#18: "The Dream of the Blue Turtles" by Sting

#18—Jazzy!

Best song: Fortress Around Your Heart
Notable Tracks: If You Love Somebody Set Them Free, Love is the Seventh Wave, Russians, We Work the Black Seam, Moon Over Bourbon Street
Released: 1985
Chart Peak: #2 (Billboard 200 U.S.)
Popularity: Triple Platinum

God, how I hated every song on this album the first time I heard it, especially the first single released, "If You Love Somebody Set Them Free." Sting had just reached the pinnacle of his popularity as the frontman of The Police, a British ska-punk band that had, with a lot of help from MTV (are you sensing a trend here?), reached superstar status with their biggest selling album, Synchronicity.

I loved Synchronicity and had probably listened to it hundreds of times before I was shocked by the news that The Police were breaking up. As it turns out, they pretty much all hated each other by the time they finally called it quits (this is merely hearsay; they did reunite for one more tour in 2007 and seemed to get along fine), and they all went their separate ways.

What I expected from Sting was more of what had made The Police one of the biggest bands in the world. What we all got was a lot of jazz—experimental, weird sounding crap. So why is this #18 in my countdown? Because once I got over the shock of Sting not being The Police, I listened to what he had created, and I realized that it was positively a work of genius.

I've never really been a fan of jazz music; I've always felt kind of guilty about that, like I should have a greater affinity for jazz because of its musical complexity, but in reality, I've always felt like Jimmy Rabbitte in the great movie The Commitments: "Jazz is musical wanking." In spite of that, Sting's compositions grew on me, as did the artistry of the musicians he assembled to work with him, most notably saxophonist Brandford Marsalis, drummer Omar Hakim, and keyboardist Kenny Kirkland.

Then, at the end of the album, the last track of side two (remember flipping that album over?), is one of my favorite songs of all time. If for nothing else, this song would have made the album worth the having.