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If On a Winter's Night

Sting

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iTunes Review

Most performers looking to join in the seasonal music market sing well known Christmas Carols and familiar wintertime fare. Fittingly, Sting does not bow down at the sight of Santa Claus and wish everyone a holly, jolly Christmas, but rather finds solace in a more solemn approach. Sting’s traditionals are not the usual. Coupled with classical producer Robert Sadin, Sting puts his own serious delivery to the haunting crawl of “Gabriel’s Message”, the sonorous snowcaps of the Newcastle, England traditional “The Snow It Melts the Soonest” and the smoothly but sparsely rhythmic 15th Century Marian hymn “There Is No Rose of Such Virtue”. For Robert Louis Stevenson’s “Christmas At Sea,” Sting adapts a darker, deeper throaty delivery. This is many miles north of anything he performed with the Police. Sting wrote three songs for the occasion: the surprisingly pop-like “The Hounds of Winter” and co-writes on “Lullaby for an Anxious Child” with Dominic Miller and the album’s closer, “You Only Cross My Mind In Winter” with music by J.S. Bach. Not your traditional album of egg-nogged cheer, but a thoughtful, well executed piece of seasonal music.

Customer Reviews

pale ale wind

with his fruity beard and his passion for writing & singing cobblers Sting bursts forth in this gaseous eruption of sheer cynical twaddle. Already winging its way into the tragic chrimbo stockings of mums who have dreams of a purple turtle's head or whatever that album was.. what more couldn't you want. coldplay fans take note - chris martin will release a similar album to this in approximately 20/25 years time.

A winter fable from the man with heart and soul of a poet and the voice of an angel

In this album, Sting has successfully captured the magic, the mystique and the mystery which epitomises the season of winter. As soon as the first track, I was transported back to those Dusky Deecember evenings from my childhood. I would have come home from school the smell of my mothers hot pot or casserole filling the house and Gabriels message delicately clinging to the airwaves. If you have similar memories then this alone is the reason to by this album. From there Sting reminds us on songs like Soul cake that actually winter is a season of two halves of society. The haves and the have nots. The burning babe is surely going to be another popular track from this colletion but I would urge anyone who is conemplating buying only certain tracks to seriously consider the beautifull coventry carol and my own personal favorite the cherry tree carol.

Musicially this is another masterclass from Sting. He is more than a simple musician although modest enough to refuse such accoldes, he is a scolar of art, histor and music throughout the ages and taking into account his foray into the music of John Dowland back in 2006 this is natural progression albeit with what I feel will be a broader appeal. Stings perfectionist signature is as present as ever here hitting evey note. This for me is an album to listen to when you have just been paid, you are off work you have done your shopping and outside it's freezing. Swich on your Ipod docking station and fill your room with the songs on this record. After all this is our musical heratige.

Thoughtful & beautifully judged winter album...

Weaving through all the songs on Sting's latest album "If On A Winter's Night..." are the themes of winter, ghosts and spirits and the pull of home back to loved and missed ones. The musicians and singers compliment the songs impeccably, for example the Northumbrian pipes of Kathryn Tickell are evocative of the northeast of England and are an instant reminder to older fans of Sting's classic 1991 album "The Soul Cages", and album that drew heavily on his roots. Stand out tracks include "Christmas at Sea", a poem written by Robert Louis Stevenson that is combined with the Gaelic song "Thograinn Thograinn" and provides one of the finest songs that Sting has recorded. "Soul Cake" is a very catchy song that is guaranteed to etch its way into your subconscious after the first listen and is the most immediate track on the album; "The Snow It Melts The Soonest" is a haunting Northumbrian track; "The Burning Babe" contrasts a macabre tale with a jolly tune to great effect, and Sting combines his own lyrics to a piece of Bach on the melancholic "You Only Cross My Mind In Winter". Taken with traditional Christmas songs such as "Gabriel's Message" and a bluesy take on the "Cherry Tree Carol", some reworkings of older songs such as "The Hounds Of Winter" and "Lullaby To An Anxious Child", and more obscure pieces from centuries past such as "Lo How A Rose E'er Blooming" and "Now Winter Comes Slowly" means that Sting delivers a thoughtful, interesting and beautifully judged seasonally themese album without once having to mention reindeer, snowmen or Santa Claus.

Biography

Born: 02 October 1951 in Wallsend, England

Genre: Rock

Years Active: '70s, '80s, '90s, '00s, '10s

After disbanding the Police at the peak of their popularity in 1984, Sting quickly established himself as a viable solo artist, one obsessed with expanding the boundaries of pop music. Sting incorporated heavy elements of jazz, classical, and worldbeat into his music, writing lyrics that were literate and self-consciously meaningful, and he was never afraid to emphasize this fact in the press. For such unabashed ambition, he was equally loved and reviled, with supporters believing that he was at...
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