Behind the Album: ‘The Soul Cages,’ When Sting Vanquished His Writer’s Block by Visiting the Ghosts of His Past

Sting often commented in the years following the release of his 1991 album The Soul Cages about how it was a polarizing album, beloved and criticized in equal measure. Time has been quite kind to it, however, and most, including the artist himself, now consider it his finest solo album.

That’s quite the accomplishment, considering he only put it together after a crushing case of writer’s block. Here’s a look back at how Sting constructed The Soul Cages.

No More Words

To the outside world, it seemed like Sting was on top of the world as the ’80s gave way to the ’90s. Many thought him foolish when he left The Police when they were the biggest band in the world. But he managed to build a hit solo career that wasn’t at all beholden to his former group. And he did all that while flashing a multitude of other skills that made him a hyphenate before that was even a thing.

But when he went to write songs for what would be his third album, he came up empty. Hoping that assembling a band would help jar his creative juices, he brought together the core group that would eventually make The Soul Cages. That led to some promising music, but no lyrics were forthcoming.

Sting began to panic that maybe he had dried up as a writer. Around that time, he was dealing with some personal issues, mostly related to the loss of several people close to him. That included his father, who passed away in 1989. Although Sting’s relationship with his father had been a troubled one at times, the death rocked him.

Eventually, solving one problem helped him deal with another. He started to write by going back to his earliest possible memories, which were of his childhood home right near a shipyard. When he started writing on this topic, he naturally started to write about his father as well. And in that way, he began to process his feelings in a way that might not have been available to him had he not had his music.

Once the lyrics started flowing, he finished the writing in a matter of weeks. When he brought the lyrics to the studio band, he realized his fancy for worldly sounds wouldn’t quite suit this material. Instead, he chose backing that reflected the subject matter and setting, including mandolins, woodwinds, and pipes.

Revisiting The Soul Cages

At no point in The Soul Cages are you very far from either some kind of nautical reference or a nod to a boy and his father. There is also a lot of myth and antiquated storytelling wending through the record, as if Sting needed to look back to these ancient tales to find truth in what was taking place in his life. Thus, even a song like “Mad About You,” which some might construe as a love song, doesn’t really count as a departure from the seeking, yearning theme.

The laser focus is part of what gives The Soul Cages its power. Once you start to get immersed in this world of memory and soul-searching, you want to stay there and see what’s awaiting at the end. Even the bouncy strains of hit single “All This Time” can’t hide Sting’s true aims—to try and make sense of the senseless, to know the unknowable.

Musically, the album is largely free of easy hooks, but the subtleties and intricacies reveal themselves soon enough, in part due to Hugh Padgham’s sensitive production. The ballads that close out each side are where Sting puts it all on the table. “Why Should I Cry for You?” finds him wondering if grief is even the proper response to the death of a man who confounded him in life, while “When the Angels Fall” finds grace in the gentleness of the music, even as the narrator longs to tear down the religious icons he now finds useless.

To some, the album played into Sting’s pretentious, humorless image. And maybe if you’re looking for hit single material, you’ll find it wanting. But The Soul Cages, at least as portrayed here, tend to imprison us all from time to time, preventing us from moving forward. Kudos to Sting for sharing his own experience in an attempt to give us the keys to escape.

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Photo by Paul Natkin/Getty Images