"The Police" by THE POLICE – Featuring Tracks from All Five Studio Albums (1978 to 1983) with Sting, Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland (June 2007 UK A&M Records 2CD 30-Track Compilation with 2003 Remasters in a Super Jewel Case – Has Two Bonus Tracks Over USA and EURO Versions) - A Review by Mark Barry...

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"...When The World Is Running Down, You Make The Best Of..."

 

Hardly the most exciting looking of Best Of I would admit - and that title – The Police – for Gawd's sake. But then you clap your cabbage patch ears on the Outlaws of Love contents and you're reaching for different adjectives – none of which are Canaries In A Coalmine.

 

In their late 70ts New Wave segueing into 80ts Sophisto-Pop kind of a way, the five Police albums rocked. As our tastes and listening pleasures matured, so did Sting's songwriting up to and including the last studio platter "Synchronicity" – arguably their most accomplished album - a Rock Music outing that still makes Top 100 Best LPs ever made lists. Platter No. 5 ("Synchronicity") might have had as pretentious an album title as some of the U2 outings (another fabulous band who need to speak to the album-titling ombudsman as a matter of urgency), but it's brilliance was undeniable. But all their albums felt that way to me - even the patchy third "Zenyatta Mondatta" - clearly knocked off in-between gigs and hotel corridors hijinks. I played the band named after the cops to death on my trusty Garrard SP25 turntable (as we all did) back in the 1978 to 1984 days – and their entire catalogue seemed pretty much necessary purchases (still do).

 

But what singles out this latest twofer career overview and gives it real bite are the track choices and their running order. For sure you have to have all the chart hits as such a compilation would demand, but CD1 also hits with you with deep LP cuts like "Truth Hits Everybody", "Driven To Tears", "Voices In My Head", "Walking in Your Footsteps" and even the Non-LP Andy Summers B-side from the Synchronicity period worth having - "Murder By Numbers". The UK variant of this goody two shoes also boasts two Bonus Tracks (see lists below). To the red lights...

 

Released 11 June 2007 -"The Police" by THE POLICE is a 2CD 30-Track career-spanning Compilation (1978 to 1983) using 2013 remasters that comes in two forms in the UK. The Super Jewel Case Edition is A&M Records 1736143 (Barcode 602517361430) – the 2CD Digipak Edition is A&M Records 1736144 (Barcode 602517361447) – both with 30-tracks (see Note). This review is for the Super Jewel Case version (pictured).

 

NOTE: The US release on A&M B0009080-2 has 28 Tracks – losing "The Bed's Too Big Without You" on CD1 (Track 12) and "Rehumanize Yourself" on CD2 (Track 7) – Both Are Bonus Tracks only on the 30-Track UK releases. There is also a European release on A&M 1736149 (Barcode 602517361492) and it only has 28-tracks which can be mistaken for a UK variant.

 

CD1 (55:06 minutes):

1. Fall Out

2. Can't Stand Losing You

3. Next To You

4. Roxanne

5. Truth Hits Everybody

6. Hole In My Life

7. So Lonely

8. Message In A Bottle

9. Regatta De Blanc

10. Bring On The Night

11. Walking On The Moon

12. The Bed's Too Big Without You

13. Don't Stand So Close To Me

14. Driven To Tears

15. Canary In A Coalmine

NOTES on CD1:

Track 1 is their debut UK 45-single released May 1977 on Illegal IL 001, A-side

Tracks 2 to 7 are from their debut album "Outlandos d'Amour" - released November 1978 in the UK on A&M Records AMLH 68502 and in the USA on A&M Records SP-4753. Produced by The Police - it peaked at No. 6 in the UK and No. 23 in the USA

Tracks 8 to 12 are from their second studio album "Reggatta de Blanc" - released October 1979 in the UK on A&M Records AMLH 64792 and in the USA on A&M Records SP-4792. Produced by The Police and Nigel Gray - it peaked at No. 1 in the UK and No. 26 in the USA. Track 12 is One of TWO BONUS TRACKS on UK editions of this Compilation

Tracks 13 to 15 are from their third studio album "Zenyatta Mondatta" - released October 1980 in the UK on A&M Records AMLH 64831 and in the USA on A&M SP-3720. Produced by Nigel Gray and The Police – it peaked at No.1 in the UK and No. 5 in the USA

 

CD2 (63:36 minutes):

1. De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da

2. Voices Inside My Head

3. Invisible Sun

4. Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic

5. Spirits In The Material World

6. Demolition Man

7. Rehumanize Yourself

8. Every Breath You Take

9. Synchronicity 1

10. Wrapped Around Your Finger

11. Walking in Your Footsteps

12. Synchronicity II

13. King Of Pain

14. Murder By Numbers

15. Tea In The Sahara

NOTES ON CD2:

Tracks 1 and 2 are from their third studio album "Zenyatta Mondatta" - released October 1980 in the UK on A&M Records AMLH 64831 and in the USA on A&M SP-3720. Produced by Nigel Gray and The Police – it peaked at No.1 in the UK and No. 5 in the USA

Tracks 3 to 7 are from their fourth studio album "Ghost In The Machine" - released October 1981 in the UK on A&M Records AMLK 63730 and in the USA on A&M SP-3730. Produced by The Police and Hugh Padgham – it peaked at No. 1 in the UK and No. 2 in the USA. Track 7 is Two of TWO BONUS TRACKS on UK editions of this Compilation

