...Nothing Like the Sun (1987)

Nothing Like the Sun (stylised as ...Nothing Like the Sun) is the second solo studio album by the English musician Sting. The album was originally released on 16 October 1987 on A&M (worldwide) as a double LP and single CD. The album explores the genres of pop rock, soft rock, jazz, reggae, world, acoustic rock, dance-rock, and funk rock. The songs were recorded in March–August 1987 at AIR Studios, in Montserrat, assisted by record producers Bryan Loren and Neil Dorfsman. It features high-profile guest guitarists, including former Police member Andy Summers, Eric Clapton, Mark Knopfler, and Hiram Bullock, and is generally regarded as the culmination of the smoother, more adult-oriented sound of Sting's early work.

On release, the album was received favourably and in 1989 was ranked No. 90 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "100 Best Albums of the Eighties". "We'll Be Together", "Be Still My Beating Heart", "Englishman in New York", "Fragile", and "They Dance Alone" were all released as singles.

It won Best British Album at the 1988 Brit Awards. In 1989, the album received three Grammy nominations including Album of the Year while the album's second single ("Be Still My Beating Heart") was nominated for Song of the Year and Best Male Pop Vocal Performance.

Background and recording

The album was influenced by two events in Sting's life: first, the death of his mother in June 1987 during the recording of the album, which contributed to the sombre tone of several songs; and second, his participation in the Conspiracy of Hope Tour on behalf of Amnesty International, which brought Sting to parts of Latin America that had been ravaged by civil wars, and introduced him to victims of government oppression. "They Dance Alone (Cueca Solo)" was inspired by his witnessing of public demonstrations of grief by the wives and daughters of men missing in Chile, tortured and murdered by the military dictatorship of the time, who danced the Cueca (the traditional dance of Chile) by themselves, with photos of their loved ones pinned to their clothes. "Be Still My Beating Heart" and "The Lazarus Heart" approach the subjects of life, love and death. Elsewhere on the album, "Englishman in New York", in honour of Quentin Crisp, continues the jazz-influenced music more commonly found on Sting's previous album, as does "Sister Moon".

For this album, the New England Digital Synclavier system was Sting's primary tool for writing, composing and arranging. He spent three months in New York gathering material for the next album, organising the ideas he had accumulated over the past year into finished songs on the Synclavier before entering the studio. The songs were more arranged than before, with the musicians simply layering their parts on top of Sting's Synclavier. Manu Katché, who played drums on the album, said that the band spent five days rehearsing the material in New York City before moving to AIR Studios in Montserrat. These sessions lasted ten days, with around 15 songs recorded during this period time; each song required roughly seven and eight takes to complete. Sting recorded the album with two 32-track digital tape recorders, allowing them to create multiple slave reels with different elements for a song. However, he found it difficult having too many options to choose from, and not hearing all the recorded parts until the mixing stage.

Album title

The title comes from Shakespeare's Sonnet No. 130 ("My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun"), which Sting used in the song "Sister Moon". He added that his inspiration for this was a close encounter with a drunk, in which Sting quoted the sonnet in response to the drunk's importunate query, "How beautiful is the moon?"

Release

The album's first single and biggest hit, "We'll Be Together" sported a prominent dance beat and funk overtones; it reached No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts in late 1987 and even crossed over to the R&B charts.

The album also inspired a Spanish/Portuguese counterpart, the 1988 mini-album Nada Como el Sol. It featured four of the songs from the album sung in either Spanish or Portuguese, and in the case of "Fragile", both languages. The Brazilian CD and Vinyl edition of Nothing Like the Sun also contained "Fragile" in Portuguese ("Frágil") as the tenth track (between "Rock Steady" and "Sister Moon").

Three years after its release on both the album and in single form, "Englishman in New York" was remixed in mid-1990 by Dutch producer Ben Liebrand. Providing a stronger dance beat, as well as an extended introduction, the song was a hit in clubs and reached number 15 in the UK singles chart. The maxi-single also included a dance remix of "If You Love Somebody (Set Them Free)" as a B-side.

Nothing Like the Sun was one of the first fully digital audio recordings (DDD) to achieve multi-platinum status.