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Music Review: Sting – Mercury Falling
Written by Andy Patterson
Taking a look back at some classic albums, today I am going to give my thoughts on Sting’s ‘Mercury Falling’ album. Released in 1996, this album filled the gap between ‘Ten Summoner’s Tales’ and ‘Brand Mew Day’.
The album opens with the ‘The Hounds of Winter’ – the first line of which being ‘Mercury Falling’ (more on this later). The track, later to be re-styled on 2009’s ‘If on a Winter’s Night’ is a good solid opener, showing off the talents of the band of musicians Sting assembled for the record. There’s a good dynamic to the song, it beginning brightly and dipping for the middle section and rising again for the solo section. An evocative arrangement compliments the lyric well.
‘I Hung My Head’ follows, telling the story of an ‘accidental’ killing, and the consequences. This song is in 9/8, and the signature adds a little to the uneasiness of the subject matter. The arrangement is pretty laid back with minimal percussion, guitar, bass (and is that dulcimer?) accompanying Sting’s vocal. The full band kicks in later on though and to good effect, and is brought down again for the ending, with a ramp up to the last chorus. The song was covered by Johnny Cash as part of his last series of ‘American Recordings’ – Cash giving it more of a solemnity which befits the lyric.
Gospel inspired ‘Let Your Soul Be Your Pilot’ follows this, with regular guitar stabs punctuating the smooth arrangement. The East London Gospel Choir provide vocals, and Bradford Marsalis adds saxophone a plenty, winding his way around the vocal line. This track hasn’t aged well for me, and despite its sentiment, has never really resonated with me. That’s why music is so effective though-different things prove to be different to different ears..
Moving on, a folky madrigal-style entry greets us as the beginning ‘prelude’ to ‘I Was Brought to My Senses’, suggesting that Sting’s later diversions into medieval music wasn’t too unexpected after all.. This intro lasts for around 1.45 before the track begins proper, and the first realisation is that he’s playing with the time signature again – this time experimenting with 7/4 (counting in clear 4s and 3s). There’s some interesting percussion and the overall feel and a heavy chorus is contrasted with a nice light verse.
‘You Still Touch Me‘ begins with a ‘Soul Man’ style guitar phrase, which leads into a brass lick and into the song proper. Its a solid number, again making use of the band. At this point we are almost halfway through the album, and this is the shortest track on the album thus far. Some interesting bits of slide guitar draw the ear into the song. Mainly though its as listenable as the rest of the album, without excelling.
We head into the world of country music slightly, with the beat and the pedal steel of ‘I’m Happy I Can’t Stop Crying’ where Sting gives the first person perspective of a father for whom a relationship with the mother of his children has broken down. I think this kind of ‘story-song’ is what Sting does best. The best songs on the album are of this type, and indeed across his career this is the case for me. There’s a few interesting shifts of feel with key changes, which combined with the story aspect and a great last verse makes this one of the stand out tracks on the album for me.
‘All Four Seasons‘ is a concept that has been explored by many a song writer, and this is his take on it. This has a laid back feel to it, again the quality of the musicianship being clear from the outset. There is some great hammond playing on this one, which almost takes a ‘duetting’ role with the vocal. Some nice breaks and kicks help to carry the song to the outro.
The next track (which wasn’t included on some releases) begins with the driving rhythm, and in-comprehensible time signature, which is difficult to gauge due to the different dropping points of the snare, which seems to shift from bar to bar! ‘Twenty Five to Midnight’ is a good old fashioned ‘train-song’ and indeed Vinnie Colaiuta brings in a ‘shuffling’ snare over the end chorus, which emphasises this to great effect. The middle 8 – ‘Latino Lovers’ section is also well worth a listen. Again the story aspect of the song really pays off – Sting excelling in this role.
‘Le Belle Dame Sans Regrets’ makes use of some interesting percussion right from the outset, and reminds me of one of the comedy voices that comes included with cheap keyboards, but I believe its actually an Agogo. The lyric is sung in French, and the styling of the piano solo harks back to an gives credence to Sting’s well known love of Jazz (piano played by: Kenny Kirkland I believe) – the harmony of the whole song also suggesting this jazzy direction. There’s some good guitar added by Dominic Miller throughout.
The evocative Northumbrian Pipes and fiddle combo (played by Kathryn Tickell) opens ‘Valparaiso’. Again the time signature is not immediately apparent. The song remains intimate until the chorus section at which point the drums kick in, with a huge snare, which spoils it a little for me. If ’25 to Midnight’ is a train song, this is definitely a ‘Sailing song’- the carefully undulating timing suggesting the rolling waves.
Lithium Sunset takes us to the close, and at 2 minutes 37 it is the shortest cut on the album. Some of the harmonies in this one are very reminiscent of Lindisfarne at their creative peak in the 70s. The song finishes with the line ‘see Mercury Falling’ which acts as a nice bookend for the album. The song does kind of feel unfinished though – him repeating the words multiple times, as if to hammer the point home.
As much as I enjoy this album, its not really a passion I have for it, more of an admiration. The use of the sounds and the writing in places I love, but not necessarily the execution. I find, at times, Sting fails to deliver any meaning to his lyrics, which some would take as a feature not a fault, but not for me. Don’t get me wrong, I refer back to this album a lot for various reasons of reference as a songwriter, producer and engineer, but not as a listener.