Brand New Day by Sting

I have not been a constant observer or fan of Sting throughout his career other than to enjoy his hits on the radio over the years, usually with the Police. But Brand New Day is the best whole album I've bought in some time, at least this last year.

Before I bought this, my favorite for a while was the new Macy Gray. Macy's album is great, but I have heard nothing more diverse and musically rich as Sting's new album in far too long.

Brand New Day is the creation of a mature musician, an accomplished musician who is experimenting as though he is just beginning anew. He's playing styles on this album I've never heard him try before and while he cuts some new ground for himself, he always brings his experiments home to his known style in some manner. It is as though he is trying to prove something in Brand New Day, maybe just to himself. But the album proves to me that Sting is a master of the art of music.

My first listen didn't impress me greatly. I was interrupted several times throughout its listening, and just didn't get to take it in very well. But upon further listening, there was no way I could miss the brilliant song structure, the balance of instrumentation, and the bending of styles.

My favorite song on the album and one that illustrates the style workings the most obviously is "Fill Her Up", a song that starts out sounding like a country song but progresses into a lesson on the origins of country music.

And lyrically, if he hadn't done it before this album, Brand New Day proves Sting as a poet. He sings songs about love and love lost with equal colorfulness. And writes from other people's perspectives as convincingly as though he'd lived their lives before his own.

Not every song from this album will be heard on the radio, but from the current state of that business I think that might be a plus.

If you were standing at the music store looking at two CDs wondering which to buy, you might consider which movie you would choose to see between a blockbuster and an independent art film. Brand New Day is that art film, but it succeeds like a blockbuster.