It generated a lot of talk at the time… almost all of it negative, but not because people were offended.
30 years before, a guy dressing as a girl on an album cover would probably have been trangressive but by 1999, come on. It wasn’t mainstream but it had already lost a lot of its “shocking value”. Meh. What’s more, I’ve always thought that he looks so uncomfortable on that cover. Why bother, really?
Sorry, he lost me at Hello. I guess he built a fortress around me heart. 
(sorry again). I mean, we could hear it coming from Every Little Thing… and I could hear the Hit-ness, if you will, of the music.
But the danger in The Police’s music had been removed with surgical precision. I respect the skill of Dr. Sumner, but I wish he hadn’t performed such a radical amputation.
Roger Waters “The Body”. It makes early experimental Pink Floyd seem main stream.
Wasn’t there a solo record by Jon Anderson of Yes, where he was so stoned that he thought he was an elf?
KISS tried a concept album, Music from “The Elder”. It was their attempt at progressive rock with orchestras. The album flopped so horribly, they didn’t bother touring to promote it.
Oh, here’s how bad my fandom was as a teen…I actually really, REALLY liked that album. And believe it or not, I’d still rank it in my top three Kiss albums, along with the self-titled and Creatures Of The Night. As with a lot of Kiss music, yes, The Elder was quite cheesy, but it had its very listenable/dare I say best song moments…namely “The Oath”, “A World Without Heroes”, and “I” (THE ONE Kiss song I actually heard on Music Choice’s Metal station back in the late 90’s…no kidding). With Kiss’ overall fanbase being very naturally accustomed to the brand of hard pop they’d been cranking out since Destroyer, it honestly took the outfit some balls to put out a progressive rock entry, especially with the genre just pure and simply not being their forte. I’d bet dollars to doughnuts that if Eric Carr had not replaced Peter Criss, Kiss would never have attempted such a thing.
But to bring it back around to crappy solo albums, count me in the chorus of those who don’t find Sting’s first two solo efforts crappy (and like that they feature some lovely sax work from Branford Marsalis). Do posthumous albums count? For if they do, then please allow me to nominate Jim Morrison’s An American Prayer.
These two guys do not belong on any list of shit-tard-ry, I assure you. Their solo stuff is great! (With the possible exception of Sting’s “Ren Faire” stuff. But, Hey, he was just fuckin’ around)
This is more like it. Dreadful.
This post reminded me of all the things I’ve heard about Lou Reed’s “Metal Machine Music”.
Hehehe, I think Sting’s solo output is worthy of this thread. Thankfully the band did break up, so there’s only one Police record that I have to skip a bunch of songs on.
I’ve heard MMM, and I kind of like it. It certainly has its moments. I don’t think SitS has any pleasant moments, much less good ones.
Oh, okay, then. If you assure me.
Sorry. Choosing to disagree here. Hope that’s okay.
Like - that was the albums concept/lyrics? Or was he actually having elfish (elvin?) delusions while recording?
I would be more intrigued by the latter.
It was so long ago I listened to Chris Squire’s “Fish” album (featuring one of my top five drum gods, Mr. Bill Bruford), which I was kinda meh on at the time - don’t know if I should give it another chance again.
All I remember about any Waters solo work is walking into a record store and totally burst out laughing at seeing the “Pros and Cons of Hitch-hiking” album display.
Sure. With “Blue Turtles” I thought Kenny Kirkland on piano and Omar Hakim on drums rounded out the rhythm section quite fine. While it’s expected that a popular musician’s first solo efforts would have stuff that is, yeah, definitely too radio-friendly, I could list too many links here from that disc that more than offset that poppy downtrend.
And because I feel like sharing some solo wizardry, just think of Sting and…
line-dancing…Yeah, just let that marinate a little…Sting…line-dancing…
oh and exemplary hair, too:
I had that one. Didn’t do much for me.