The newly issued Cat StevensTeaser and the Firecat super deluxe edition contains a mis-pressed vinyl record, admits Universal Music. As well as the CDs and blu-ray, this package contains two vinyl LPs, one of which is supposed to be a record of ‘alternate’ versions of all the tracks from the album. Despite being labelled as such on all elements of the packaging, it turns out that this record mistakenly features the new remaster of the 1971 album.
In a statement, team Yusuf/Cat Stevens have assured fans that “the issue [will be] corrected, at no cost to you”. And it sounds like no one will be required to return the ‘wrong’ vinyl record since they also say: “Hopefully the fact that you will end up with an extra vinyl of the remastered album will provide some small compensation for the trouble this causes”.
No detail, as yet, as to what purchaser’s need to do, but here’s Universal Music Catalogue’s statement on the problem:
“With great regret, we have to report that there has been an error in the production of the Teaser and the Firecat Super Deluxe Edition box set, wherein LP1 (Teaser and the Firecat: Alternate Versions), which comes in a blue sleeve, mistakenly contains the 50th anniversary remastered audio of the original 1971 album (and not the Alternate Versions).
We would like to offer our sincere apologies to everyone who has purchased the Super Deluxe Edition set, and for the inconvenience caused. We are having LP1 reprinted urgently, and will ensure that everyone who purchased the box set will be eligible to receive a replacement LP free of charge. More information for this process will be shared ASAP. Universal Music Group”
Universal Music Catalogue
It seems unlikely that any super deluxe box sets out in retailers will be recalled, so if you are thinking of making a purchaser, best advice is to go ahead and then make your claim for a replacement vinyl when the process has been publicised.
Watch the SDEtv unboxing video of the Teaser and the Firecat super deluxe edition (note: SDE had not played the vinyl when this was filmed, hence the issue wasn’t spotted and mentioned in commentary).
In a move that hints of archive ‘activity’, a previously unseen music video for The Police’s 1980 UK number one single ‘Don’t Stand So Close To Me’ has been unearthed after 41 years. The video has now been ‘released’ for Christmas 2021.
The film shows the band lip-syncing and generally larking around on the ski slopes of Grey Rock, Quebec, Canada, in the same location the original video for ‘Don’t Stand So Close To Me’ was shot. This was the winter of 1980 and a concert at Montreal’s Centre Sportif had been cancelled leaving the band with some time on their hands.
What is being dubbed the “Official Christmas Version” shows Sting, Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland messing around, dressing up as Santa, whizzing about on snowmobiles and indulging in high jinks such the other two encouraging Sting to get his kit off at one point (thankfully his modesty stays in tact and we only see the top half).
‘Don’t Stand So Close To Me’ was the first single from 1980’s Zenyatta Mondatta. Six years later, the band re-recorded the song. ‘Don’t Stand So Close To Me ’86’ was a modest hit and featured on the chart-topping compilation, Every Breath You Take: The Singles.
Andy Summers told SDE in August that a four-disc version of The Police’s 1979 album, Regatta De Blanc, “is coming” and although expected in 2022 he was not forthcoming with timelines (“There’s a gap this year, but it’s all coming, don’t worry” were his exact words).
Watch the unseen ‘Don’t Stand So Close To Me’ video, below.
Wings’ first album Wild Life was released 50 years ago today and Universal Music/MPL have announced that, like with the McCartney and RAM albums, a 50th anniversary half-speed mastered vinyl edition will be issued in February next year.
The album was recorded quickly at Abbey Road Studios in the summer of 1971 and produced by Paul McCartney and engineered by Alan Parsons and Tony Clark. Wild Life features no UK singles and it’s fair to say that it has a reputation for being a little bit lazy and loose in places (primarily thanks to the two opening tracks ‘Mumbo’ and ‘Bip Bop’), although over the years its reputation has improved somewhat and there’s undoubtedly some great material here, including the title track, ‘Dear Friend’ and ‘Some People Never Know’.
