Just ahead of his 70th birthday, Sting has announced his 15th solo studio album, The Bridge, along with an upbeat new single, “If It’s Love.” The 10-track album will be released on November 19 via A&M/Interscope/Cherrytree Records.
“I’m certainly not the first songwriter to equate falling in or out of love with an incurable sickness, nor will I be the last,” Sting shared in a press statement.
“‘If It’s Love’ is my addition to that canon where the tropes of metaphorical symptoms, diagnosis, and downright incapacity are all familiar enough to make each of us smile ruefully.”
Sting wrote The Bridge during the pandemic and the album finds the prolific singer-songwriter “ruminating on personal loss, separation, disruption, lockdown, and extraordinary social and political turmoil.”
“These songs are between one place and another, between one state of mind and another, between life and death, between relationships,” Sting shared. “Between pandemics, and between eras – politically, socially, and psychologically, all of us are stuck in the middle of something. We need a bridge.”
The songs on The Bridge were produced by Sting and Martin Kierszenbaum, except “Loving You” produced by Sting, Maya Jane Coles, and Martin Kierszenbaum. The album was mixed by Robert Orton, engineered by Donal Hodgson and Tony Lake, and mastered by Gene Grimaldi at Oasis Mastering.
The Bridge also boasts a number of veteran musicians including Dominic Miller (guitar), Josh Freese (drums), Branford Marsalis (saxophone), Manu Katché (drums), Martin Kierszenbaum (keyboards), Fred Renaudin (synthesizer), and backing vocalists Melissa Musique, Gene Noble, Jo Lawry, and Laila Biali.
The Bridge will be available on a variety of formats, including standard and deluxe CD and vinyl, Japanese Exclusive standard and deluxe albums, all digital streaming and download platforms, as well as a music cassette.
The deluxe CD and vinyl will include bonus tracks “Waters of Tyne,” “Captain Bateman’s Basement,” and “(Sittin’ on) The Dock of the Bay.” Both Japanese exclusives will be on SHM-CD including the additional bonus track “I Guess the Lord Must Be in New York City,” while the deluxe version will also include a DVD with an interview and track by track discussion with Sting, as well as music videos for “If It’s Love” and “Rushing Water.”
The Bridge is available to pre-order.
The Bridge Track Listing:
1. Rushing Water
2. If It’s Love
3. The Book of Numbers
4. Loving You
5. Harmony Road
6. For Her Love
7. The Hills on the Border
8. Captain Bateman
9. The Bells of St. Thomas
10. The Bridge
11. Waters of Tyne (Deluxe bonus track)
12. Captain Bateman’s Basement (Deluxe bonus track)
13. (Sittin’ on) The Dock of the Bay (Deluxe bonus track)
*(Japanese exclusive bonus track)
14. I Guess the Lord Must Be in New York City
