Ten Summoner's Tales

Ten Summoner's Tales
Studio album by
Sting
Released1 March 1993[1]
RecordedJune–December 1992
StudioLake House, Wiltshire, England
Genre
Length52:31
Label
ProducerSting, Hugh Padgham
Sting chronology
The Soul Cages
(1991) 		Ten Summoner's Tales
(1993) 		Fields of Gold: The Best of Sting 1984–1994
(1994)
Singles from Ten Summoner's Tales
  1. "It's Probably Me"
    Released: 23 June 1992[2]
  2. "If I Ever Lose My Faith in You"
    Released: 1 February 1993[3]
  3. "Seven Days"
    Released: 12 April 1993[4]
  4. "Fields of Gold"
    Released: 7 June 1993[5]
  5. "Shape of My Heart"
    Released: 23 August 1993[6]
  6. "Love Is Stronger Than Justice"
    Released: 24 September 1993[7]
  7. "Nothing 'Bout Me"
    Released: 14 February 1994[8]
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[9]
The Buffalo News[10]
Calgary HeraldB+[11]
Chicago Tribune[12]
Entertainment WeeklyA[13]
Los Angeles Times[14]
Music Week[15]
Q[16]
Rolling Stone[17]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide[18]
The Sacramento Bee[19]
USA Today[20]

Ten Summoner's Tales is the fourth solo studio album by English musician Sting. The title is a combined pun of his family name, Sumner, and a character in Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, the summoner. Released in 1993, it explores themes of love and morality in a noticeably upbeat mood compared to his previous release, the introspective The Soul Cages released in 1991 after the loss of both his parents in the 1980s.

This album contains two US hits; "If I Ever Lose My Faith in You" reached No. 17 on the Billboard Hot 100 while "Fields of Gold" got to No. 23.[21]

Ten Summoner's Tales was shortlisted for the 1993 Mercury Prize. In 1994, it was nominated for six Grammy awards including Album of the Year (losing to Whitney Houston‘s The Bodyguard), winning Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical, Best Male Pop Vocal Performance ("If I Ever Lose My Faith in You") and Best Long Form Music Video, while "If I Ever Lose My Faith in You" was also nominated for Record and Song of the Year.

A laser disc and VHS of the album were released, containing live performances of all songs on the album at Lake House.

A promotional disc was made where Sting discusses some of the songs on the album. There was also an unofficial live album produced during the Ten Summoner's Tales era, entitled Meadowlands of Gold, which contained 13 tracks performed at the Meadowlands Arena on February 26, 1994, in East Rutherford, New Jersey. The songs consisted of tracks from the album, and a few songs by The Police plus a cover of the Beatles' "A Day in the Life".

In February 2023, it was announced that Ten Summoner's Tales would be re-released and digitally expanded, with multiple songs not previously heard or available to download.[22]

  1. ^ "Brit certifications for Sting".
  2. ^ "Sting with Eric Clapton - It's Probably Me". Hitparade.ch. Retrieved 29 May 2022.
  3. ^ "New Releases: Singles". Music Week. 30 January 1993. p. 23.
  4. ^ "New Releases: Singles". Music Week. 10 April 1993. p. 21.
  5. ^ "New Releases: Singles". Music Week. 5 June 1993. p. 19.
  6. ^ "Single Releases". Music Week. 21 August 1993. p. 23.
  7. ^ "Sting - Love Is Stronger Than Justice (The Munificent Seven)". Hitparade.ch. Retrieved 29 May 2022.
  8. ^ "Single Releases". Music Week. 12 February 1994. p. 21.
  9. ^ Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Ten Summoner's Tales – Sting". AllMusic. Retrieved 3 October 2011.
  10. ^ Violanti, Anthony (15 March 1993). "It's The Mysterious Sting, Playing A New Attitude". The Buffalo News. Retrieved 6 July 2020.
  11. ^ Tremblay, Mark (7 March 1993). "Recent Releases". Calgary Herald.
  12. ^ Kot, Greg (7 March 1993). "Feeling A Sting". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 3 October 2011.
  13. ^ Moon, Tom (12 March 1993). "Ten Summoner's Tales". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on 15 December 2009. Retrieved 3 October 2011.
  14. ^ Willman, Chris (7 March 1993). "Sting 'Ten Summoner's Tales' A&M". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 3 October 2011.
  15. ^ Jones, Alan (6 March 1993). "Market Preview: Mainstream - Albums" (PDF). Music Week. p. 20. Retrieved 29 January 2023.
  16. ^ Du Noyer, Paul (April 1993). "Cheerful". Q. No. 79.
  17. ^ DeCurtis, Anthony (18 March 1993). "Sting: Ten Summoner's Tales". Rolling Stone. No. 652. p. 38.
  18. ^ Considine, J. D. (2004). "Sting". In Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian (eds.). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th ed.). Simon & Schuster. pp. 783–784. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8.
  19. ^ Macias, Chris; Barton, David (30 July 2000). "On the Sting beat: The Police and beyond". The Sacramento Bee.
  20. ^ Gundersen, Edna (24 March 1993). "Sting's blithe 'Tales'". USA Today.
  21. ^ allmusic
  22. ^ "Sting | News | Sting Celebrates 30th Anniversary of Ten Summoner's Tales with Digital-only Expanded Edition..." Sting.com. Retrieved 26 February 2023.