The Bridge (Ace of Base album)

Infobox Album |
Name = The Bridge
Type = Album
Artist = Ace of Base


Released = November 21, 1995
Recorded = 1994 – 1995
Genre = Pop
Length = 55:23 (UK)
59:30 (Europe)
55:23 (U.S.)
Label = Arista
Producer = Denniz Pop, Max Martin, Jonas Berggren, Ulf Ekberg
Reviews =
* Allmusic Rating|3|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:skd1vwxya92k link]
* Entertainment Weekly (B) [http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,299636,00.html link]
Last album = "Happy Nation / The Sign"
(1993)
This album = "The Bridge"
(1995)
Next album = "Flowers"
(1998)

"The Bridge" is the second album by Swedish pop music group, Ace of Base. It was composed during 1994 and 1995, and released on November 21, 1995. It is the only Ace of Base album to feature writing, production, vocals and harmonies by all four band members, each having an equal part in its creation. Earlier recordings featured arrangements and music by Ulf Ekberg and Jonas Berggren with vocals by all members. Later recordings utilized vocals by only Linn Berggren and Jenny Berggren.

History

On January 1, 1994, "The Sign" album and single hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. Inspired by the band's success, Jonas penned the first song of what would become "The Bridge" while on holiday in the Canary Islands. The song was "Beautiful Life". Jonas hoped to incorporate gospel elements into the song, which was composed retaining the band's original club-friendly beat.

The band was still promoting their previous album and so work on "The Bridge" was infrequent during much of 1994. Jonas and Ulf each composed (separately) a half-dozen songs. Jonas' songs were recorded mainly at Cheiron Studios in Stockholm, while Ulf's tracks were created at Tuff Studios in Gothenburg. For the first time, Jenny and Linn also composed and produced songs. Their tracks were recorded mainly at Tuff Studios.

Ulf continued to work with John Ballard and StoneStream (Björn Stenstrom). In Stockholm, Jonas worked with producers Max Martin and Denniz Pop and vocalist Jeanette Söderholm.

By the turn of the year, the band had recorded enough demos to present to their three major record companies. Ulf and Jenny appeared on VH1's "Lift Ticket to Ride" and mentioned the band's new recordings.

Releases and promotion

In the later half of 1995, preparations were made to release "The Bridge", including the creation of several music videos. Director Richard Heslop filmed videos for "Beautiful Life" and "Never Gonna Say I'm Sorry", which were filmed within months of each other, as evidenced by the Christmas decorations seen in the back of the laundromat in the latter video. The band was filmed entirely in a studio and computer graphics were added to give the band the appearance of being outdoors.

Two videos were also filmed for "Lucky Love", and these were actually filmed outdoors. However, the American record company, Arista Records, was unhappy with all four of these videos. According to VH1, the bubbles digitally added to the "Beautiful Life" video were digitally removed at the record company's insistence. An entirely new, "sexier", video was filmed for "Lucky Love".

In September 1995, "Beautiful Life" was released in North and South America and Japan, while simultaneously "Lucky Love" was released across Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia. The full album was released later that month. The band appeared in Canada and Mexico, and performed in several Latin America countries.

"Lucky Love" was a commercial success across Europe, and was later released in North and South America (in April, 1996). While "Lucky Love" was released there, "Beautiful Life" charted in Europe.

"Never Gonna Say I'm sorry" was released in the U.S. in August, 1996, but was largely ignored because it was given no promotion, and the band was busy performing concerts elsewhere. "Just 'N' Image" was heard on several radio stations in the U.S., but no further single releases were forthcoming. Promotional releases of "My Déjà Vu" appeared in France and Scandinavia that year.

Ace of Base appeared at several concerts around the world during 1996, including their second-largest performance ever at Viña del Mar, Chile, where the band performed in front of 20,000 fans. They also appeared in South-East Asia, where by some fan accounts, they performed poorly.

At one point, lead singer Linn flew home. The band appeared the following year in April at the World Music Awards, where they accepted the award for "Best Selling Scandinavian Artists of 1996". There, Jenny performed a solo, lip-synced rendition of "Ravine".

During 1997, three of the band members (Jonas, Jenny, and Ulf) prepared material for their next album. This was to become "Flowers", the band's third album. In 1998, Polydor released a strange limited-release promotional CD "Angel Eyes". This was the very last "Bridge" release, and it was packaged with the South-East Asia version of "Flowers".

The full version of "The Bridge" (including "You and I") was released in the US via iTunes in 2007.

Performance in the charts

The Bridge is certified Platinum in the USA. Six million copies of the album were sold worldwide. However, this was a far cry from the 23 million copies of the band's previous album, Happy Nation / The Sign.

The singles from the album found extremely varied levels of success. While "Beautiful Life" became a #1 club hit in the U.S., and reached #15 on Billboard's Hot 100 singles charts, the release of "Never Gonna Say I'm Sorry" in August of 1996 was given no promotion and peaked just outside the official U.S. Billhoard Hot 100.

