Sting crosses genres with new album, Duets.
With his fifteenth solo album, Duets is a fluid journey between other collaborators with touches of inspiration from a plethora of genres, all while boasting that finesse and swagger that’s immortalized in his past work.
The collection opens up with a strong three-punch of songs with Melody Gardot, Eric Clapton, and Mylène Farmer. The opener, “Little Something,” with Gardot sets the tone for the project with a quarantine-recorded song that’s fun and beaming. Its bright and uplifting sound is something that is mirrored with the chemistry boasted by the two artists.
As the album continues on, Sting moves to sample some of his own work on the fifth track with Craig David. It samples his own fingerpicking from 1993’s “Shape Of My Heart”. Repurposing older works and reliving older songs via covers are what make Duets an album that will speak to fans of Sting’s earliest solo work and fans of The Police. Its merits lay in how these songs are able to explore the collaborative efforts between all sorts of artists from different generations and backgrounds. This idea is echoed on “Desert Rose” with Cheb Mami or “Fragile” with Julio Iglesias.
These tracks shine alongside “Don’t Make Me Wait,” a song from his 2018 joint album with Shaggy, 44/876, a record which revitalized both artists’ sales.
The songs on Duets cannot easily be categorized as belonging wholly to Sting. Each takes on a life of its own, and infuses the character of its guest performer. This emphasis on channeling charismatic and lionized performers of the past half-century brings real joy to the proceedings. Highlight “None Of Us Are Free” , made famous by the great Solomon Burke, boasts a powerful vocal from the legendary Sam Moore of Sam & Dave fame. The weary but determined blues vibe of the song also provides a reprieve from the collection’s tendency toward driving, modern beats.
In the end, Duets portrays Sting as a conduit for passionate performances. On many of the songs, his contribution is quite understated, serving to push the featured artist forward. Yet the fact that each song is of such polished and refined quality speaks to Sting’s talent for engineering holistic, arty pop songs. Though he sacrifices some amount of the spotlight, the songs, the artists and listeners all benefit.
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