The 50th anniversary half-speed mastered Wild Life
The album was cut at half speed at Abbey Road Studios “using a high resolution transfer of the original 1971 master tapes” and includes a special OBI-strip. This edition is exclusive to indie retail and I’m pleased to say that the SDE shop has a limited allocation and we are also offering a specially-priced bundle which pairs the new vinyl with the recent Press to Play at 35 booklet (which is an SDE-exclusive publication).
The Wild Life half-speed mastered vinyl will be released on 4 February 2022. Pre-order via SDE using this link or the buttons below.
The Cat Stevens’ soundtrack to Hal Ashby’s 1971 classic cult film Harold and Maude will be expanded and reissued on CD and vinyl in the new year.
The soundtrack was never issued at the time, as Yusuf recalls: “I said, ‘You’re not putting out a soundtrack’, and the reason for that was it would have sounded like a collection of greatest hits from Mona Bone Jakon and Tea for the Tillerman. I said, “I don’t want to do a Greatest Hits yet.” So I never allowed them to put out the soundtrack, but I did write two songs for that. I did the demo in San Francisco and I always meant to do them properly but no, Hal puts them straight into the film and that was it, locked away. I’m saying, “no, no, no, it’s not finished!” but I love those recordings now because they’re so raw.”
Seven songs from those two 1970s albums were included, although these are different recordings. The two non-album tracks are ‘Don’t Be Shy’, and what became the movie’s unofficial theme, “If You Want To Sing Out, Sing Out”. Those songs surfaced on the 1984 Footsteps In The Dark collection, and were later included in the 2001 On The Road To Find Out box set.
Harold and Maude vinyl reissue (click image to enlarge)
The Harold and Maude official soundtrack album was first issued in 2007 by Cameron Crowe’s independent label, Vinyl Films and was also issued earlier this year as a limited edition coloured vinyl pressing for Record Store Day (it’s included in this SDEtv video preview).
This new vinyl edition is different to both of those in that for the first time it includes additional dialogue and instrumental music from the film. It also features different artwork on the front cover, and of course it’s released on CD as well. Audio has been remastered at Abbey Road.
The ‘enhanced packaging’ includes booklets for both CD and vinyl with sleeve notes, lyrics, transcription of movie dialogue, and photos from the Paramount Pictures production.
Harold and Maude will be released on 11 February 2022.
The Band’s fourth album, Cahoots, is reissued for its 50th anniversary across four physical formats, including a five-disc super deluxe edition. The latter has been delayed to this week in some regions (like the UK!).
This new Collected brings together a full overview of the Gene Clark‘s extensive career. It contains both his work with groups and duo’s like The Byrds, The Gosdin Brothers, Dillard & Clark, McGuinn, Clark & Hillman and Carla Olson, as well as many tracks from his highly regarded solo albums. Check out the track listing, below. There’s a 3LP vinyl set also available via indie retail, too.
The track listing of Gene Clark Collected (click image to enlarge)
Brian Wilson / At My Piano (new album)
Beach Boys legend Brian Wilson ‘reimagines’ the most iconic songs from his back catalogue with him alone at the piano. Featuring ‘God Only Knows’, ‘Wouldn’t it Be Nice’, ‘California Girls’, ‘Good Vibrations’ and many more. The CD version was issued a few weeks back, but this week sees the vinyl release.
4LP coloured vinyl bookpack, with a limited number signed
A decade ago, Suzanne Vega’sClose-UpSeries saw the singer-songwriter re-record swathes of her back catalogue and release newly-curated volumes of re-interpretations stripped of their original productions.
Four volumes were issued: Love Songs and People and Places (both in 2010), States of Being (2011) and Songs of Family (2012). These were primarily CD releases, although limited black vinyl pressings were issued at the time.
2014 saw the release of a 5CD+DVD deluxe set (now out-of-print), which collected all four volumes and added some bonus tracks and a DVD (Live & Backstage at City Winery).
Suzanne Vega Close-Up Series 4LP coloured vinyl set (click image to enlarge)
Now all four volumes are being pressed on coloured vinyl and are brought together in a special vinyl ‘bookpack’ which is limited to just 2,000 copies worldwide. It includes the Close-Up albums volumes 1-4, each as a different colour 180g heavyweight vinyl LP and this deluxe package comes with a 28-page booklet featuring a foreword by Suzanne Vega, a brand new essay by Lenny Kaye and the full lyrics for each song.
