The Summoner Calls5 Out of 5 Stars
In ye merry olde England, if you were about to be charged with a crime, the law of the day would pay someone to come and fetch you. That person, the Summoner, would be paid for his duty, but as the story goes, could also be paid to look the other way if the object of his attention made a generous counter offer. Such is the case with Sting, who wants to have it both ways. He wants your attention on "Ten Summoner's Tales," intriguing you in ten different ways before offering an epilogue at the end. He's eager to please this time, putting aside the morose but intriguing jazz fusion that his previous three albums had for a more pop approach.
From the first single, the Gospelish "If I Ever Lose My Faith In You," the change is apparent. Sting laments a world where politicians "all look like game show hosts to me" (funny how that still seems true) over a poppy hook and a snappy bass line. Then story time takes over with "Love Is Stronger Than Justice," a pedal-steel inflected story of bandits, and then the tale of the longing that is "Fields Of Gold." maybe one of my all time favorite Sting songs, it drifts across a Spanish guitar and is one of his loveliest ballads.
There are a few attempts at humor, like the dialogue during "St Augustine In Hell," where a special circle is left open for music critics, or the "Epilogue (Nothing About Me)," where he can't help but taunt that, after ten songs about assorted characters, you don't know who the teller of the stories really is. The songs range form poppy to enigmatic ("Something The Boy Said"), yet the man himself remains a cipher till the very end. Seeing as his last couple of albums were such personal affairs, the looser feel of "Ten Summoners Tales" and its songs from outside the sphere may make this Sting's most accessible album. Back in 1993 when I was still writing for a major trade paper, this was one of my faves of that year. Still is.
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