Sting Unveils New Album 'The Bridge,' Shares Lead Single

Hear the rock icon's new track "If It's Love"

BY Megan LaPierrePublished Sep 1, 2021

It's no secret that Sting probably has more than enough royalties to retire multiple times over, but the former Police frontman is happily still churning out new music. Today, he's announced a new LP entitled The Bridge, set to arrive this November. The artist has also shared its first single "If It's Love."

The Bridge follows Sting's 2019 rework project My Songs, as well as his 2018 collaboration with Shaggy 44/876 (released on 4/20 for obvious reasons). The new album will consist of entirely new, original material from the musician, with the exception of an Otis Redding cover as a Deluxe Edition bonus track.

A pandemic album through and through, The Bridge's title and contents were birthed of the struggles of the last eighteen months (or however long it's been now); a turmoil we're all familiar with in our individual ways. Sting — he's just like us!

"These songs are between one place and another, between one state of mind and another, between life and death, between relationships," the artist explained. "Between pandemics and between eras – politically, socially and psychologically, all of us are stuck in the middle of something. We need a bridge."

Sting's previewing said bridge today with lead single "If It's Love." It's a whistling — literally — pop jaunt driven by the musician's unmistakable vocals, with some glossed-out horns and handclaps. Adult Alternative radio station ads are sure to be multiplying as we speak — easy, breezy listening, indeed.

Of the track, Sting said in a statement:

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.

We're glad we can always count on this guy to deliver his poetry with self-awareness.

Listen to "If It's Love" and find the full album tracklisting below ahead of its release on November 19 via A&M/Interscope/Cherrytree.

Last year, Sting was among the high-profile guests who shared their experiences with psychedelics in Netflix's animated documentary Have a Good Trip



The Bridge:

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
12. Captain Bateman's Basement (Deluxe Bonus Track)
13. (Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay (Deluxe Bonus Track)

Pre-order The Bridge.

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