500 copies of the 2000 limited edition come with an exclusive art print of the front cover signed by Suzanne Vega. These can be ordered from the official Suzanne Vega shop.
This Close-UpSeries coloured vinyl box set will be released on 25 March 2022.
Today Tears For Fears release ‘No Small Thing’, the second single from their forthcoming studio album The Tipping Point. This song is the opening track on the album and has particular importance to The Tipping Point because in many ways it ‘saved’ the album. Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith spoke to SDE to explain why.
First, some background.Rather than just letting them get on with it recording a new album, Tears For Fears’ management (at the time) had other ideas and suggested that Roland and Curt tried songwriting and producing with younger artists, in an attempt to write ‘commercial’ songs that would – in theory – resonate with a younger audience and help them make an impact in this modern era of streaming and playlists. Roland calls this process ‘speed dating’ and it led the band down a creative cul-de-sac which would ultimately threaten not only the new album, but Roland and Curt’s union.
Roland: God bless him, but I sometimes wonder whether our manager was actually a fan of ours. Especially after he walked in on us at Charlton’s studio [Charlton Pettus is a TFF co-writer/producer/mixer] and said, “You’re not going to get this record done, with Charlton, in this studio”. So, that’s when we were sucked into the ‘speed dating’ way of writing.
Some might suggest that a band who enjoyed two consecutive number one singles in America in the 1980s (‘Everybody Wants to Rule The World’ and ‘Shout’) both taken from a number one album [Songs From The Big Chair] don’t need lessons from youngsters when it comes to writing hits. But Curt and Roland were open and humble enough to give it a go and not reject the idea outright.
Roland: We were willing to do it, because there’s an element of self-doubt in everyone. And to be honest with you, back then, we were searching for a direction. We met some good people. We always came away with something.
Curt: It may have worked and we did find one good relationship with Sacha Skarbek [British songwriter/producer who has worked with James Blunt, Adele, Lana Del Rey, amongst others], who we ended up working with on The Tipping Point.
The pair agree that The Tipping Point’s opener, ‘No Small Thing’ was the song that got things back on track, and enabled the two men to work together productively while feeling excited about a fresh approach and a new direction.
Roland: None of those original [‘speed dating’] tracks got anywhere near this new album.
Curt: The record we first finished, I couldn’t listen to. That was the problem. I listened to it and I was exhausted by the end of it. It didn’t tell me a story; it didn’t make me feel good – it made me feel angry! [laughs]. And I don’t like that feeling. You know, I prefer more calm. But then that’s the balance between the two of us. Roland is more intense, and that has its place, and I tend to be more introspective and quiet. And somewhere in the middle is where you get Tears For Fears.
The record we first finished, I couldn’t listen to. It didn’t make me feel good – it made me feel angry!
Curt Smith
Roland: When we got together in early 2020, just before the pandemic kicked off, we were searching for where to go. We sat down with acoustic guitars in Curt’s house – for the first time since we were about 18 – and Curt came up with this riff, and then we were off, with ‘No Small Thing’. I don’t know where that came from but I took it back to England and finished it. I wasn’t sure about it, but my wife said: “It’s great, send it to Curt!”. So, I sent it to him and he said “This is really good”.
We sat down with acoustic guitars in Curt’s house, for the first time since we were about 18
Roland Orzabal
Then when we got together at the end of 2020, we finished it. That was the key track, because it was not like anything we’d attempted. Not even like anything we’d done before, really, with the acoustic Dylan-esque, Johnny Cash-esque intro and then evolving into a Led Zeppelin, crazy Beatles-type ending. But that’s why we chose it as the first track on the album because that was the song that unlocked it. And then, very quickly, ‘Rivers of Mercy’, ‘Break the Man’ and ‘Master Plan’ all came along.