Tracks 8 to 13 and 15 are from their fifth and final studio album "Synchronicity" – released June 1983 in the UK on A&M Records AMLX 63735 and in the USA on A&M SP-3735. Produced by Hugh Padgham and The Police – it peaked at No.1 in both countries

Track 14 "Murder By Numbers" was a Bonus Track on the Cassette and CD versions of the "Synchronicity" album when originally released in 1983. It was also the Non-LP B-side to the 45-single for "Every Breath You Take" when it was issued in the month before the album showed. Released May 1983 in the UK on A&M Records AM 117 (A&M Records AM-2542 in the USA) – that 45-single was itself a chart Number 1 in both countries (like the album)

 

THE POLICE was:

STING – Bass, Keyboards, Sequencers and Lead Vocals

ANDY SUMMERS – Lead Guitar

STEWART COPELAND – Drums

All songs written by Sting except "Fall Out" by Summers and Copeland (Henry Padovani played Guitar), "Regatta De Blanc" and "Rehumanize Yourself" by Sting, Summers and Copeland and "Murder By Numbers" written by Andy Summers (Music) and Sting (Words). Jean Roussel plays keyboards on "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic"

 

The six-panel (either side) foldout-inlay has a Poster across one whole side for a Live New Wave Music Broadcast - 18 May 1979 at Madam Wong's (Wilshire Blvd in West Los Angeles) for KXLU-FM and KSPC-FM Radio Stations in Los Angeles and Claremont. Esther Wong was famously dubbed The Godmother of Punk, her venue was on Wilshire Blvd in West Los Angeles and the repro poster screams The Police Raid Madam Wong's!!

 

The other foldout side has six panels populated by period photos, some functionary liner notes about the band’s history and chart achievements from CHRIS SALEWICZ and the Reissue/Track List details on another part. Given that the release is only three years after the Five Album Remasters campaign of 2003 - these are very evidently the 2003 Remasters done in London and L.A. and Mastered by Bob Ludwig from original tapes. The audio here is fantastic – punchy, clear and at times (having been used to lesser versions) alarmingly in your face. There is a see-through tray for both CDs with a photo of the three-piece band on the rear inlay beneath. To the tunes...

 

The moment you play CD1 – you get what I was saying about the layout of the tracks. It opens on the fantastic Punk/New Wave/Rock Pop of "Fall Out" – their debut 45 on Illegal Records - a tremendous start to a career that would lead them to becoming one of the biggest bands in the world. Sting takes lead vocals with a suitably wild guitar solo handled by Henry Padovani (thereafter left). We cut straight to the A&M years and you’re hammered with hit after hit  - brilliant lyrics, catchy tunes with killer choruses. Immediately the production values take a leap "Can't Stand Losing You" (all this guilt will be on your head). "Next To You" cements Sting's knack of penning an irresistible tune with razor-sharp lyrics that left most Punk Bands in the dust. It's a clever follow to have "Truth Hits Everybody" come after the overplayed "Roxette" and then next up is the chug of "Hole In My Life". 

 

It is hard now in 2023 to realize the impact tracks like "So Lonely" and the genius that is "Message In A Bottle" had on us poor lovelorn punkettes in 1978 and 1979 - swaying on the dancefloor to these teenage-whinge anthems. And when CD1 races home with the winner-after-winner from the "Regatta de Blanc" CHA! album and even its slightly lacklustre follow up "Zenyatta Mondatta" ("Driven To Tears" is an outstanding moment on it) – we have to mention the band's other double-whammy secret weapons other than Sting's songs – the stunning guitar work of Andy Summers and that locked down tight drumming Stewart Copeland displayed on every song. This was a killer outfit given material that made them literally pop.And the world loved it - as the chart statistics bear out.

 

Too many cameras and not enough food – politics, the world, literature, thought processes – it all starts to dominate Sting’s writing by the time we get to "Ghost In The Machine" – an album I adored in 1981. CD2 gives us the obvious cuts of "Everything She Does Is Magic" and "Spirits In The Material World" and "Invisible Sun" is always impressive (one you forgot) – but I have never liked "Demolition Man" and the Bonus "Rehumanize Yourself" is good but I would have preferred "Too Much Information" or "One World (Not Three)" instead. 

 

The final run (amazingly) is all of the 10-track "Synchronicity" album bar three – the lesser Sting song "O My God" and the two truly dreadful Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland tunes "Mother" and "Miss Gradenko" (I am sure Sting put them on the album to show the world who the real songwriter in The Police was). But the song order is different to that of the LP and by slotting in the B-side "Murder By Numbers" in before "Tea In The Sahara" - it works like a new and better listen. There was a sophistication too in the music on the "Synchronicity" album of 1983 that set up Sting's hugely successful solo career that began with "The Dream Of The Blue Turtles" in June 1985 (again on A&M Records). 

 

Truth be told - this 2CD set of Police Remasters is regularly up for sale for under four quid in 2023 and often under that (including P&P). So with its stunning sound and 30 cool track choices – "The Police" represents some serious listening value for money. 

 

England's The Police really were a great band - right up to the inevitable egotistical acrimonious end. But this 2007 compilation hammers that home with big man-trucker boots. Hoover up this trio's not so ghostly spirits in a seriously material world and enjoy...