The Soul Cages

The Soul Cages is a concept album focused on the death of Sting's father. At the time, Sting had developed a writer's block shortly after his father's death; the episode lasted several years, until he was able to overcome his affliction by dealing with the death of his father through music. The single, "Why Should I Cry for You", was written for The Soul Cages in 1989, and Sting has said that the rest of the album flowed quite easily after that first hurdle was overcome. Most of the songs have motifs related to sailing or the seas; Sting wrote in his autobiography, Broken Music, that his father had always regretted not becoming a sailor. There are also references to Newcastle, the part of England where Sting grew up.

Album opener "Island of Souls" tells the story of Billy, the first son in a family line of riveters. As he watches the ships his father helped create set sail, Billy dreams of taking his father along with him to escape by sea; his dreams become more prevalent as his father is injured and given three weeks to live. "All This Time" chronicles Billy's desire to bury his father at sea. The middle section of the record focuses mainly on the town Billy lives in and its people (with the exception of "Mad About You", which is said to be based on King David's story from the Bible's Books of Samuel), before the highly introspective "Why Should I Cry for You". Musically, a mournful Northumbrian Pipe motif at the end of "Island of Souls" returns to open "The Wild Wild Sea", where Billy loses his way in a tempest only to find himself steered to safety by the spirit of his father. In another fantastical narrative on the album's eponymous track, Billy's father is being held captive by a demonic fisherman, with whom Billy wagers his life in a drinking game in a bid to set his father's soul free.

Finally, the album ends with the moody, slightly-enigmatic "When the Angels Fall", which serves as a final thesis on the Catholicism which so heavily influenced Sting's upbringing; particularly regarding his father's spiritual beliefs. Musically, the song acts as a full stop for both the album's content and Sting's own personal torment, with the song's fluctuating tonality finally resolving to a firm and secure G major, marking a return to "home" (in this case, the home key of the earlier, conceptually significant, track "All This Time”) and providing an overwhelming sense of acceptance, redemption and subtle-nostalgia, themes realised in the album's closing "lullaby" motif. The character of Billy is referred to in the third person for the first three songs and in the first person for the last three songs.

In an interview with Charlie Rose aired on 10 December 2010, Sting mentioned that he was working on a "mood piece", a musical project and book in collaboration with Pulitzer winner Brian Yorkey. The work would be based on an album he released many years ago concerning the loss of his father, growing up in Newcastle and witnessing the passing of the shipbuilding industry there. He admitted being scared of the prospect of pulling it all together but expressed confidence in it working out. This project has since been confirmed as the musical The Last Ship.

At the time this album appeared, the music industry was starting to shift away from using CD longboxes. Sting, a committed environmentalist, wanted to eliminate the amount of cardboard waste caused by the longbox. The original packaging was a fourfold cardboard case that could be modified to look like a longbox, and folded back into a jewel box sized CD package for home storage. In Germany, the CD was sold in jewel cases as well as longboxes. The cover painting was a commissioned work by the Scottish artist Steven Campbell.

Until the release of Symphonicities in July 2010, The Soul Cages was the only studio album by Sting not to feature a photograph of himself on the front cover, although he does appear on the back cover of both albums.

Standard edition

All tracks are written by Sting.

2021 30th anniversary edition bonus tracks

All tracks are written by Sting except where noted.

(* Not previously available digitally)

Some pressings erroneously list "Why Should I Cry for You" before "Jeremiah Blues (Part 1)" in the liner notes.

"Vengo del sur" (Spanish Version of "Why Should I Cry for You") — Bonus track for Spanish edition

"Muoio per te" (Italian Version of "Mad About You") — Bonus track for Italian edition (featuring Zucchero Fornaciari)

Adapted from liner notes

• Sting – vocals, bass guitar, mandolin, synthesizer
• Dominic Miller – electric guitar, acoustic guitar
• David Sancious, Kenny Kirkland – keyboards
• Branford Marsalis – saxophone
• Paola Paparelle – oboe
• Kathryn Tickell – Northumbrian smallpipe
• Manu Katché – drums
• Ray Cooper, Vinx De'Jon Parrette, Bill Summers, Munyungo Jackson, Skip Burney, Tony Vacca – percussion

Production

• Arranged by Sting
• Produced by Sting and Hugh Padgham; QSound production assisted by Brian Cowieson and Scott Willing
• Recorded and mixed by Hugh Padgham; assisted by Simon Osbourne, Yves Jajaget, Bruce Keene, Al Stone, Brian Scheuble and Efren Herrera
• Technical assistant to Sting: Danny Quatrochi
• Mastered by Bob Ludwig
• All songs published by Magnetic Publishing, Ltd/Blue Turtle Music

• "All This Time" (1991) – No. 5 US Hot 100, No. 1 US Mainstream Rock, No. 1 US Modern Rock, No. 9 US Adult Contemporary, No. 22 UK Singles Chart
• "Mad About You" (1991) – No. 56 UK Singles Chart[8]
• "Why Should I Cry For You" (1991)
• "The Soul Cages" (1991) – No. 7 US Mainstream Rock, No. 9 US Modern Rock, No. 57 UK Singles Chart

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