Jeff’s Playlist: Brand New Day

Sting — Brand New Day

This is my favorite Sting album out of 15 stu­dio albums. When we moved to Fleming County in 1999 we passed our mov­ing van on the way up there. It was bro­ken down on HWY 68. The first thing I did when we got to our new house was set up the stereo in the loft and play this album while Adra sat on the filthy, fur­ni­ture-less floor and cried — her typ­i­cal stress reac­tion to mov­ing. Bowser, on the oth­er hand, howled joy­ful­ly at “A Thousand Years,” so nat­u­ral­ly, I cranked it up. This album starts off great and ends great. Give it a lis­ten, I think you’ll agree.

Album Information

All tracks are writ­ten by Sting, except where noted.

1.         “A Thousand Years” Kipper, Sting 5:58
2.         “Desert Rose” (feat. Cheb Mami)             4:45
3.         “Big Lie, Small World” (feat. David Hartley)                    5:05
4.         “After the Rain Has Fallen”            5:03
5.         “Perfect Love...Gone Wrong” (feat. Sté Strausz)            5:24
6.         “Tomorrow We’ll See” (feat. David Hartley)                    4:47
7.         “Prelude to the End of the Game”            0:20
8.         “Fill Her Up” (feat. James Taylor)             5:39
9.         “Ghost Story”            5:29
10.       “Brand New Day”                6:19

Sting – lead vocals, back­ing vocals, bass gui­tar, Roland VG‑8 gui­tar syn­the­siz­er
Kipper – key­boards, drum pro­gram­ming
Jason Rebello – acoustic piano, clavinet
Don Blackman – Hammond organ
David Hartley – Hammond organ, string arrange­ments and con­duc­tor (3, 6)
Dominic Miller – gui­tars
B. J. Cole – ped­al steel gui­tar
Vinnie Colaiuta – drums
Manu Katché – drums
Mino Cinelu – per­cus­sion
Ettamri Mustapha – dar­bou­ka
Branford Marsalis – clar­inet
Chris Botti – trum­pet
Kathryn Tickell – Northumbrian pipes, fid­dle
Stevie Wonder – har­mon­i­ca (10)
Farhat Bouallagui – string arrange­ments, con­duc­tor and leader (2)
Isobel Griffiths – orches­tral con­trac­tor (2, 3, 6)
Gavyn Wright – string leader (3, 6)
Moulay Ahmed – strings (2, 3, 6)
Kouider Berkan – strings (2, 3, 6)
Salem Bnouni – strings (2, 3, 6)
Sameh Catalan – strings (2, 3, 6)
Cheb Mami – vocals (2)
Sté Strausz’ – French rap (5)
James Taylor – vocals (8)
Tawatha Agee – back­ing vocals
Dennis Collins – back­ing vocals
Joe Mendes – back­ing vocals
Janice Pendarvis – back­ing vocals, vocal con­trac­tor
Pamela Quinlan – back­ing vocals
Althea Rodgers – back­ing vocals
Marlon Saunders – back­ing vocals
Vaneese Thomas – back­ing vocals
Darryl Tookes – back­ing vocals
Ken Williams – back­ing vocals

Sting – pro­duc­er
Kipper – pro­duc­er
Neil Dorfsman – engi­neer
Simon Osborne – engi­neer, mix­ing
Geoff Foster – strings engi­neer (2, 3, 6)
Etienne Colin – assis­tant engi­neer
Nicholas Duport – assis­tant engi­neer
Andrew Fellus – assis­tant engi­neer
Brian Garten – assis­tant engi­neer
Ricky Graham – assis­tant engi­neer
Ben Kape – assis­tant engi­neer
Stephanie Levy‑B – assis­tant engi­neer
Peter “Hopps” Lorimer – assis­tant engi­neer
Aya Takemura – assis­tant engi­neer
Chris Blair – mas­ter­ing
Abbey Road Studios (London, UK) – mas­ter­ing loca­tion
Joe Mama-Nitzberg – art direc­tion
Jodi Peckman – art direc­tion
Richard Frankel – pack­age design
Olaf Heine – pho­tog­ra­phy
Carter Smith – photography

Released       September 27 1999
Recorded       June 1998−June 1999
Studio             Il Palagio Italy Studio Mega Paris Right Track Recording NYC Avatar Studios NYC Air Lyndhurst Hall London
Length            48:49
Label              A&M
Producer        Sting, Kipper