Customer Reviews

Sting - Inside - The Songs of Sacred Love (Jewel Case)

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

If you're a Sting fan or just a fan of great music, this DVD is for you. I've seen Sting in concert 3 times. This tops anything I've ever heard. Crystal clear picture and sound, insightful interviews (not too long), and priceless music. This DVD has 17 songs on it. And if I had to pick a favorite, I could not. Although, the rendition of Dead Man's Rope almost made me cry (and I'm a grown man) lol. There are also 3 songs I've never heard on this... That Sinking Feeling, All Would Envy, and Like a Beautiful Smile. All good, but the latter being awesome. This is a no brainer... just buy it. Enjoy!

"Sting Inside" has incredible music. The duet with Mary J. Blige is enough reason for me to want this DVD, although several of the songs are worthwhile. "The Book Of My Life" has an unusual style and rhythm that I especially enjoyed. The title song, "Inside", is very moving.

"Sting Inside" has 15 songs and a bonus track, "Every Breath You Take". "The Shape Of My Heart" is a two minute snippet of Dominic and Sting in Malibu. I don't count it as a song, even though I enjoyed it immensely. "Every Breath You Take" is recorded in Malibu during rehearsal and is the full length song. The other 15 songs are shown played in concert at the Mayan Theater in Los Angeles. The video quality of the concert is tremendous, very clear. The video quality of the interviews is a little softer, but still very good. I found the audio quality to be excellent. The default setting is 2.0. You have to go into the setup menu to get Dolby Digital 5.1, which I find a little annoying. There is little direct access to songs through the track numbers. Here is a song listing by track number:

Track Number / Songs
1) Send Your Love
2) Inside
3) Dead Man's Rope
4) Shape of My Heart / Never Coming Home
5) Like A Beautiful Smile
6) Forget About The Future / That Sinking Feeling
7) This War
8) Stolen Car (Take Me Dancing) / All Would Envy
9) Sacred Love
10) The Book Of My Life
11) Walking On The Moon
12) Roxanne
13) Whenever I Say Your Name

Extras: Every Breath You Take; Commentary

In this concert, Sting uses percussion and programmed drums. I don't have strong feelings about that. I think it fits what he's trying to do with the music. I was curious to hear what Sting said about drummers, based on another review. Here it is part of it, taken out of context:

"Not having a drummer allows colors to emerge that the sonic range of drums tend (sic) to obliterate. I love drummers, I like loud, rock n'roll music, but in the rehearsal period, that's all you hear. The acid test for whether a song is a good song or not is whether you can break it down into a simple rendition. If it still works like that, it's a good song, as far as I'm concerned. It's a very good transition stage between the recording, the big show with the drummer."

For me, "Sting Inside" did not create the feeling of actually being at the concert. There are interviews (sometimes several minutes long) between every track until "Walking on the Moon". The very end of one of my favorite songs, "Inside", was cut off when the DVD went to the next track. These contributed to a choppy feeling at times. I prefer to have the option to just watch the concert. I watch music DVD's over and over again. I will get tired of hearing Sting talk about finding lyrics under a rock. I'm tempted to take away a star because of it, but I'd have to give it back based on the great price.

I like the "All This Time" DVD because I felt that I got a glimpse of Sting the person. In "Sting Inside", I think Sting took even more of a risk in letting the world see him as a person. I say "risk", because I see enough of Sting to decide if I like him or not. For some people, this may color whether they like the music. I recommend "Sting Inside" for anyone who wants to see more of what goes on behind the scenes and "inside" Sting, and also for the great music.

On the back of this DVD Sting is quoted saying that he hopes there is an improvement in these different versions over those of Sacred Love the album. There's a great improvement, these versions sound much more human and fresh, with a lot of subtleties thrown in that aren't noticed on the over-produced album. Send your love, inside, book of my life, never coming home, dead man's rope, are all much improved. Whenever I say your name is not that different from the album version, but still is slightly better here. And there's a really good song, Like a Beautiful Smile, that isn't included on the album (at least the international version).
In terms of quantity of interesting songs this is Sting's best performance since Ten Summoner's Tales, there are at least 7 worth while songs on Sacred Love, something that can't be matched by BND or Mercury Falling.
It doesn't get 5 stars because there are three long annoying songs that are pure generic filler: Stolen Car, Forget about the future and Sacred Love.
My personal recommendation would be to buy this instead of the album and if you can do as I have and burn the songs you like from this DVD on a regular cd.

