STING ON THE RISE\With 'Mercury,' he plumbs new artistic depths.

Byline: Melinda Newman Billboard

Sounding like the schoolteacher he once was, Sting describes the meaning behind the title of his new A&M album, "Mercury Falling": "It's a phrase that I find laden with symbolic relevance. It means so many things. Mercury is a metal, a liquid, an element, a planet. It's an astrological symbol, an astronomical thing. You know, Mercury is the god of theft and commerce. He's the messenger, too. He's quite a complex character, this Mercury. As am I."

The material on the just-released album is similarly rife with different interpretations: musically divergent and lyrically ambiguous. But as his seventh solo outing, it epitomizes Sting's artistic depth and continual ability to surprise.

"Mercurial is probably a good description of this record in that it's everywhere, and you can't quite pin it down in terms of its references and its musical styles," said Sting, the subject of a "South Bank Show" documentary to be broadcast at 7 p.m. March 18 on the Bravo network.

Indeed, the new album veers from the country stylings of "I'm So Happy I Can't Stop Crying" and "Lithium Sunset," to a lilting bossa nova beat on "La Belle Dame Sans Regrets," to soulful seasonings on "You Still Touch Me."

"You have to work radio very aggressively, especially with an artist like Sting, who is always coming up with different themes and lyrics. He moves from genre to genre," said A&M product manager Brad Pollak.

When it comes to picking singles, Sting leaves the choice to A&M.

"I used to know what would be a hit single and what wouldn't, and now I haven't the faintest idea," he said. "I think I've been very lucky in my career in that popular taste has coincided with what I thought was cool. But I have to prepare myself for the day when what I think is the right thing to do doesn't coincide with popular taste."

That day seems quite far away. Sting's last studio album, 1993's "Ten Summoner's Tales," has been certified triple-platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America, tying it with his 1985 solo debut, "The Dream of the Blue Turtles," as his most successful release in the United States. His 1987 album, "...Nothing Like the Sun," has gone double-platinum, while 1991's "The Soul Cages" and 1994's greatest-hits collection have sold more than 1 million units each.

As pleased as A&M may be that Sting has such a following among the VH1 crowd, Pollak stresses the label's belief that Sting's audience extends beyond that older demographic.

"We're not going into this automatically assuming that he's just VH1 or just this or just that, because every one of Sting's albums has new opportunities, and you have to be able to present that to everybody without just assuming that only VH1 would be interested," said Pollak.

To reach as many potential record buyers as possible, A&M has booked Sting for a number of television shows that appeal to all different consumers. He appeared on "Saturday Night Live" last month and taped interviews for "Live With Regis & Kathie Lee," "CNN," and "Good Morning America." Sting also will appear on "Late Show With David Letterman" on April 10.

Following a European tour, Sting will begin a summer U.S. outing in June.

It may have been three years since Sting has had an album of new material to tour behind, but he's been represented by a dazzling array of side projects in the interim. He's on the soundtracks of both "Leaving Las Vegas" and "Sabrina." In the last few years, he's performed with Bryan Adams and Rod Stewart on the chart-topping "All for One," appeared on Leonard Cohen and Jimi Hendrix tribute albums, recorded with Tammy Wynette for her duets album, learned Gaelic phonetically so he could sing with the Chieftains, sung with Luciano Pavarotti, and recorded a track for the coming "Nova Bossa: Red Hot + Rio" AIDS charity album. And that just skims the surface.

"I have a real problem saying the word no," said Sting with a laugh. "People ask me to work for them, and I just have to say, 'OK, I'll give that a go.' I also like being a journeyman, being a craftsman. I think there's a real danger of being painted into your ivory tower. To be asked to do different kinds of work, just to work for the money even, is good for your creative process."

For Sting, the more varied the material - whether it is on side projects or his own albums - the better. "For me, music is one big city. I don't see it as a compartmentalized, ghetto-ized kind of thing. I demand access to every department because I think music is a common language that links all of us."

On "Mercury Falling," the theme that links the songs is a sense of redemption and acceptance that comes to each character.

"One of the acquisitions I've recently acquired is an acceptance of things that I cannot change," said Sting. "I think the protagonists here are often faced with a situation that simply cannot be changed, and the songs are about the heroism and courage it takes to accept that."

Before coming to any kind of resolution, however, most of the characters go through a period of isolation - a sensation with which Sting is familiar. "Even though I'm actually very happy at the moment with my family, I've been alone enough in my life to know that feeling very well, for it to be burned into my memory, you know," he said.

"In the past, I would have told you and believed that for me to be creative I would have had to be in some kind of pain or to manufacture some kind of crisis for me to be able to write at all," he continued. "I don't believe that anymore. I think I can be the opposite. I can be happy and have the knowledge of pain, but I don't have to be in pain to make music."

In fact, Sting sounds lighthearted and downright jovial when he describes a scenario that seems impossible to imagine in the life of the former king of pain. When asked what he does when one of his songs comes on the car radio, he replies, "The funniest thing is, if you're in traffic and somebody next to you is listening to some radio station, you can sort of lip-sync the words and they freak out. We don't have that many radio stations in England, so you're almost guaranteed that the person next to you is going to be listening."

THE FACTS

What: "The South Bank Show: Sting."

When: 7 p.m. March 18.

Network: Bravo.

Behind the scenes: The award-winning British documentary series travels to the pop star's estate in the Wiltshire countryside as Sting records his seventh solo album, "Mercury Falling."

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PHOTO

Photo "Mercurial is probably a good description of this record in that it's everywhere, and you can't quite pin it down in terms of its references and its musical styles," says Sting of "Mercury Falling."