Sting's The Dream of The Blue Turtles (Music Monday)

The Police chief goes solo and hands in a gem

I still remember the day "The Dream of the Blue Turtles" was released in 1985. I had sprinted to the record store after school to grab Sting's solo debut on cassette. But life, as it often does, had other plans. My dad surprised me by coming home with Mets tickets. Great news in any other scenario, but devastating timing for a teenage music obsessive with a new album to digest.

I don’t remember anything about the game, other than going - but if the internet is right about the release date of June 17, 1985 then it seems the Mets beat the Cubs with Ron Darling picking up his 6th win.

All I could think about was getting home to that cassette. When I finally got to hit play, it was immediately clear that this wasn't just "The Police minus Andy and Stewart." Sting had assembled a murderer's row of jazz talent to back him.

Looking back, that band was ridiculous. Branford Marsalis, who would later lead The Tonight Show band, brought serious jazz credibility on saxophone. Omar Hakim on drums had this precision that mixed jazz flexibility with rock power. Kenny Kirkland handled keyboards with that perfect balance of technical skill and emotional playing. And then there was Darryl Jones on bass – the same guy who would later replace Bill Wyman in the Rolling Stones (and technically still is in that role, though the Stones seem weirdly reluctant to make him an "official" member).

The album kicks off with "If You Love Somebody Set Them Free," which was Sting's declaration of independence from The Police. It's got that groove that makes you want to roll down the windows while driving, but with these jazz flourishes that told us this wasn't going to be "Every Breath You Take: The Sequel."

In the 2 spot, "Love Is the Seventh Wave" Sting returns to the reggae influences he explored with The Police, but with a jazzier edge. It's got this buoyant quality that makes it impossible not to bob your head. This reggae thread would eventually lead to that album with Shaggy decades later – which, side note, is actually pretty good but I can NEVER listen to it again because one song got stuck in my head when I had kidney stones, both torturing me for three straight days.

"Fortress Around Your Heart" is the track most people forget about until they hear it again and go "oh yeah, this is awesome." It's got this driving tension that builds and builds, with Sting's voice soaring over that incredible band and nice casual fade out where the album just kind of drifts off into the either.

And then there's the political Sting, showing up with "We Work the Black Seam" about coal mining communities and "Russians," which perfectly captured that mid-80s nuclear anxiety.

What's amazing about "Blue Turtles" is how it manages to be both a commercial pop album and a legitimate jazz-rock fusion project. The full potential of this approach would be realized on the "Bring On The Night" live album and documentary, where the songs got stretched out and the band really showed what they could do.

Looking back at Sting's solo catalog, "Blue Turtles" remains his best work. It's been diminishing returns ever since, sliding down to the nadir of "Mercury Falling" (and I'm not even counting all those lute albums and medieval chant experiments). His first album had this perfect balance of commercial appeal and artistic ambition that he's never quite recaptured.

The Police were my favorite band, and while I was devastated when they broke up, "The Dream of the Blue Turtles" softened the blow considerably. It showed that sometimes the end of one great thing can be the beginning of something equally compelling, even if just for a moment.

Forty years later, this album holds up remarkably well. If you haven't revisited it lately, it's worth another spin. Just make sure you've got time to listen to the whole thing without interruption – even for Mets tickets.