Friday, March 29, 2024

Review: Sting, Author of Spiritual Pop, Brings Vivid Characters to Life in Beautiful New Album, “The Bridge”

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We first met Sting, all of us, circa late 1978 with “Roxanne,” the story of a call girl the narrator was trying to rescue from her vocation. Roxanne, who could walk the street for money, she didn’t care if it was wrong or right. “Roxanne” was the first captivating fictional character in a long line of them now extending over 40 years in songs by Gordon Matthew Sumner.

Along the way, Sting wrote a poignant memoir, “Broken Music,” and a Broadway musical about his life growing up in Newcastle called “The Last Ship.”

What sustains all those songs though is that they are not just love songs, or musings on fame. Unlike the songwriters of today, Sting constructed plots and stories, characters with names and emotions and aspirations. It’s why we go back to them over and over. From Roxanne to the King of Pain to the romantics in those fields of gold, Sting paints an aural picture in every song and draws us in.

So, too, in his beautiful new layered album, “The Bridge.” He’s smart: the first three or four tracks are the singles, all very catchy, especially “If It’s Love,” which is deceptive the way “Every Breath You Take” was, but hidden depths. Listen to it a couple of times. It’s top 40 with a bite.

I’ve already expressed my love for “Rushing Water,” which kicks off the album. Also a “hit” in the old sense that has a haunting undercurrent:

This is the sound of atmospheres
Three metric tonnes of pressure
This is the sum of all my fears
Something I just can’t measure

“Rushing Water” ties directly to the title track, “The Bridge,” the sneaky elegy for the songs that come in between. There are plenty of Roxanne like characters, from “Captain Bateman” (which has disarming harmonics) and the people who long to leave the violence on “Harmony Road.” “The Bridge” album is a collection of short stories.

There’s actually a whole movie in “The Bells of St. Thomas” with the main character waking up in Antwerp in the bed of a rich woman who thinks he’s dead. (This song deserves a Grammy and an Oscar.)

Don’t know how I got here
Or if I was led
But I know it’s a Sunday
For the bells in my head
And when you get to the actual “Bridge,” it’s a spiritual crossing:
We are but bags of blood and bone, yet we carry the weight of our sons and our daughters
And now the fields are all but drowned, and we climb up to the ridge
Some will seek the higher ground
Some of us the bridge

A friend of mine in music publishing who has nothing to do with Sting said to me today, “He’s done something very unusual with this album, very different and important.” We take our rock superstars for granted a lot because we’ve already had the hits, the legacy.

But my friend is right. “The Bridge” is a moment, and after 15 solo albums (plus all of the Police) it’s a remarkable achievement. It hearkens back to “The Soul Cages.” And still is very accessible. The compositions are so rich and textured, put on real headphones if you can and listen to Branford Marsalis and Dominic Miller and all the other players. “The Bridge” is a treat.
Roger Friedman
Roger Friedmanhttps://www.showbiz411.com
Roger Friedman began his Showbiz411 column in April 2009 after 10 years with Fox News, where he created the Fox411 column. His movie reviews are carried by Rotten Tomatoes, and he is a member of both the movie and TV branches of the Critics Choice Awards. His articles have appeared in dozens of publications over the years including New York Magazine, where he wrote the Intelligencer column in the mid 90s and covered the OJ Simpson trial, and Fox News (when it wasn't so crazy) where he covered Michael Jackson. He is also the writer and co-producer of "Only the Strong Survive," a selection of the Cannes, Sundance, and Telluride Film festivals, directed by DA Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus.
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