Curt: Once that track came, along with ‘Rivers of Mercy’ and ‘Please Be Happy’, suddenly we had a narrative. I think those all tell a story and while it’s not like a prevailing theme, it has a story that had a flow to it that we were missing before. Before that, everything was focused on, you know, “Is it up tempo?”, “Is it commercial?”, “Is it hooky?” and “Is it modern?”. We threw all that out the window and said let’s do something we like, something that inspires and is interesting to us. With ‘No Small Thing’ when we sat down with acoustic guitars and then when Roland sent me his initial work on the recording, it was like “Yes, this is interesting. This makes me want to listen”, so it ticked all the boxes for me.
The new Tears For Fears single ‘No Small Thing’, taken from the forthcoming album, The Tipping Point
What do you think of ‘No Small Thing’? Leave a comment. The Tipping Point will be released early next year on 22 February 2022. The SDE exclusive CD with three bonus tracks has sold out.
The NOW music team are to release Now That’s What I Call Punk & New Waveearly in the new year. This compilation features prominent artists from the late 1970s and early 1980s such as The Clash, Blondie, Ramones, U2, Buzzcocks, Siouxsie And The Banshees, Adam & The Ants, The Jam and The Cure.
It also highlights tracks from the likes of The Rezillos, Tom Robinson Band, X-Ray Spex, Sham 69, The Rich Kids, Jilted John, The Ruts, The Slits and The Vapors and many more.
Now That’s What I Call Punk & New Wave features 89 tracks on the 4CD edition (click image to enlarge)
Now That’s What I Call Punk & New Wave will be issued as a 4CD set, with a generous 89 tracks, and as a limited edition 2LP neon pink vinyl set, offering 34 songs.
This new compilation will be issued on 21 January 2022.
UMC’s budget imprint Spectrum delivers another Essential collection, this time offering three CDs of great music from Nik Kershaw who was massive in the UK in 1984 and 1985.
This release is very welcome since it has been a long EIGHT YEARS since Universal Music put out anything Kershaw-related (that being the 2CD deluxe of The Riddle) and the reissue ‘campaign’ – if it really can be called a campaign – ground to a halt after two fairly well received double-disc packages of Human Racing and The Riddle. As if to underline quite how long ago this was, at the time UMC didn’t even bother with vinyl reissues of either title and just put out 2CD sets.
Essential Nik Kershaw includes songs from all four studio albums recorded for MCA (the first two from 1984, as mentioned above, and Radio Musicola (1986) and The Works (1989)). It offers hits, B-sides and oddities.
CD 3 is reserved for remixes and amongst its ten tracks are extended versions of ‘Radio Musicola’, ‘One Step Ahead’ and ‘Elizabeth’s Eyes’ the first two of which make their CD debut on this compilation.
Essential Nik Kershaw will be released on 14 January 2022.
A new Frankie Goes To Hollywood compilation will be released in January. Essential Frankie Goes To Hollywood, like the Nik Kershaw set issued in the same month, is a budget release that offers a satisfying mix of familiar hits, rarities and remixes.
Arguably, there is nothing much ‘rare’ anymore from any of the commercial (or even promotional) releases from the original Frankie era of 1983-1986, but nevertheless, this new compilation certainly ticks many boxes with an intelligent selection of singles, album tracks, B-sides and remixes. Highlights include the seven-inch (B-side) version of ‘The World Is My Oyster’, the Gary Moore Attack Mix of ‘Warriors of the Wasteland’, the ‘live’ Montreux Mixes of both ‘Rage Hard’ and ‘Warriors’, the inclusion of ‘Disneyland’, The Last Seven Inches version of ‘Relax’ and the Freddie Bastone Mix of ‘Rage Hard’.
What’s notable about this package is the presentation adheres carefully to the original ZTT aesthetic, with Phillip Marshall handling design duties (he co-designed the glorious Inside The Pleasuredome box set from 2014).
Essential Frankie Goes To Hollywood will be released on 14 January 2022.
The demos of PJ Harvey’s Mercury Music Prize-winning album Let England Shake will be issued on CD and vinyl early next year, along with a vinyl reissue of the original 2011 studio album.
This continues Harvey’s reissue series and this collection of unreleased demos features every track from her eighth studio album, including ‘The Words That Maketh Murder’, ‘The Glorious Land’ and ‘The Last Living Rose’.
