Sting The Bridge released

The Bridge Sting

Released: November 19, 2021 Peak: 101 US, 27 UK, 90 CN, 64 AU Sales (in millions): -- US, -- UK, -- world (includes US and UK) Genre: rock

Tracks: Song Title (Writers) [time] (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to singles charts. Rushing Water [3:17] (11/16/21, --) If It’s Love [3:12] (9/1/21, --) The Book of Numbers [3:18] Loving You [4:24] Harmony Road [3:18] For Her Love [3:45] The Hills on the Border [4:16] Captain Bateman [4:14] The Bells of St. Thomas [4:08] The Bridge [2:33] Total Running Time: 36:25

Rating: 3.402 out of 5.00 (average of 8 ratings)

About the Album: Sting recorded this album during the pandemic “with a coterie of trusted musicians beaming into his studio remotely.” AZ He explained, “I’ve been travelling the world for years…so the idea of being in one place for a few months, in the same bed, was strange to me. So, I had to get used to it.” He said, “I have a studio, so I would still go to work every day…My entire life was now in the studio.” AZ “He used musicians with whom he’d collaborated before – Dominic Miller, Branford Marsalis, Melissa Musique, Gene Noble, Josh Freese, Manu Katché, Jo Lawry, Fred Renaudin, Peter Tickell, Julian Sutton, Laila Biali, Gavin Brown, Shaggy, Donal Hodgson, Tony Lake and Martin Kierszenbaum with whom he co-produced the album.” AZ Regarding the album title, The Bridge, Sting noticed that the songs “were all about characters in transition, between one world and another, between relationships, life and death, and that was the connecting tissue.” BB He noted that “the meaning of ‘bridge’ contains multitudes. It links things, ideas, cultures, banks of a river. It’s a place you steer a ship from. It’s also a route into the past, and so it was that Sting found himself considering his own foundations – the music and the places that reside within his very DNA.” AZ This is “an album that intriguingly stretches backwards, showcasing the many different stages and genres through which Sting has journeyed in an unparalleled career.” AZ This is “a record that is at once modern and upbeat but rooted in Sting’s lifelong musical and lyrical passions.” AZ “Rushing Water starts things with funky, ’80s-flavored textures that lead into the buoyant, brassy…If It’s Love, BB “an unabashed pop song lent wings by a whistled refrain, joyful handclaps, and uplifting brass and strings.” AZ “Harmony Road, The Bells of St. Thomas, For Her Love and the title track, meanwhile, explore gentler and more elegiac moods, while “Captain Bateman” adapts a 12th century English folk song from a book Sting keeps on his piano at home.” BB “Further demonstrating his interest in, and mastery of, myriad genres is Loving You. What Sting describes as the song’s ‘stark musical setting’ of electronic beats and ambient synth washes comes courtesy of Maya Jane Coles, the Anglo-Japanese techno DJ, producer, remixer and engineer. ‘I added a little bass while Melissa Musique and Gene Noble lent their wonderful vocals, and the story of jealousy and hurt unfolded like a poisoned flower waiting for the sweet waters of reconciliation to rain down.’” AZ Notes: The deluxe edition included “Waters of Tyne,” “Captain Bateman’s Basement,” and a over of Otis Redding’s “Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay.”

Resources and Related Links: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Sting AZ Amazon BB Billboard (11/17/2021). “Sting Talks New Album ‘The Bridge’…” by Gary Graff WK Wikipedia Other Related DMDB Pages: First posted 11/19/2021; last updated 11/30/2021.