Electric Fetus

The clear vinyl version of The Bridge is an Electric Fetus exclusive in the U.S., limited to 500 copies.

Sting begins each day with a swim. “A religious morning ritual for me,” is how he describes it. “It’s hydrotherapy.”

“There’s a whole lot of water flowing through this album,” he says about the 14 brand new songs that form the body of work he’s christened The Bridge. “All of the songs on the album are bridged by people being between worlds,” the musician continues. 

Here, then, is another bridge: as well as pushing elegantly forward, this is an album that intriguingly stretches backwards, showcasing the many different stages and genres through which Sting has journeyed in an unparalleled career. The Bridge feels like a greatest hits, but one where all the songs are brand new. A record that is at once modern and upbeat but rooted in Sting’s lifelong musical and lyrical passions.

As he puts it: “These songs are between one place and another, between one state of mind and another, between life and death, between relationships. Between pandemics, and between eras – politically, socially and psychologically, all of us are in the middle of something. We need a bridge.”

Sting recorded the album over the last year with a coterie of trusted musicians beaming into his studio remotely. That easy sense of musical camaraderie, connection and kinship is on full display in the lead single ‘If It’s Love’, an unabashed pop song lent wings by a whistled refrain, joyful handclaps, and uplifting brass and strings.

That circle of trust, of a group of likeminded musicians pulling in a myriad of brilliant directions but with one accord, is another solid foundation for The Bridge. As a year’s worth of travel restrictions bit deeper, Sting also dug deeper, calling in – remotely – collaborators in France, Italy, America. “This album was made at distance. Nonetheless, what I’m singing about is what comes out of my head and my heart. The feelings are not small. They’re big emotions for me.”

But because of that, 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. So supported, Sting knew The Bridge – mixed by 4-time Grammy Award winner, Robert Orton -  could soar high and span the world – and also link directly, deeply, into what he was trying to say, and how he was saying it.