Sting "Live At The Bataclan" (2017 Record Store Day EP)

For Record Store Day 2017, Sting issued the six-song EP Live At The Bataclan. Limited to 3,500 copies, the EP contained six live cuts from the former Police frontman’s November 2016 concert at the Bataclan theatre in Paris. That concert officially reopened the doors of that venue one year after the terrorist attack that took place there in November of 2015.

This concert was performed one day after the release of 57TH & 9TH, which was Sting’s first rock and roll album in 13 years. The two selections from that album, “I Can’t Stop Thinking About You” and “One Fine Day”, have a straight-ahead rock sound, and have the most immediate appeal, thanks in large part to the guitar sounds provided by the supporting players. Sting and company also perform two of his well-known Police hits, “Message In A Bottle” and “Every Breath You Take”, which are both given respectable treatment. But the two most memorable tracks are drawn from Sting’s 1987 solo album …Nothing Like The Sun. The gentle “Fragile” – an appropriate song for this event, since its subject is the fragility of life – is given an Eastern flavor by the use of trumpet and darbuka. And the usually jazzy “Englishman In New York” is performed with a stronger reggae vibe – making it very reminiscent of the second and third Police albums. Now that sounds like the “rock and roll” Sting we used to know.


Sting “Live At The Bataclan” EP (A&M B0026332-01) 2017

Track Listing:

1. Fragile
2. Message In A Bottle
3. I Can’t Stop Thinking About You
4. One Fine Day
5. Englishman In New York (Reggae Remix)
6. Every Breath You Take

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