More improbably, Sting made himself culturally hip on a level that didn’t seem likely to happen ever again. Improbably, Sting took Algerian disco into the mainstream, if only for a brief second.
It’s catchy in the way that all great pop music should be, and the flourishes of North African pop that permeate it rise above mere cultural appropriation. The song is killer hook after killer hook: each verse and chorus is an earworm that burrows its way in and takes up permanent residence in your brain. The strength of “Desert Rose” lies beyond the curiosity of Cheb Mami’s contributions. Yet it became a cultural phenomenon and made Sting into a suave car spokesperson. A collaboration with Algerian singer Cheb Mami, the song is not all that different from most of Sting’s solo work.
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Of course, Sting’s solo career has never been easy to track, and “Desert Rose” is yet another curve ball in a career full of them. The man slid quite comfortably into the adult contemporary mold and seemed happy to do so. – Kevin Korberīy the late ‘90s, Sting’s allure as a pop star had waned. At his best, Sting writes pop music that cuts deep into the listener, and nowhere is that more true than here. This is perfectly structured, fine-tuned pop right down to the key change before the final verse. But with the subject matter he was struggling with, it’s fitting that Sting returned to a comfort zone he had long forgotten.
At the time, it was surprising: post-Police Sting had largely treated pop as a waste of time. By this point in his career, Sting had dabbled in everything from jazz to world music, but this is pure, unadulterated pop. The Soul Cages fares slightly better in terms of songwriting, with what is arguably one of Sting’s most buoyant singles in “All This Time.” While its exuberance is largely a mask for darker lyrical undertones–a trick he’s used since his Police days-this is a brilliant breath of fresh air. This is fairly understandable given that his early solo albums are responses to the death of his parents. Levity was not exactly Sting’s strong suit at the beginning of his solo career. Though it’s true Gordon Sumner will likely be remembered more for his work with the Police than his solo material, there are more than enough classic songs in his discography that make the set worth a purchase for fans. Though he recently dropped a new studio album, nearly all of Sting’s best songs come from his first four solo LPs ( The Dream of the Blue Turtles, …Nothing Like the Sun, The Soul Cages and Ten Summoner’s Tales). With the release of The Studio Collection, Sting is the latest artist to receive the career-spanning boxset treatment.
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