Albums2010 Revisited: The Dream of The Blue Turtles

I accidentally stumbled onto this album again, and honestly, this wasn't even on my radar. I think a few TikToks of Sting's awesomely 90s music video for 'If You Love Somebody Set Them Free' floated by me, and then I just kept tugging on the thread again and again, and soon I was sitting down to listen to this entire album.

Seriously: look at this music video and tell me it's not awesome:

The strange part is that when I went back to the Archives, I found that this one didn't even make the original run of Albums2010, which is bizarre. This was one of the albums I clearly remember listening to growing up-- back when my parents had the full late 80s stereo setup in the living room of our house. (Everyone my age probably has some version of this in their memories: it occupied a full cabinet, had CD, tape, record, surround sound, and those sound bars that moved in time to the music?) This was one of those albums-- (along with his third studio album, Nothing Like The Sun) that was in the musical rotation of my childhood.

And you know something? This thing holds up. 

In general, if I get through an album with no skips, I consider that to be a good album. Here, you've got let's say nine tracks-- the tenth is the title track that's instrumental and only 1:18 in length. ('The Dream of the Blue Turtles.') So out of the nine solid tracks on this album, you've got 'If You Love Somebody Set Them Free', 'Love In The Seventh Wave', and 'Fortress Around Your Heart' that are just standout tracks right there. But wait, there's more: 'Russians' seems a little dated, given the post-Cold War period we're in, but for 1985, it's really a solid reminder of the rising tensions between the Soviet Union and America at this point in time. 'We Work The Black Seam' is about the UK Miners' Strike of 1984-1985- another timely track for this album, but still works, I think. 

Surprisingly, 'Moon Over Bourbon Street' was inspired by the Anne Rice novel, 'Interview With A Vampire.' I have mixed feelings about learning that-- on the one hand, I think it fits the setting. I could see a chipper vampire making his way down Bourbon Street at night, enjoying the night, but it doesn't strike me as a good fit for what is generally seen as a Gothic horror novel.

So you wind up with three stand-out tracks, three more solid tracks, and none of it is bad. But six out of nine tracks, to me, make this album genuinely good. The three standout tracks, I think, elevate it still further into 'this still holds up' territory. And honestly, we generally think of Sting now as a solid, successful musician, but this is Sting making his solo debut. I'm sure there was an element of uncertainty about it at all, but for a debut album, even for a known quantity artist- as he would be back then-- this is incredibly good.