A month ahead of his 70th birthday, Sting has unveiled his 15th solo studio album, “The Bridge,” and its first single, “If It’s Love.” The 10-track album was recorded during the pandemic and will be released Nov. 19 via A&M/Interscope/Cherrytree Records.
Says the former Police frontman of the lead track, which is reminiscent of a poppier version of his ‘90s hit “All This Time,” “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. ’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 is backed on the album by longtime collaborators guitarist Dominic Miller, drummer Josh Freese and saxophonist Branford Marsalis. The follow-up to 2019’s “My Songs” was produced by Sting and his manager, Martin Kierszenbaum, with British producer Maya Jane Coles lending a hand on the ballad “Losing You.”
“These songs are between one place and another, between one state of mind and another, between life and death, between relationships,” Sting says. “Between pandemics, and between eras – politically, socially and psychologically, all of us are stuck in the middle of something. We need a bridge.”
Sting will return to live performance Sept. 27 in Sicily. On Oct. 29, he will begin his Las Vegas residency My Songs at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace.
Here is the track list for “The Bridge”:
“Rushing Water”
“If It’s Love”
“The Book of Numbers”
“Loving You”
“Harmony Road”
“For Her Love”
“The Hills on the Border”
“Captain Bateman”
“The Bells of St. Thomas”
“The Bridge”
“Waters of Tyne” (Deluxe Edition bonus track)
“Captain Bateman’s basement” (Deluxe Edition bonus track)
“(Sittin’ on) The Dock of the Bay” (Deluxe Edition bonus track)
“I Guess the Lord Must Be in New York City* (Japanese exclusive bonus track)