The cover features brand new artwork – a drawing by Polly – and the package includes previously unseen photos by Seamus Murphy. As always, the mastering is by Jason Mitchell at Loud Mastering, under the guidance of longtime PJ Harvey producer John Parish.
The CD version of Let England Shake – Demos (click image to enlarge)
You know the drill by now: the studio album proper is reissued on vinyl but not on CD. Both vinyl editions come with download codes. By the time these reissues come out the album will be just short of 11 years old.
Let England Shake – Demos and Let England Shake are reissued on 28 January 2022.
Glastonbury rockers Reef return next year with Shoot Me Your Ace, their sixth studio album. It’s produced by Duran Duran guitarist Andy Taylor, you can preview the title track, below.
Shoot Me Your Ace is described as “thrilling blast of unadulterated rock’n’roll joy that doesn’t just match such classic Reef albums as 1995 breakout debut Replenish or 1997’s transcendent Glow, but exceeds them”. Time will tell if the new record can live up to such hyperbole.
Blue marbled vinyl edition. Amazon UK have a signed exclusive
There is a special blue marbled edition and Amazon in the UK exclusively have 300 copies signed copies (now sold out). The official shop offers signed CDs, an exclusive transparent red vinyl edition with a signed print and various bundles.
Shoot Me Your Ace will be released on 29 April 2022 (was 15 April).
Depeche Mode release a deluxe box set edition of their classic 101 documentary/album from 1989. This reissue sees the original film “meticulously upgraded” using 4k scans of the original film reels to create a new HD edition.
SDE takes a look at three formats of the new Cat StevensTeaser and the Firecat 50th anniversary reissue, including the big eight-disc super deluxe edition.
Teaser and the Firecat 50th anniversary reissue is out now.
Compare prices and pre-order
Yusuf / Cat Stevens
Teaser and the Firecat - 4CD+blu-ray+2LP+seven-inch super deluxe
UK fans can order the Bowie vinyl box from France and pay around £285 which includes the ‘import fees deposit’ and means you will not pay any extra upon arrival in the UK! £43 saving on current UK price of £315.
New low price! 50th anniversary of George Harrison’sAll Things Must Pass. This box features a new mix of the by mixer/engineer Paul Hicks and 47 demo recordings, session outtakes and studio jams (42 of which are previously unreleased). This also includes a blu-ray audio with Dolby Atmos, 5.1 and hi-res stereo mixes.
The Rolling Stones/From the Vault: Live in Leeds 19822CD+DVD (NTSC, region-free)
This is the lavish large format 5CD super deluxe edition of Wildflowers & All The Rest which was initially ‘D2C’ only. It’s £167 in the UK but this price in the USA works out at around £95
Germany Deals
UK residents who order from Germany will not incur any import charges for fees if the total ‘consignment’ value is under £135
Bob Dylan/Springtime in New York: Bootleg Vol.165CD box set
The White Album reissue features the album across two CDs, the Esher Demos on another CD and then three CDs of sessions! Plus a blu-ray with a 5.1 and mono mixes and an amazing hard cover book!
Bob Marley & The Wailers/The Complete Island Recordings11CD box set
Remastered album with 9 bonus track, Live at the Royal Albert Hall, blu-ray with 5.1 mix and the RAH show, plus vinyl etc. No extra fees for UK fans buying from Germany (if total is under £135). Watch the SDEtv unboxing video.
A brilliant edition of a brilliant album. Two red vinyl LPs pressed at 45RPM. Comes with colour transparencies and lyric book plus MP3/WAV download card. No extra fees for UK fans buying from Germany (if total is under £135).
The Beatles/Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band4CD+DVD+blu-ray super deluxe
Out today is a Acoustic Ambient Spheres, a second vinyl box set featuring music by German electronic avant-garde band Popol Vuh.
This 4LP vinyl package includes the albums Seligpreisung (1973), Coeur de Verre (1970),Agape-Agape (Love-Love) (1983) and Cobra Verde (1987), four important progressive rock & ambient works by the band from the 1970s and 1980s. Cobra Verde and Coeur de Verre are the original soundtracks of the Werner Herzog cinema-classics.
