I'm gonna wait til the whole thing is available to listen. I really, really, really like The Last Ship, though - it's not really a rock album but it avoids being just vaguely-outdated adult 'contemporary' radio pop by being very folksy, which is something I'm generally pretty down for.
Just listened through to 57th & 9th, it's quite good. It's not a mind-blowing record but the very first seconds gave me a huge smile, as soon as it started. It was nice to hear Sting being on a rock album.
On the whole, it's maybe not a thoroughly 'rock' as was hyped up - still a fair amount of pop and folksiness - but it didn't disappoint me at all. Just after one listen, I'd give it a solid four stars. Might go up with more listening.
Highlights:
- I Can't Stop Thinking About You
- 50,000
- One Fine Day
- Petrol Head
- If You Can't Love Me
I'll be relistening to this a lot for the next bit.
Feb. 1 – Vancouver, Commodore Ballroom
Feb. 2 – Portland, Theater of the Clouds at Moda Center
Feb. 5 – San Francisco, The Masonic
Feb. 8 – Los Angeles, Palladium
Feb. 11 – Rancho Mirage, Calif., Agua Caliente Casino
Feb. 14 – Denver, Fillmore Auditorium
Feb. 16 – Kansas City, Mo., Uptown Theater
Feb. 17 – St. Louis, The Pageant
Feb. 19 – Austin, ACL Live at The Moody Theater
Feb. 20 – Dallas, Verizon Theatre at Grand Prairie
Feb. 22 – New Orleans, UNO Lakefront Arena
Feb. 23 – Houston, Smart Financial Centre
Feb. 25 – Miami, Fillmore Miami Beach at the Jackie Gleason Theatre
Feb. 27 – Atlanta, Tabernacle
Feb. 28 – Nashville, Municipal Auditorium
March 2 – Minneapolis, Myth
March 3 – Chicago, Aragon Ballroom
March 5 – Toronto, Rebel
March 6 – Montreal, Metropolis
March 8 – Boston, House of Blues
March 9 – Uncasville, CT @ Mohegan Sun
March 11 – Philadelphia, PA @ Fillmore
March 12 – Washington, DC @ The Theater at MGM National Harbor
March 14 – New York, NY @ Hammerstein Ballroom
Europe:
March 21 – Barcelona, Sant Jordi Club
March 23 – Milan, Fabrique
March 25 – Hamburg, Sporthalle
March 27 – Warsaw, Torwar
March 29 – Stuttgart, Porsche-Arena
March 30 – Zurich, Samsung Hall
April 1 – Luxembourg, Rockhal
April 2 – Brussels, Forest National
April 4 – Dusseldorf, Mitsubishi Electric Halle
April 5 – Amsterdam, Heineken Music Hall (as of Jan. 1, AFAS Live)
April 7 – Manchester, Manchester O2 Apollo Eventim Apollo
April 9 – London, Hammersmith
April 12 & 13 – Paris, Olympia
Mindblowing soundboard sound. Not his most inspired performance ever and you can see they're still finding their way into the new songs, but the sound and the significance make up for it.
(Love the dedicatory to Bowie, Prince, Lemmy, Fray and Cohen before 50.000)
EDIT. I'm on my second listen now, it is an inspired performance, it's just that such different versions of classics like Englishman and the extra-low tuned So Lonely didn't catch my ear and the French speeches put me off slightly, but overal it's just an excellent concert and performance.
