Sting Again

I'm listening to "Message in a Bottle" right now, which brings me back to the old question: What's the deal with Sting? No matter how much I try to understand, he just eludes me. I do believe that Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland made him a lot better than he would have been without them. But the songs he wrote really were amazing. Yet, the songs he writes now are just so unbelievably bland. Is he advanced? Is he awful? Who knows? I can usually tell in my gut whether someone is advanced, but not Sting. If only I didn't love the Police so much, I could just dismiss Sting. But they were way too good and original for me not to figure out what the deal is. I think what I need to do is listen to tons and tons of Sting's solo work and make up my mind once and for all. Anything for science, I guess.