Name: The Last Ship
Brand: INTERSCOPE
SKU: 46454610
Price: 27.33 GBP
Availability: InStock

The Last Ship

By Sting

Rating

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Format

Vinyl (1 Disc)

Release Date

24 September 2013

Our Price

£27.33

Ships from UK Estimated delivery date: 1st Apr - 3rd Apr from UK

The Last Ship" is inspired by Sting’s forthcoming play of the same name and explores the central themes of homecoming and self-discovery, drawing upon his memories of growing up in the shadow of the Swan Hunters Shipyard in Wallsend. His personal reminiscences illuminate universal truths – the complexity of relationships, the passage of time and the importance of family and community – to form an affecting, complex parable for our modern times.

The play, in which Sting has been creatively immersed for nearly three years, debuts on Broadway in 2014 and is a collaboration with Tony Award winners Joe Mantello (director; Wicked, Other Desert Cities), John Logan (writer; Red, Skyfall) and Brian Yorkey (writer; Next to Normal). The Last Ship tells the story of the demise of the shipbuilding industry in 1980s Newcastle which had, for so long, shaped and overshadowed the city, its development, and its community.

The Last Ship album is produced by Rob Mathes (Sting, Eric Clapton, Elton John, Lou Reed, Carly Simon) and engineered and mixed by Donal Hodgson.

Album: The Last Ship
#	Song Title		Time
1)	The Last Ship	More Info...	0:04
2)	Dead Man's Boots	More Info...	0:03
3)	And Yet	More Info...	0:04
4)	August Winds	More Info...	0:03
5)	Language of Birds	More Info...	0:03
6)	Practical Arrangement	More Info...	0:03
7)	The Night the Pugilist Learned How to Dance	More Info...	0:04
8)	Ballad of the Great Eastern	More Info...	0:05
9)	What Have We Got? (Feat. Jimmy Nail)	More Info...	0:03
10)	I Love Her But She Loves Someone Else	More Info...	0:03
11)	So to Speak (Feat. Becky Unthank)	More Info...	0:04
12)	The Last Ship (Reprise)	More Info...	0:03

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Album: The Last Ship
#	Song Title		Time
1)	The Last Ship	More Info...	0:04
2)	Dead Man's Boots	More Info...	0:03
3)	And Yet	More Info...	0:04
4)	August Winds	More Info...	0:03
5)	Language of Birds	More Info...	0:03
6)	Practical Arrangement	More Info...	0:03
7)	The Night the Pugilist Learned How to Dance	More Info...	0:04
8)	Ballad of the Great Eastern	More Info...	0:05
9)	What Have We Got? (Feat. Jimmy Nail)	More Info...	0:03
10)	I Love Her But She Loves Someone Else	More Info...	0:03
11)	So to Speak (Feat. Becky Unthank)	More Info...	0:04
12)	The Last Ship (Reprise)	More Info...	0:03

Product Description

EAN

0602537448128

Writer

Sting

Country

USA

Studio/Live

Studio

Label

INTERSCOPE

Dimensions

31.5 x 0.8 x 31 centimeters (0.34 kg)

Performer Notes

It's an open secret that Sting's interest in songwriting waned after 2003's Sacred Love, an undistinguished collection of mature pop that passed with barely a ripple despite winning a Grammy for its Mary J. Blige duet "Whenever I Say Your Name." Sting spent the next decade wandering -- writing classical albums for lute, recording the frostiest Christmas album in memory, rearranging his old hits for symphony, then finally, inevitably, reuniting the Police -- before finding inspiration within the confines of a musical. The Last Ship tells the tale of a British shipyard in the '80s, one laid low by changing times, so there's naturally an elegiac undertow to Sting's originals, a sensibility underscored by his decision to ground nearly all these songs in the folk of the British Isles. Dockworkers in the '80s may not have been singing folk songs, but the genre is elastic, allowing for single-spotlight soliloquies along with rousing all-cast showcases, like the boisterous "What Have We Got?" Also, by having the bones of his songs belong to folk, Sting can put together a credible album of his own, as the songs from The Last Ship feel intimate in a way he's rarely attempted in his career. He brings in a few guests -- Jimmy Nail and Becky Unthank show up on the standard edition, AC/DC's Brian Johnson, a rock & roll dockworker if there ever was one, shows up on the deluxe -- but the focus is entirely on the songwriter. Occasionally, Sting's desire to inhabit roles within the musical is a little too strong -- not long into the album he adopts either a Scottish or Irish brogue, elsewhere he affects a workingman's vernacular, all the while sounding like nobody else but the posh Gordon Sumner -- but his songs are precise and cannily crafted, bearing the work of a songwriter who is intent on sculpting every line and every melodic progression. Unlike Sacred Love, The Last Ship isn't listless; even when the album is quiet -- which it often is -- Sting is engaged, relishing the different characters that inhabit his musical and seizing the challenge of writing in the longform. It's easy to sling arrows at The Last Ship -- there is a whiff of condescension to some of the blue-collar anthems, the air is often haughty ("The Night the Pugilist Learned How to Dance") -- but this is Sting's tightest collection of songs in ages, and they all play off each other, adding up to a cohesive whole that is surely one of his best latter-day records. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Professional Reviews

Rolling Stone (p.82) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "The ballad 'I Love Her but She Loves Someone Else' evokes the erotic despair that he has always found seductive...the arrangements are spare and haunting."