The Soul Cages (1991)
What an intensely personal record The Soul Cages is. After the passing of his parents, Sting opens up and pours out all of his thoughts and feelings into The Soul Cages, which almost plays out like you are reading from his diary. It is a therapeutic work of art that helped guide Sting through his grief and come to terms with the experience of life. What The Soul Cages does flawlessly is create a record that seamlessly folds together without a misstep. Everything on the record has a purpose and everything tells a cohesive story both narratively and musically. Not every song is a winner, but not every song is meant to be. Again, this record plays like a grieving man’s diary and that context is wildly important when taking each song into consideration.
Sting creates a dreamy, warm and somber-like atmosphere throughout The Soul Cages. No matter the tempo, no matter the energy, no matter the instrumentation, it is there. The poppier singles of the album like All This Time and Mad About You, handle the balance of this established atmosphere with great hooks and melodies. The hammond organs, the sharp and purposeful guitars, the accented world percussions are all used to create this rich sound. The best word to describe everything on this album. Rich. You know it when you hear it.
Jeremiah Blues (Part 1) is a great soulful blues song with this shuffling rhythmic groove backing it. It is a killer song with a killer guitar and saxophone line. Similar to the straight up rocker that is the self titled track, The Soul Cages. The guitar and hammond organs are power houses together and are greatly complimentary of one another.
The two instrumentals on the album are some of Sting’s finest musical compositions. Saint Agnes and the Burning Train and I Miss You Kate are utterly gorgeous. The former being a Spanish guitar styled number that plays with a purpose. Every guitar note is full bodied, rich and filled with emotion. The latter, a somber piano focused instrumental that is gorgeous in any setting. The subtle jazzy bass and the string accompaniment make you want to have a candle lit dinner in New York City.
We cannot forget to discuss the Bonus Tracks on the Deluxe Edition. A cover of Elton John’s Come Down In Time is one of the highlights of the entire record. Maybe even Sting’s entire catalog. A rendition of one of Elton’s greatest ever songs and Sting does it so well that it deserves a tip of the hat from Sir Elton himself. The same can be said for Sting’s live cover of Tempted. Squeeze released one of the greatest songs of the 80s and arguably one of the greatest songs of all time, and Sting put his stamp on it. In classic Sting fashion, he added jazz, saxophone and soaring backup vocals that created a wildly fun cover.
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Highlight Songs:
All This Time
Mad About You
Come Down In Time (Cover)
Tempted (Live | Cover)
Jeremiah Blues Part 1
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Own it, Stream it, Forget about it?
The Soul Cages is worth owning. Some of the alternate lyric bonus tracks are fun to listen to, but Sting’s third outing is probably the weakest of his first three records. It is by no means a poor album and it is worth checking out and giving a lot of love to.
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Overall Rating:
4 Stars