Watch an unboxing video, below.
Compare prices and pre-order
Popol Vuh
Vol 2 Acoustic and Ambient Spheres - 4LP vinyl box
SDE takes a listen to the Japanese deluxe edition of Sting’s 15th studio album and returns a verdict.
Rushing Water
The second ‘single’ from The Bridge, ‘Rushing Water’, has a pleasing Police-like economy, even if Sting’s multi-tracked vocal is somewhat distracting, at least at first. This is an accomplished pop-rock song and although it never threatens the top tier of Sting’s output, it’s a decent opener and offers some hope for The Bridge. 3.5/5
If It’s Love
‘If It’s Love’ was the first song from The Bridge to be ‘released’ – aka revealed to the listening public. It’s a breezy, fairly lightweight number which performs a similar role to ‘I Can’t Stop Thinking About You’ from 57th and 9th. The whistling is a bit annoying, but the song doesn’t outstay its welcome and is over in three minutes. 3/5
The Book of Numbers
The Bridge is full of biblical references (Jonah and the Whale has already been mentioned in ‘Rushing Water’) and none more so than on ‘The Book of Numbers’ which is just a cool way of saying ‘The Bible’. Co-written by Sting and his longtime guitarist Dominic Miller, this song benefits from a great arrangement with programmed drums and laid back, slightly bluesy guitar phrases in the verses. But the synth brass in the chorus is more cheesy than cheddar dipped in baked camembert and the rather average chorus rather lets the song down. 3/5
Loving You
This track is all minimal beats and atmospheric synths. In the song, a man tells of what he has to endure in his relationship that ostensibly ‘proves’ his love for his partner. These include “the smell of another man’s skin” (I guess she’s playing away from home) and, rather dubiously, having to “suffer in silence” instead of resorting to violence. Poor you. This guy is really feeling sorry for himself, but questionable lyrics to one side, the chorus is very catchy and this has a fine production which is more enjoyable than the jangly guitars and whistling on ‘If It’s Love’. 4/5
Harmony Road
This song has what sounds like a ludicrous time signature – probably 13/17 or something – and Sting almost trips over his words as he crams what he has to say into the melody, but I rather like this. It’s what we want from Sting – complicated, occasionally pretentious music. Oasis this ain’t. ‘Harmony Road’ also benefits from the consummate skills of Branford Marsalis on Saxophone, although the downside of this contribution is that it does rather remind you that The Bridge isn’t in the same league as The Dream of the Blue Turtles. 3/5
‘Rushing Water’ from Sting’s new album, The Bridge
For Her Love
You are unlikely to publicly accuse yourself of plagiarism, so why not just nick a riff from one of your old songs? ‘For Her Love’ has a Dominic Miller acoustic guitar figure that appears to be ‘inspired’ by the Dominic Miller acoustic guitar figure on Ten Summoner’s Tale‘s ‘Shape of My Heart’. This is okay, because ‘Shape of My Heart’ is really good (although it only got to number 57 in the UK charts, fact fans), therefore it’s hard not to like ‘For Her Love’. Sting does his thing, lyrically, where his poses a list of questions and you get the pay-off line at the end. It’s not dissimilar to ‘If I Ever Lose My Faith In You’ in that respect, although ‘For Your Love’ isn’t of the same quality because Sting ‘forgot’ to write a chorus for it. It’s ‘Shape of My Heart’-lite, in truth, so only you can decide if you’ll pay money for this art. 4/5
The Hills On The Border
Sting gets all folky on ‘The Hills On The Border’, with a fiddle (by Peter Tickell), acoustic guitars and a shuffle-y beat. The song is a moral story, a variation on the well-worn tale of the good samaritan, as a man – a soldier – shares another man’s burden on an unspecified journey. The titular hills, Sting explains in the deluxe booklet, are The Cheviots, which are rolling hills straddling the Anglo-Scottish border between Northumberland and the Scottish Borders which “existed as a war zone for almost a thousand years”. Despite this interesting background, ‘The Hills On The Border’ is a rather lacking; as journeys go, it’s a little bit “are we there yet?”. 2/5
Captain Bateman
