Sting – The Dream Of The Blue Turtles

This is a great album and it's going to be 40 next year! Sting's first solo outing with a band of virtuoso jazzers no less which included Kenny Kirkland on keyboards [from the Wynton Marsalis band], Daryl Jones on bass, Branford Marsalis on saxophones and Omar Hakim on drums. The themes are as diverse as the scope of the music which delve into the human condition, lost love and regret, romance, obsession, nuclear war, self analysis, the environment and vampires. Gloomy and very serious stuff at the height of Reagan's America, Thatcher's Britain and the underlying threat of The Russians.
1985 was the year of Live Aid, Miami Vice, and BMX while Concorde crossed the Atlantic faster than a bullet and the Space Shuttle occasionally orbited the earth. With satellite TV and CD it felt like the future but now it's a distant memory. Not all mid 80s albums by major stars have aged well but The Dream Of The Blue Turtles has aged well simply because there's an actual band playing the bulk of the music with occasional Synchlavier sequencing, a high end sampler workstation that only rich musicians could afford to buy and tinker around with. In fact Frank Zappa liked it so much he recorded a whole album with it! But all tech aside, Gordon Sumner, Sting to you and me, was a human hit machine and from the formation of his old band The Police in 1977, everything he touched turned to gold for a decade or more.
There was even a big budget MGM production made for cinemas, which tells the tale in documentary style about the start of the "turtles" band. Sting and co. are quizzed by the press in the Eiffel Tower no less, and then we get to see rehearsals in a grand French mansion in the country as a fly on the wall, before the band finally hit the road and play live. This is intercut with Sting being interviewed at home in England presumably, there's concert footage, and between dates he even stands in as a midwife to help his wife Trudie deliver their new baby at a local hospital! All very gripping stuff indeed.
The Dream Of The Blue Turtles is still dour, fearful, forbidding and super sensitive but then again because it was Sting, we wouldn't want it any other way! Oh and lastly, where did the title come from you may ask? He actually had a dream about big blue turtles!

I used to listen to this as a kid, and 35 years later this has aged pretty well. The '80s synthesizers are a bit rough on the ear but the charm keeps operating. A very heartwarming album.

The Master Album of an Undercover "Police"-man

The off-duty "Police"-man never went home to rest after his last shift, and you'll thank him after listening to what he was doing after-hours.

When Sting left the Police after their already highly successful magnum opus, "Synchronicity", it was clear that the Police were unrivaled in claiming the peak of the new wave rock mountain. That energy and creative spark that burned in Sting's musical engine when he was merely switching musical mountains powered the very timeless debut solo album that is "The Dream of the Blue Turtles".

The album eludes any super mainstream genre, which is always a risky move for an already established artist coming from another genre, but don't fret: Sting's gall and guile paved the way to a timeless album. If you loved the fashion in which he always cleverly disguised hit songs with underlying notions of his intellectual genius, "Blue Turtles" will be no exception to your collection. Whether it's the energy-filled intro to the album, the slower songs in the middle, or the magnificent ending track, the whole album can be easy to listen to for someone looking for a great listen to someone searching for meaning in every verse.

This isn't a terrible pun regarding Sting's past as a school teacher, but when it came to artists to choose from to construct "Blue Turtles", Sting really did his homework (that was still a bad pun, huh?). Branford Marsalis is the most recognizable name to many, with many successful studio musicians like Omar Hakim, Darryl Jones, and Kenny Kirkland. Dollette McDonald (who is one of the backup vocalists for the Synchronicity World Tour in the early 80's) and Janice Pendarvis provide a perfect harmony with Sting's distinguishable voice.

I give this album five stars for its magnificent theme and mix of genres, musicians, lyrics, and overall flow of an album. If you love the Police, this will be the perfect intro album to whet your appetite for more of Sting's solo work.

Yes agree with the earlier review of the album - just played it through on original cd release and found it lively, exciting, vital and strong songwriting and performances. Pretty impressive 30 years on.