Songs from the Labyrinth

Artist: Sting

(Deutsche Grammophon/Universal)

Reviewer: CHUA CHERN TOONG

So, it has come to this. Having released possibly the worst collection of his entire nearly-30-year career (2003’s execrable Sacred Love), the once mighty rock icon has resorted to doing an album of Elizabethan-era Renaissance music in a blatantly obvious, probable effort to shore up whatever’s left of his credibility after the previous unmitigated disaster (Sacred Love was both a critical and commercial failure). The question is: how good, or bad, is this endeavour?

Surprisingly, the woolly-titled Songs from the Labyrinth is not a bad record by itself, although the 23 tunes here (interspersed with affected spoken-word interludes) eventually blend into one, without any real distinguishing characteristics to differentiate one from the other.

This is the sort of music that would be heard on the soundtrack of ornate Shakespearean productions at the Globe Theatre, although the idea of a rock singer interpreting these ancient tunes is admittedly a rather gimmicky one.

To the album’s credit, it has Sting’s undiminished melodic sensibilities, put to good use negotiating the elaborate twists and turns that music of this sort entails.

However, the former Police chief’s vocal delivery is a bit too mannered and stiff here, making for a rather uptight, oddly forced aesthetic that sounds aloof and predictably lacking in any real emotion.

Kudos must be given to accompanying lutenist Edin Karamazov who, by virtue of his skilled, studied plucking of this six-stringed precursor to the modern guitar, manages to infuse the proceedings with a certain stateliness that is wholly appropriate.

Karamazov’s participation in Songs from the Labyrinth undoubtedly imbues the project with a certain cachet and credibility, and rescues it from being consigned to outright tweeness.

At the end of the day, Songs from the Labyrinth is a pleasant, trifling diversion that doesn’t add any real dimension to Sting’s repertoire, but at least displays that he can be capable of doing non-rock musical genres.

While too remote and detached to make any sort of impact on the popular charts, Songs from the Labyrinth will be eagerly lapped by the hordes of Sting aficionados, if only for completion’s sake.

The rest of us who buy this will only do so out of pure curiosity. A passable collection of European early music, made bearable by the dextrous textures and inherent sense of melody.

Perhaps the recent Police reformation can give Sting’s career a better rejuvenating effect, rather than this purely dilettantish venture.