Inspired by Sting's work on [“Broken Music,”] "The Book of My Life" is the sort of brooding, introspective ballad that the singer has defined throughout his career. Anoushka Shankar's sitar summons an atmosphere of mystery at the song's beginning, like the unsettling feeling of encountering yourself in a dream, as song's main character reluctantly digs in the dirt of his buried memories. "There are promises broken and promises kept," the lyrics run. "There are words that were spoken when I should have wept…There's some sorrow in every life."
Inspired by Sting's work on [“Broken Music,”] "The Book of My Life" is the sort of brooding, introspective ballad that the singer has defined throughout his career. Anoushka Shankar's sitar summons an atmosphere of mystery at the song's beginning, like the unsettling feeling of encountering yourself in a dream, as song's main character reluctantly digs in the dirt of his buried memories. "There are promises broken and promises kept," the lyrics run. "There are words that were spoken when I should have wept…There's some sorrow in every life."