Message In A Bottle by All Saints & Sting

Dear Poptastic Readers,

Nearly two years after the release of their fifth album Testament, the mighty All Saints — Shaznay, Melanie, Nicole and Natalie — are back once again with the surprise release of their new single. It’s a cover of The Police classic “Message In A Bottle” — featuring none other than Sting himself!

The original was a UK #1 hit for The Police back in 1979 (It stalled in the US at #74). All Saints originally performed their cover at the charity concert Children In Need Rocks back in 2018, before including it in the setlist for their summer shows last year. They decided to lay down a recording earlier this year, then once Sting heard the demo he offered to add his own vocals, resulting in their new single.

Lyrically, the song is timely since it is a pretty good analogy to what is going on in the world right now. A castaway on an island sends out a message in a bottle to find love. A year later, with no response received, he thinks he is destined to be alone. Then he sees “a hundred billion bottles” on the shore and discovers that there are more people like him out there. It is a nice reminder that we are not alone during this time, since we are all facing this global pandemic together.

All Saints are: Natalie, Melanie, Shaznay, and Nicole

This recording has a different arrangement to the live versions All Saints previously performed and is slightly more downbeat. With its Ska feel, it would sound perfectly in place on their third album Studio 1 from 2006. It is extremely radio-friendly and bound to capture the Radio 2 audience in the UK. The only disappointment is that the vocals are mostly dominated by Shaznay. It made a refreshing change to hear more of Nicole and Natalie on the last two albums, however they are barely audible in this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6-5YvZ98GQ

It’s fantastic to have some new music from All Saints, even if current circumstances prevent us from having an accompanying music video (however, there is a great lyric video using the font from the first album era for an extra touch of nostalgia). Once this testing time is over, it will be great to see All Saints perform the song together again and follow this up with the release their much-anticipated sixth album.

"Message In A Bottle" was written by Sting. The All Saints version was produced by Future Cut, Iyiola Babalola, and Darren Lewis. It is available on digital outlets everywhere. Buy your copy today! We've added it to our 2020 Poptastic Confessions Playlist on Spotify. Enjoy!~

Cheers then,

—Normski

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