The Soul Cages (1991)
What an intensely personal record The Soul Cages is. After the passing of his parents, Sting opens up and pours every thought and feeling into it, to the point where it almost plays like you’re reading his diary. It’s a therapeutic work that helped guide him through his grief and toward some peace with it. What The Soul Cages does flawlessly is fold together without a single misstep. Everything here has a purpose, and everything tells a cohesive story, narratively and musically. Not every song is a winner, but not every song is meant to be. This is a grieving man’s diary, and that context matters enormously when you weigh each track.
Sting builds a dreamy, warm, somber atmosphere across the whole record. No matter the tempo, the energy, or the instrumentation, it’s always there. The poppier singles like All This Time and Mad About You carry that atmosphere on great hooks and melodies. The hammond organs, the sharp and purposeful guitars, the accented world percussion, all of it builds one rich sound. That’s the best word for this album. Rich. You know it when you hear it.
Jeremiah Blues (Part 1) is a soulful blues cut with a shuffling, rhythmic groove under it, a killer song with a killer guitar and saxophone line. The same goes for the straight-up rocker of the self-titled track, The Soul Cages, where the guitar and hammond organs are a monster together, each one feeding the other.
The two instrumentals are some of Sting’s finest compositions. Saint Agnes and the Burning Train and I Miss You Kate are both stunning. The former is a Spanish-guitar number that plays with intent, every note full-bodied and loaded with emotion. The latter is a somber, piano-focused piece that lands in any setting, its subtle jazzy bass and string accompaniment practically demanding a candle-lit dinner in New York City.
We can’t skip the bonus tracks on the Deluxe Edition. Sting’s cover of Elton John’s Come Down in Time is one of the highlights of the whole record, maybe of his entire catalog. He takes one of Elton’s greatest songs and does it so well it deserves a tip of the hat from Sir Elton himself. Same story with his live cover of Tempted. Squeeze wrote one of the best songs of the 80s, arguably one of the best of all time, and Sting puts his stamp on it, adding jazz, saxophone, and soaring backup vocals for a wildly fun take.
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Highlight Songs:
All This Time
Mad About You
Come Down In Time (Cover)
Tempted (Live | Cover)
Jeremiah Blues Part 1
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Own it, Stream it, Forget about it?
The Soul Cages is worth owning. Some of the alternate-lyric bonus tracks are fun, but Sting’s third outing is probably the weakest of his first three records. It’s by no means a poor album, and it’s worth checking out and giving plenty of love.
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Overall Rating:
4 Stars
