Many years ago when I was fabulously poor (I was living downtown, I was urbane, young and almost hip but perpetually in low paying jobs or between the same) I sold off a whole pile of CDs because there was a store a few blocks from where I lived that would buy them for $5 each. Back then $5 was a couple of meals or more if you played your budget just right.
In the following years I have reacquired many of those CDs and there’s only one I can immediately think of that is still missing: Brothers in Arms by Dire Straits, also known as The First CD Everyone Bought. It’s not that I don’t think it’s a fine album, I just never think about it.
It was just by happenstance that I ended up claiming back another lost disc, Sting’s debut solo album The Dream of the Blue Turtles. I came across a reference about a new Sting album coming out and thought it had been quite awhile since his last, looked up his discography on Wikipedia, read notes on his first few albums and remembered that the light and catchy “All This Time” was featured on the otherwise Very Serious The Soul Cages. I mean, just look at the album cover. It’s all art and stuff:
I don’t even know what that’s supposed to be. I’m calling it Picasso’s Tent. Also mysterious is why this album (and only this one among Sting’s) is not available on the Canadian iTunes store.
Anyway, back to how I reacquired The Dream of the Blue Turtles. I watched the video for “All This Time” which is perhaps uncharacteristically silly for Sting then noticed a link to “Fortress Around Your Heart” from Turtles. I started watching that, instantly remembered how much I lurved the song, went to Itunes, saw it was under $10–impulse buy territory– and bang, re-bought the album.
Having given it a few listens for the first time in many years the album is not quite as jazzy as I’d remembered, though there are a number of jazz-influenced songs. At the time of its release (1985) jazz was strange and alien to me, so that was probably a good thing. As it is now, I find it adds texture to what is otherwise a very finely crafted pop album and the next logical step in Sting’s maturity as a songwriter. The lyrics are more sophisticated than The Police’s last album Synchronicity and the appeals delivered and causes raised have a more personal tone to them. It’s a good album and I’m glad I have it again.
I’m still not sure I want to re-commit to buying Prism’s Armageddon again, though.
