Sting, who has had perhaps one of the most challenging, albeit successful, solo careers continues to surprise me good ways. Just last weekend he released a single-LP, live album entitled Sting 3.0 Live, taken from his latest tour (of the same name) and recorded in Los Angeles. The album was originally released as a Record Store curio, but is now out in a broader release. It can be purchased on vinyl and  CD or if you’re more into streaming there is a bonus track, a recording of “Fragile,” on the streaming version. While not his first live album, this might be his most enjoyable one. After all these years of light jazz it suddenly occurred to Sting that maybe if he stripped it all down to just a trio – himself on bass, longtime sidekick Dominic Miller on guitar and drummer Chris Maas –  he could perhaps actually just go out and rock. Well, rock in the way Sting does. Funny it took 40 years for him to figure out he was best off in a trio like say… I don’t know… the Police? Sting foreshadowed the latest tour with a great, rocking single (that also surprised me with it’s ferocity, again in the context of Sting) “I Wrote Your Name (Upon My Heart).” For reasons unclear to me, he did not include a performance of that great song on this live album but it does feature a lovely selection of his greatest hits from both his solo career and the Police’s storied time together. When I saw him live, he hammed it up on the Police songs, but here he plays them like straight up rock n roll songs, thank god!

Ah, the Police… what a great band. They were always popular. Like many groups before them, the breakthrough was really that magical third album, in their case, Zenyatta Mondatta. Each new album had a number of great singles, like they were a British version of the Eagles. Then, like what happened a few years later to Dire Straits when they released Brothers In Arms, the Police released their masterwork Synchronicity in 1983 and they went from a big, popular band to superstars atop the rock n roll world. I know many bands struggle under the pressure to repeat the success of an album like Synchronicity (which saw a huge deluxe edition release last year). Many artists, like Prince or Springsteen, changed their music after that fame was hung around their neck in order to slow the runaway train of expectations (in the case of Prince, Around The World In A Day; Springsteen’s was Tunnel Of Love).

Sting, rather than shake up the Police’s sound – since they were already fighting like cats and dogs – decided to call it quits when he was at the top. The Police symbolically passed the torch to U2 during an encore at some concert in Europe. Only Sting could come up with something that pretentious. The Police officially went on “haitus” but in truth had broken up. His first solo single was “If You Love Somebody (Set Them Free)” which was written as the “anecdote” to “Every Breath You Take” which Sting felt was a venomous song and not a love song as so many mistook it. (I did not mistake the message in the song, but I was going through some things). “If You Love Somebody,” at the time, confounded all of us in the Police camp. We loved the Police and Sting’s first solo album was greatly anticipated especially after Synchronicity… well, it was certainly anticipated by my college girlfriend… she was a huge Sting fan. I took her a poster for her bedroom wall with Sting photographed in black and white and all I can tell you about that is that it was money well spent… ahem. Anyway, when we heard Sting’s first single, there were many of us thinking, “Hey, where’s the faux reggae? Where’s the rock n roll?” It was a crushing disappointment. And to think we thought Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland were holding the guy back? Not so… or that’s how it appeared in 1985.

Not that there weren’t some great songs on Sting’s debut solo album. “Fortress Around Your Heart” (which features on our Playlist: Songs About Hearts), “Russians,” and “Shadows In The Rain” were all great. But that debut album really set the template for the rest of his career. Great songs punctuated by confounding ones. I got on the bandwagon for his second album, …Nothing Like The Sun, because it had a great cover of Hendrix’s “Little Wing” that I strangely heard outside a dry cleaners in Ft. Smith, Arkansas. From there, I kind of jumped on and off the bandwagon through the years. Finally when he released the awful Sacred Love in 2003 I got off the bandwagon permanently… or so I thought.

Of course, after the failure of that album, Sting became a bit of a dabbler. He did an album of songs on the lute. He worked with a symphony. He actually did a great album with Shaggy that my daughter turned me on to… Sting having a good time, who’d have thought? It wasn’t until 2021 that Sting caught my attention again with The Bridge. I think that album ranks amongst his best work. I was taken utterly by surprise by how great that record was. Suddenly, I was interested again. It’s certainly worth checking out. I had given up on Sting until I heard that album. Then he drops the aforementioned “I Wrote Your Name” and I was back on the Sting bandwagon. I wish I’d been able to see him in this stripped down, Police-like trio formation but I don’t think he came to KC. At least we now have this great live album.

The album kicks off with the great Police track, “Message In A Bottle.” Say what you want about the Police’s second album and the sophomore slump, but there were two iconic tracks on that album, “Message In A Bottle” and “Walking On The Moon.” Regatta De Blanc came so quickly on the heels of the debut I thought those tracks were on the debut for a while… My brother had all the Police records, purchased as they came out, so he straightened me out. Anyway, Sting’s voice has a little gravel in it these days but it sounds perfect. It’s great to hear him in a trio again. There are more Police tracks toward the back half of the record. I really like the version of “Driven To Tears” which starts with some crazy guitar. “Synchronicity II” is delightfully ragged and Sting has lost none of his ability to howl at the moon. “Every Breath You Take,” everybody’s favorite stalker song, is epic here. It’s really spectacular all these years later especially live and given room to breath. Towards the end we get a straight up “Roxanne,” Sting usually strips it down to just him and a guitar so it’s nice to hear it played straight up, but it is interrupted for a medley-esque version of “Be Still My Beating Heart” from the aforementioned Sting solo record …Nothing Like The Sun. The two tracks meld well together. He ends the mini-medley by coming back to “Roxanne” so it all comes together.

From Sting’s solo catalog we get a nice version of “Englishman In New York” which is on our Playlist: Songs About New York. It comes complete with the epic drum solo at the end. Then he hits us with two great songs from perhaps his best solo album, Ten Summoners Tales, “Fields Of Gold,” and (who doesn’t love that one?) “Seven Days” a track where he imagines being given an ultimatum from a lover. Both tracks are great in this stripped down format. Dominic really lays down some nice atmopsheric guitar. “All This Time” is really great here. Sting sings with lusty enthusiasm. “Men go crazy in congregations they only get better one by one,” indeed. The streaming version has a lovely rendition of “Fragile” (also from the aforementioned second solo album) with just Sting and an acoustic guitar. The track was recently used in the limited series Adolescence, but done by a choir. A stunning version but then, so is this one.

It’s brief, at just one LP, but it’s the perfect little live album. It rocks, it hits the ballads and boom it’s over. It’s really a nice document from the recent tour for those of us who missed out. Admittedly he could use a little work on his on stage banter… he lauds the audience for being able to clap along in 5/4 time… really? I can only hope that Sting will take this trio into the studio and continue exploring the limits of a three piece band. He seems to rock n roll a little more with these guys and who amongst us doesn’t enjoy Sting with a little more edge to him? Turn it up loud out by the pool this summer and hold your lighter in the air! I’m just delighted live albums are still a thing! But then I love live albums.

Cheers!