Perhaps no late seventies/eighties band was as successful
and brilliant in equal proportion as The Police. Each of their five albums is a
must-own, almost completely unburdened by sub-par material, and each one
displays a different facet of this most complex of power trios. Their debut Outlandos d’Amour saw Sting, Andy
Summers, and Stewart Copeland attempting to fool the punks into believing they
were kindred spirits, failing at that, and producing a slick yet electrifying
brew of speed rock, reggae, and pop. Their next two albums are their most
similar as Regatta de Blanc and Zenyatta Mondatta lose the punk gestures
to focus more on their tasty brand of poppy white (Blanc) reggae (Regatta—they
were just as handy with a pretentious album title as they were with their
instruments). With Ghost in the Machine,
The Police took greater advantage of the studio, fattening their sound with
greater use of keyboards and Sting’s surprisingly effective, overdubbed
saxophone arrangements. Synchronicity
went for broke as The Police shunned none of the magic studio recording
offered, wrote a slew of actual and potential hits, and still made room to be
hilariously eccentric (“Mother”!). That their greatest success and artistic
statement was also The Police’s final album meant they went out on top with a
flawless legacy.
The legacy sounds as flawless as ever on half-speed
remastered vinyl from A&M. The mastering jobs generally sounds pleasingly
similar to that of the original seventies/eighties releases. Regatta de Blanc, though, sounds
distinctively improved with stronger bass and more vibrant detail, while the
bass frequencies of Synchronicity are
pumped up a bit. Initially released in last year’s Every Move You Make: The Studio Recordings box set, four of The
Police’s five are now getting individual releases as well. I’m not sure why the
band’s most visceral disc, Outlandos
d’Amour, wasn’t invited to the party, and since each Police album is
essential, the box set might still be the smartest way to go, especially since
it includes a bonus disc of equally essential non-LP singles. Still, those who need
to flesh out an incomplete collection should be very happy with these
individual releases.
