J IS FOR. . . JUXTAPOSITION
When I first heard about Sting and Shaggy collaborating, I almost spat out my tea. As juxtapositions go, you couldn’t get two more different artists. But that’s not to say they don’t gel and, after one listen of Don’t Make Me Wait, I was convinced. Their album, 44/876, may not be one that I’ll go back to in years to come, but it worked. The two artists found a collaboration that no one else would have or could have thought of, and delivered the goods.
That’s when you get some of the best pop music, I think. When you take one great artist, mix them with another – who might be completely different, even diametrically opposed – and come up with something as daring as it is absorbing.