For Sting, The Last Ship (2013) is the first album with new material in ten years. After almost a decade of touring without new songs, the former The Police singer takes it big this time. Because in fact the album is part of a much larger project, the Broadway musical of the same name. The twelve songs on The Last Ship together tell the story of one Gideon who returns to the shipyard he left fourteen
… years ago and then finds out that his childhood sweetheart is now taken. The musical is largely inspired by the singers' own experiences and memories. Sting poetically describes the desolate atmosphere of the shipyard and the emotional rollercoaster that Gideon and his companions must endure during the story. Sting also regularly returns to his roots musically, the (northern) British folk influences are present in abundance on almost every song. He gets help from friends: Jimmy Nail and Becky Unthank, among others, contribute to Sting's first musical production. (BvdV)more
