The Dream of the Blue Turtles

iTunes Review

On Dream of the Blue Turtles, Sting’s debut solo release, he sounds determined to distance himself from the legacy of The Police, both by moving beyond the rock trio format and by writing less edgy, more carefully crafted pop tunes. To help articulate his new musical vision, Sting enlisted some of the young jazz lions of the time — Branford Marsalis (soprano and tenor sax), the late Kenny Kirkland (keyboards), and Omar Hakim (drums) — and their jazz sensibilities color everything on the album. Even when just vamping over basic chord progressions, leaving ample room for long lyrical sax lines and thick keyboard fills (as on the smoky “Consider Me Gone”), the approach lends the music a sophistication that highlights some of Sting’s lyrics, particularly those dealing with big themes like nuclear holocaust, drug addicted teens, and the plight of British coal miners. But whatever the subject matter, the music is consistently enjoyable, and the album earned Sting four Top 40 hits, including the smashes “If You Love Somebody Set Them Free” and the Caribbean-inflected “Love is the Seventh Wave,” proving that it’s still a pop album at heart.