This song is based on a traditional ballad (from the 15th Century) called ‘Lord Bateman’, which concerns “a noble lord of high degree” stuck in a prison in a foreign country. He gets freed because he promises to marry the jailer’s daughter, but the lying swine doesn’t keep his promise. Some people! This is one of the more successful songs on side two of The Bridge since while Sting indulges in his fascination with historical figures and ye olde storytellers (in short, people who say ‘thee’ and probably drink mead) there’s a strong chorus and a pop sensibility at play here, particularly notable in the outro, which stripes back the fiddles and pipes and allows the synths and programmed drums to come through. 3/5
The Bells of St. Thomas
This song has a relaxed jazzy feel, with brushes on the drum kit (courtesy of Manu Katché). It has a sad, reflective vibe although only Sting would write a song about “a drifter who finds himself propositioned by the wife of a wealthy man [and] is conflicted and finds himself drawn by the bells of a nearby church, where he encounters a triptych painting by Rubens, Epitaph of Nicolaas Rockox and His Wife Andriana Perez”. Come on, we’ve all been there! I like the production – or lack of – on this track, which has an ‘organic’ feel when compared to some of the more produced numbers from earlier on, but it’s a bit of a wordy, rambling, shaggy-dog-story of a song. This is so laid back it barely registers and not for the first time on the album it feels as if Sting hasn’t worried much about song structure and having a catchy chorus. 2.5/5
The Bridge
The title track ends the album and starts of with some guitar work that reminds you of José González’s version of The Knife’s ‘Heartbeats’. This is unvarnished Sting, his voice a bit rawer and rougher than it has sounded on the rest of the album and it’s just him and Dominic Miller on finger-picked guitars. The lyric uses the metaphor of a ‘Bridge’ about how people react to life’s adversities, which you get the feeling Sting was very pleased with, but it doesn’t really connect for me. That aside, the main problem with ‘The Bridge’ is that melodically it’s not going anywhere particularly interesting and the chorus is weak. There are no striking chord changes to lift the words, or diversions to surprise you – the song is content to stay contained within a fairly predictable folk-song structure. I think ‘The Empty Chair’ which ended 2016’s 57th & 9th in similar acoustic fashion is a much better song than this and more moving. 2/5
Bonus tracks
Waters of Tyne
A traditional song, sung by Sting who accompanies himself on acoustic guitar. As you would expect, with plenty of references to “the boatman”, North Sheilds and Jarrow. Very earnest and very bonus track-y. 2/5
Captain Bateman’s Basement
What’s that? You’d like a pop-funk instrumental with Sting scat singing over a bass-drum groove. You should have said earlier. Weird and slight. 1/5
(Sittin’ On ) The Dock of the Bay
Sting tackles the Otis Redding classic. He says it has “long lingered at the top of my favourite song list”. He sings it in quite a low key, so his voice doesn’t really cut through like you hope it might. He needs to practise his whistling. 2/5
I Guess the Lord Must Be in New York City[Japan-only bonus track]
A cover of Harry Nilsson’s song that was written for, but not ultimately used in, Midnight Cowboy. By FAR the best of the four bonus tracks so it’s a mystery why it was selected to be the exclusive Japanese bonus track. This was recorded at the request of Sting’s friend Griffin Dunne (him from After Hours) who used it to accompany a short film he’d made in tribute to first responders and their work during the early days of the pandemic. 4/5
Summary
The Bridge starts off a a promising, modern-sounding pop album but Sting can’t keep it up and two-thirds in, he reverts to ponderous, folky story-telling about noblemen, soldiers and the like. This isn’t a bad thing per se, but the melodies and the hooks dry up to a degree.In terms of overall quality, this record is roughly on par with its predecessor, 57th & 9th. For a man of Sting’s talents we expected more. The bonus tracks are shocking, so I’d strongly recommend you don’t fork up for the limited 2LP set that includes them. The Bridge is an album that links the mainland of ‘quite good’ with the island of ‘not bad’.
Interview
![David Bowie / Brilliant Adventure [1992-2001] 11CD box set](https://images.superdeluxeedition.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/CDspread600.jpg)