DVD - Released to tie in with the "Sacred Love" album, INSIDE: THE SONGS OF SACRED LOVE features a mixture of old and new Sting material, as well as some classic renditions of songs from his original band, The Police. Audio commentary is provided by Sting throughout, as well as interviews, and a sparkling 5.1 Surround Sound mix. Tracks include "Send Your Love," "Walking On The Moon," "This War," "Roxanne," and many more.

This is a great concert. Great sound and vision. A must have for all Sting Fans. But I have a question. I'll love to watch "Bring On The Night" on dvd. Why is that the dvd is not available?
Also there's no edition for "Ten Summoner's Tales", "Fields of Gold" "The soul Cages concert" "Ten Summoner's Travel" I have all of these and more on my video/laserdisc collection. But why there isn't a dvd edition of those great materials?

While the album is a big studio work, this is a nice unpluged-like live version of it. It is not easy to "downgrade" the 100 tracks that are on the CD to a real-time performace done by half a dozen of musicians, but they did it well.

You can hear that the sound quality is far from the SACD mch. mix, but still, even if only in Dolby, the sound is great. Sting seems to be one of the few musicians that keeps up with the time. He releases his albums in Super Audio, this DVD is 16:9, 5 channels, nice picture, nice sound. And of course great musicians. You can feel that they love music.

Great musicians. Generally coming form the world of jazz, they can give an extra something to the live performace (Not as Gilmour with those loosers that performed on his DVD, including Bob Geldof that read the lyrics form a dirty piece of paper, and didn't disturb himself to learn 10 lines of Comfortably Numb... that by the way all of us knows by heart).

Sting's work is not only good artistically, but also form the marketing point of view. What can be better then the release of a great work first on SACD that 6 months later is followed by a 16:9 DD concert, that covers not a big statium concert, but the "inside" of the album togeather with an intimate concert.
Artists who are able to do this shall really not be afraid of the internet MP3 thing. We will always buy these works in orignal because of love of art.

I wish they had packaged this as a DVD/CD combo, or better yet, a Bluray/CD combo, as I had to buy them both separately. I actually prefered the video version versus the audio CD (and I enjoyed it as well), as the songs were re-arranged for a smaller ensemble. This changed the mood and complexity of the album compositions demonstrably. The compositions are at once transformed into something subtler, more personal, less busy and more relaxed than that which is presented on the CD/Album. The picture quality is outstanding...it was recorded in HD and looks (and sounds) stunning...this release BEGS for a Bluray version! The documentary portion of the DVD blends well with the actual performances, which were done live at the Aztec Theatre, but mostly bereft of an audience, save some friends/relatives/crew. The lighting is dark and moody (mostly to hide the lack of an audience and the crew and equipment mulling around), and the circular "stage" layout (i.e., all the musicans facing one another, versus standing in a straight line facing front of stage) just plain works, just like it does in Lee Ritenour's "Overtime" DVD (also highly recommended for Jazz/Pop fans). It makes for a very personal and intimate performance, almost like they're playing in your living room. In many cases, at least on the lead-ins, they actually ARE playing in Sting's livingroom, hallway, veranda, etc. (nice touch when they're rehearsing outside and it starts to flurry in Tuscany, LOL!). Further, I love when Sting's jazzier side comes out, especially when he re-imagines/re-invents/re-arranges old Police or solo pop tunes as jazz numbers. If I had any complaints whatsoever: give us more please! LOL! The CD has more quantity, but the DVD has more quality, IMHO. Enjoy!

Although I am a tremendous fan of Sting, I feel he has "coasted" the past several years. This huge band of his can play beautiful music no doubt, but he has a tendancy to not work as hard in a big band. Sting really comes out in a smaller band - the Broken Music tour was MUCH better. The songs on Sacred Love were okay - not my favorite CD. Having said that, this DVD is really enjoyable. It's great to see Sting at his home here in LA just playing music, surrounded by his friends and family. The live footage at the Mayan sounds great, and there are a couple of songs on this DVD that cannot be found elsewhere.

Great if not outstanding musically! However, if your looking for a concert followed by his thoughts and inspirations - not! Sting thinks he must interlace his music with the spoken word - which greatly takes away from this otherwise incredible work. You begin to drift into that magical place and then the concert cuts away - in the middle of the song - to listen to his thoughts on the tune!
Had it been any other musician - I would have shut the damn thing off and asked for my money back.

I purchased this DVD for my husband for our anniversary. My husband had seen one of the songs on YouTube and requested the DVD as a gift. We both love it! Great quality and great versions of these songs!! A real winner! My favorite is Sacred Love. Better than the CD version!!!