Track listing

Demo version

The following is the track listing of the demo presented to the record companies.
# "Beautiful Life"
# "Blooming 18"
# "Edge of Heaven"
# "Experience Pearls"
# "Strange Ways"
# "Never Gonna Say I'm Sorry"
# "Look Around Me"
# "Lucky Love"
# "Perfect World"
# "Que Sera"
# "Stranger to Love"
# "Wave Wet Sand"
# "Whispers in Blindness"
# "My Déjà Vu"
# "Angel of Love"
# "Angel Eyes"
# "Just 'N' Image"
# "Ravine"
# "You and I"

Finalized track listing

It is not known why the final track listing differed considerably from the demo version. Alterations were made to tracks 2, 3, 4, 5, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 16, and 17; tracks 7, 11, and 15 were removed altogether. Only four tracks were considered entirely usable, and these songs were planned as single releases.

Europe (excluding UK)

# "Beautiful Life" – 3:39
# "Never Gonna Say I'm Sorry" – 3:14
# "Lucky Love (Original Version)" – 2:52
# "Edge of Heaven" – 3:49
# "Strange Ways" – 4:25
# "Ravine" – 4:39
# "Perfect World" – 3:55
# "Angel Eyes" – 3:13
# "Whispers In Blindness" – 4:10
# "My Déjà Vu" – 3:40
# "You and I" – 4:06
# "Wave Wet Sand" – 3:18
# "Que Sera" – 3:47
# "Just 'N' Image" – 3:07
# "Lucky Love (Acoustic Version)" – 2:52
# "Experience Pearls" – 3:57
# "Blooming 18" – 3:38

Japan

# "Beautiful Life" – 3:39
# "Never Gonna Say I'm Sorry" – 3:14
# "Lucky Love (Original Version)" – 2:53
# "Edge of Heaven" – 3:49
# "Strange Ways" – 4:25
# "Ravine" – 4:39
# "Perfect World" – 3:55
# "Angel Eyes" – 3:13
# "My Déjà Vu" – 3:40
# "You and I" – 4:06
# "Wave Wet Sand" – 3:18
# "Que Sera" – 3:47
# "Just 'N' Image" – 3:07
# "Whispers In Blindness" – 4:10
# "Experience Pearls" – 3:57
# "Blooming 18" – 3:38
# "Beautiful Life (Vission Lorimer Club Mix)" – 7:01
# "Lucky Love (Armand Van Helden House Mix)" – 11:23

United Kingdom

# "Beautiful Life" – 3:39
# "Never Gonna Say I'm Sorry" – 3:14
# "Lucky Love [Original Version] " – 2:52
# "Edge of Heaven" – 3:49
# "Strange Ways" – 4:25
# "Ravine" – 4:39
# "Perfect World" – 3:55
# "Angel Eyes" – 3:13
# "Whispers In Blindness" – 4:10
# "My Déjà Vu" – 3:40
# "Wave Wet Sand" – 3:18
# "Que Sera" – 3:47
# "Just 'N' Image" – 3:07
# "Experience Pearls" – 3:57
# "Blooming 18" – 3:38

US and South America

# "Beautiful Life" – 3:39
# "Never Gonna Say I'm Sorry" – 3:14
# "Lucky Love (Acoustic Version)" – 2:52
# "Edge of Heaven" – 3:49
# "Strange Ways" – 4:25
# "Ravine" – 4:39
# "Perfect World" – 3:55
# "Angel Eyes" – 3:13
# "My Déjà Vu" – 3:40
# "Wave Wet Sand" – 3:18
# "Que Sera" – 3:47
# "Just 'N' Image" – 3:07
# "Experience Pearls" – 3:57
# "Whispers In Blindness" – 4:10
# "Blooming 18" – 3:38
# "Lucky Love (Original Version)" [South American bonus track] – 2:53

ingles

* "Lucky Love"
* "Beautiful Life"
* "Never Gonna Say I'm Sorry"
* "My Déjà Vu" (Promo)
* "Angel Eyes" (Promo)

Charts

Platinum & Gold Awards

To date, the album has sold more than six million copies worldwide, including two million in the United States.

*Canada: 2x platinum (200,000+ units sold)
*Chile: 2x platinum
*Denmark platinum
*Finland: platinum
*France: platinum (300,000+ units sold)
*Germany: gold (300,000+ units sold)
*India: gold (100,000(?)+ units sold)
*Indonesia: platinum
*Japan: platinum (273,890 units sold) [http://www.ukmix.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=300193#300193/]
*Korea: 3x platinum
*Malaysia: gold
*Mexico: platinum (250,000+ units sold)
*New Zealand: platinum (15,000+ units sold)
*Philippines: 2x platinum
*Poland: gold
*Spain: gold
*Sweden: platinum
*Switzerland: platinum (40,000+ units sold)
*United States: platinum (1,000,000+ units sold)

References: [http://web.archive.org/web/19980115144339/aceofbase.net/info/peakpos.htm] , [http://www.aceofbase.com/en/main.php?sida=sales] , [http://www.riaa.com/gp/database/default.asp]