The artist chastises those who claim to be compassionate yet wage “war on love and life itself” (“This War”). On “The Book of My Life,” he pages through joys and sorrows, and muses about chapters yet unwritten. “Whenever I Say Your Name” gleans pleasure and comfort from thoughts of an absent partner. Sting regrets “walking away from Jesus’ love” and does a major U-turn (“Dead Man’s Rope”), however …
As solid and sincere as that song is, Sacred Love reflects a mix-and-match smorgasbord of incompatible “faiths” (Sting has spoken of embracing Taoism and New Age ideas). Lyrically, it gets flaky when he claims, “There’s no religion but sex and music” and “no prayer but the one I sing” (“Send Your Love”). On the title track, a man tells his lover, “You’re my religion, you’re my church” and says all the saints and angels bow down to her (he also prays to the moon and stars and asserts that, when “the word got made into flesh and blood,” the result was his woman). “Forget About the Future” puts stock in astrology. “Inside” is angry and cynical about love. A breakup either involves an unmarried couple sleeping together or a spouse leaving for illegitimate reasons (“Never Coming Home”).
Lots of passion here, but romance and religion often become one and the same. A noble attempt to wax spiritual gets stung by confusion and carnality.
