Sting
Album: The Last Ship
Label: Cherrytree/A&M
Tracks: 20
Website: http://www.sting.com

It's been over ten years since Sting's special project The Soul Cages, where he paid tribute to his father and in passing touched on Britain's declining shipbuilding industry. He returns full-force to the latter concern on his latest venture, The Last Ship, which is best described as a kind of folk-musical. It's based around a play he wrote (which will receive its debut on Broadway early next year) telling the tale of a declining Newcastle shipyard in the 1980s. Heavily inspired by his memories of growing up in the shadow of the Swan Hunter shipyard in Wallsend, it affectionately explores themes such as the complexity of relationships, family, community and the passage of time, largely as imagined utterances from the mouths of individual protagonists from within that community. Its songs therefore inhabit a musical idiom that's a kind of hybrid between folk and popular-cultural. There's no denying the warmth of Sting's invention and his affinity with his subject: not that of a "local boy made good" making a token return to his roots, but instead that of a mature artist with a vision and perspective that's genuinely informed by those roots and his formative experiences.

As is often the way with musicals, its presentation of narrative may be necessarily episodic and selective, but this goes with the territory and Sting's enterprise is not to be criticised for his adherence to the form - although I'm not sure that the disc's sequence is quite faithful in its following of a/the storyline (such as it is). Although Sting has recruited a host of local talent to flesh out the characters and provide authentic regional ambience to the musical settings, it's his own singing voice that provides the show's unity, its aura of indigenous warmth and inclusive accessibility. He adopts not only his native accent (most believably on poignant numbers like So To Speak and the title song), but also the brogue of other characters - sometimes he seems just to be trying too hard, and occasional traces of exaggerated delivery (on the otherwise convincing reflection Autumn Winds, say) take a bit of getting used to, although boisterous call-on/call-up set-pieces such as What Have We Got? and Shipyard score highly by virtue of their sheer panache.

Generally speaking, the songwriting proves mightily convincing - for the subject-matter (dear to Sting's heart) has clearly galvanised Sting into keen creativity after his recent fallow years in that discipline, and the individual vignettes he invokes are suitably telling. Dead Man's Boots has the ring of a Jez Lowe observation, while Language Of Birds forms the natural, literal bridge with The Soul Cages. Maybe Ballad Of The Great Eastern seems a touch obvious lyric-wise, but it's given a satisfying folky-jig musical setting nevertheless. Other, torchier items (Practical Arrangement, The Night The Pugilist Learned How To Dance) might almost have come from a West End musical.

In the main, musical backdrops are sensitive and detailed yet richly textured, albeit sometimes (as at the impassioned climax of Dead Man's Boots) a touch overly well-upholstered and consciously epic. Alongside the central contributions of (co-producer) Rob Mathes, Dominic Miller, Ira Coleman and Joe Bonadio, there's the involvement of special guests like Peter and Kathryn Tickell and Julian Sutton, who impart their distinctive signature to key moments of the score, while guest vocalists doing a turn or two include Jimmy Nail, Brian Johnson (of AC/DC), Jo Lawry and Becky Unthank (the latter a highlight on the moving So To Speak). Additionally, the five doughty Wilson Family men add choir/group-vocals (mostly "oohs and ahs") on a handful of songs (outside their normal comfort-zone perhaps, but none the less effective for all that). All of which adds up to a viable, worthwhile and artistically satisfying venture (taking into account the accepted conventions of the "musical" as an art-form).

The CD package and presentation is of a very high standard, with enclosed booklet giving full lyrics and personnel credits. But the most frustrating aspect for prospective purchasers is the multiplicity of available formats, with the "basic" CD edition including only 12 tracks (one of these being the reprise of the title song), whereas some of the best songs (Shipyard, It's Not The Same Moon and Sky Hooks & Tartan Paint) are only available on the "deluxe" edition's five-track, 20-minute bonus disc; the most annoying occurrence is the inclusion of a further couple of songs (one being a stunning Rachel Unthank performance, Peggy's Song, the other featuring the Wilsons doing a Jordanaires - as seen on the Jools Holland show!) on a "super-deluxe" edition which is only to be had from Amazon! Virtually all of these tracks could have fitted onto one (long) CD which, properly sequenced, would have made a more cohesive product and memento of the whole endeavour. In that respect alone, you might say that The Last Ship has been just a little spoilt for the last ha'porths of tar…

David Kidman