denys, castanets
Bahija Rhapl, ethnic vocals
Choeur de Radio France
Philip White, chorus master

Digitally remastered

Please Note: We offer this album in its native sampling rate of 48 kHz, 24-bit. The provided 96 kHz version was up-sampled and offers no audible value!

Sting
Born 2 October 1951, in Wallsend, north-east England, Gordon Sumner's life started to change the evening a fellow musician in the Phoenix Jazzmen caught sight of his black and yellow striped sweater and decided to re-christen him Sting. Sting paid his early dues playing bass with local outfits The Newcastle Big Band, The Phoenix Jazzmen, Earthrise and Last Exit, the latter of which featured his first efforts at song writing. Last Exit were big in the North East, but their jazz fusion was doomed to fail when punk rock exploded onto the music scene in 1976. Stewart Copeland, drummer with Curved Air, saw Last Exit on a visit to Newcastle and while the music did nothing for him he did recognise the potential and charisma of the bass player. The two hooked up shortly afterwards and within months, Sting had left his teaching job and moved to London.

Seeing punk as flag of convenience, Copeland and Sting - together with Corsican guitarist Henri Padovani - started rehearsing and looking for gigs. Ever the businessman, Copeland took the name The Police figuring it would be good publicity, and the three started gigging round landmark punk venues like The Roxy, Marquee, Vortex and Nashville in London. Replacing Padovani with the virtuoso talents of Andy Summers the band also enrolled Stewart's elder brother Miles as manager, wowing him with a Sting song called 'Roxanne'. Within days Copeland Senior had them a record deal. But the hip London music press saw through The Police's punk camouflage and did little to disguise their contempt, and the band's early releases had no chart success. So The Police did the unthinkable - they went to America.

The early tours are the stuff of legend - bargain flights to the USA courtesy of Freddie Laker's pioneering Skytrain; driving their own van and humping their own equipment from gig to gig; and playing to miniscule audiences at the likes of CBGB's in New York and The Rat Club in Boston. Their tenacity paid off though as they slowly built a loyal following, got some all important air-play, and won over their audiences with a combination of new wave toughness and reggae rhythms.

They certainly made an odd trio: guitarist Summers had a career dating back to the mid-60s, the hyper-kinetic Copeland was a former prog-rocker, and Sting's background was in trad jazz and fusion. The sound the trio made was unique though, and Sting's pin-up looks did them no harm at all. The band returned to the UK to find the reissued 'Roxanne' single charting, and played a sell-out tour of mid-size venues. The momentum had started. The debut album 'Outlandos d'Amour' (Oct 78) delivered three sizeable hits with 'Roxanne', 'Can't Stand Losing You' and 'So Lonely' which in turn led to a headlining slot at the '79 Reading Festival which won the band some fine reviews, but it was with 'Reggatta de Blanc' (Oct 79) that the band stepped up a gear.

Reggatta's first single, 'Message In A Bottle', streaked to number one and the album's success was consolidated further when 'Walking On The Moon' also hit the top slot. The band was big, but about to get even bigger. 1980 saw them undertake a world tour with stops on all continents - including the first rock concerts in Bombay - and the band eventually returned to the UK exhausted, for two final shows in Sting's hometown of Newcastle. Much of this groundbreaking tour was captured on the 'Police Around The World' video and a BBC documentary entitled 'The Police in the East'

Within weeks, the band were in a Dutch studio recording new material but Sting's stock of pre-Police songs and ideas were wearing out. When 'Zenyatta Mondatta' was released (Oct 80) although it sold well and produced another number one single in 'Don't Stand So Close To Me' and a top five hit with 'De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da' a rethink was required. Sting later admitted that he felt 'Zenyatta' was the band's weakest album but by the end of 1980 the band were undoubtedly the biggest-selling band in the country selling out two shows in a huge marquee on Tooting Bec Common in London. For more please visit www.sting.com

This album contains no booklet.