Views on me are very disparate: I'm either a decent man or a complete shit. But if pop music is just about being in a gang or dancing or frivolous youth stuff, then I'm in the wrong business. Review from The Collegiate by David Schonfeld'Mercury Falling' brings Sting to a new high: Mercury, or quicksilver, has been found throughout history. Built around a vaporous, new-agey slogan, it's a medium-tempo pop-gospel extravaganza that offers plenty of inspirational platitudes, but little of the existential musing that once made the philosopher Sting worth hearing. It's one of those things to learn acceptance of. So I offer that the album's themes all seem to revolve around the concepts of death and rebirth, guilt and redemption, despair followed by renewal and resolution. The lyric has the tang of felt life - either Sting has been through some rough patches lately or he's a better supplier of fictional detail than one thought: "She says the kids are fine/And that they miss me/Maybe I could come and babysit sometime." Now in his 40s, Sting is aging gracefully and has lost none of his passion or creativity. Despite his typically pompous titular baggage, however, Mercury Falling ranks as the least pretentious of Sting's five solo albums. Exam time. I'd never seen him up before noon, much less out taking the air. If I pick my favourite ever songs, they're 'Dock Of The Bay', 'When A Man Loves A Woman' - all that sort of stuff. These are songs that hit a little harder than the typical Top 40 tune: the clever 'I Hung My Head', with its commanding horns, and elevating keyboard work, tells the story of an accidental shooting, and could also be read as a plea for gun control; 'I'm So Happy I Can't Stop Crying' is a countryish tune that clomps along with a steady beat but is also a well-observed look at a divorced man dealing with the fact that he has lost custody of his kids. He's one of the most literary rock stars around, and we'd do well to appreciate that. The Marty Robbins -style, Wild West murder tale of 'I Hung My Head' is in 9/8, while 'I'm So Happy I Can't Stop Crying' features a more standard country beat.These tactics sometimes suggest a jumbled unity that might be easily mistaken for disjuncture, confusion or just plain messiness. Former bandmate Branford Marsalis lends a hand with saxophone on this tune and 'Pilot'.The twang of the pedal steel guitar introduces a country sound into 'I'm So Happy I Can't Stop Crying', a somewhat confusing title of a somewhat confusing song about a man who is overjoyed that his wife has left him. More slapstick is the jaunty 'Twenty Five To Midnight', where a would-be pop star ("We called ourselves The Latino Lovers/Hawaiian shirts and Top 40 covers/I didn't think I could sink this low") speeds home to stop his smalltown girl marrying his best (so-called) friend.There are no love songs here, except, at a push, 'All Four Seasons', a more cynical but still virtually incestuous lyrical cousin of Crowded House's 'Four Seasons In One Day'. A monthly update on our latest interviews, stories and added songs, More songs about reconciliation or forgiveness, Barney Hoskyns Explores The Forgotten History Of Woodstock, New York. He sings one song ('La Belle Dame Sans Regrets') in French and gives credit for another ('Lithium Sunset') to the influence of a Brazilian shaman. "But with new pop music, it's very rare that I hear music that I can't recognise its source. That you can be broken and then mended. The songs stop sounding effortless. Some listeners prefer it; Sting is said to have considered the cover an honor. That background makes this return to humor all the more refreshing.Take these verses from the sharp and sarcastic 'All Four Seasons', the complaints of a man with a PMS-plagued girlfriend: "She can change her mind like she changes her sweaters/From one minute to the next it's hard to tell/She blows hot and cold just like stormy weather/ She's my gift from the Lord or a fiend from hell. I was very 'mercurial' in jumping around from genre to genre and mixing things on this album. "TOP Magazine, 3/96"Maybe I'm not asking so many questions on this record, but I'm accepting the fact that there is a question - accepting that mystery as part of life. Stellar regulars Guitarist Dominic Miller and drummer Vinnie Colaiuta are joined by former Blue Turtles Branford Marsalis on two tracks, and keyboardist Kenny Kirkland has rejoined the band for the entire album.As the title suggests, it is a truly mercurial album.