The Police - what's the best album?

outlandos. they arrived perfectly formed and only ever diluted themselves through progression.

Copeland: In 'Wrapped Around Your Finger' there's the classic line where he goes, "things they would not teach me of in college." Sting, I just want to say, I went to college and learned all this Jungian shit. It's just Psych 101. It had no mystique for me at all.

Sting: You explain it then, Stewart.

my favorite dysfunctional family

Copeland: 'Synchronicity' is about the overall unconscious that binds us together. If I wear a red tie and you happen to wearing a red tie, it isn't a coincidence, it's because we have this bond that goes beneath the outer surface. Something we can't even measure, but it's there. And that's Psych 101.

Revolver: Sting, you want comment here?

Sting: No, no, I'm a simple man. A simple man in my huge Tuscan villa, so piss off.

Copeland: Andy, since we're here, I'm going to back you up on this. You should stand up right now and say, 'I Andy want all the Puff Daddy money. Because that's not Sting's song he's using, that's my guitar riff.' Okay over to you Andy, Go for it...

Summers: [meekly] Ok, I want all of the Puff Daddy Money.

Copeland: There you go, you feel better now don't you?

Sting: Okay Andy here's all the money. [pours some change on the table] Unfortunately, I've spent the rest of it.

A simple man in my huge Tuscan villa, so piss off.

Ha ha!

Would be interested to hear what people consider is the worst Police filler song. Fuck Mother, it's Be My Girl-Sally amirite?

― as a sock, son, you flop (NickB)

Yeah Mother is the one that came to mind. I always found Born in the 50's quite annoying from the first album. Just flicking through Reggatta which is my favourite album there a couple of contenders with On Any Other Day and Does Everyone Stare.

I always think I'm going to love Ghost in the Machine when I put it on as the first three songs are so good but then I never enjoy anything else until Omegaman, those last three songs are actually all really great.

kind of love the dynamic. they whinge bitterly, and he bears it all with magnanimity. because he's fucking rich.

irl lols at this re 'So Lonely'

Copeland: It was also the first time Sting said 'screw the punk formula'. Sting started playing the song and I distinctly remember Andy and I making farting noises and going, 'Yeah, right'. But then he got to that steaming chorus, we looked at each other and realised that maybe we should give it a try. In spite of our kerfuffling, Sting persevered and made us create something new.

Other thing is that it was the first record I owned that had the word "cunt" on it.

http://img691.imageshack.us/img691/7056/stewartcopelandcorbis53.jpg

Note the drum heads. Iirc, Sting was the object of drum head scorn.

rude!

the

best

it's like the Goon Show, they kill me

Copeland: Stop them! They're talking technical musical stuff. It's a classic exclusion technique, just because I'm a drummer.

Sting: Stewart, those are called "notes".

Summers: You want to hear an oxymoron? Musical drummer!

Copeland: Hey Andy. What do you throw at a drowning guitarist? His amp!

Sting: What has three legs and a c***? A drum stool!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UL_rhTjsQ8

I approve mightily of this thread. Keep em coming

BTW, answer for me is Regatta

omg these quotes are kiiiiiiiiiilling me

voted Outlandos but I admit I've never made a serious attempt to get to know Synchronicity and I think I ditched my copy of Ghost. So much filler with these guys. Even the debut has its share, but it also has the most energy of any of them.

listened to them on the way home

man, these fuckin guys

one of the few bands whose chops force me to reconsider the songs

buncha show-offs, really

haha those drum heads! they also spell out おまんこ which is vagina in japanese
voted Regatta cos 8 year old me demanded it

Ghost

carrying over from the discussion about royalty splits in that Soul Coughing thread, The Police are a great example of a band that probably would've had better records if they just split songwriting credits equally no matter who came up with the main idea. both because they might've collaborated more and Copeland and Summers wouldn't have fought so hard to crowd out Sting's more developed songs, and because those guys all contributed so much to the arrangement of every song that they deserve credit.

I always think I'm going to love Ghost in the Machine when I put it on as the first three songs are so good but then I never enjoy anything else until Omegaman, those last three songs are actually all really great.

First three and last three songs on Ghost are the best thing they ever did.

xp the Police are always the first band I think of when I hear Doughty go on his thousandth rant about how he was the songwriter and thus deserved way more credit and everyone was just leeching off him and zzzzz...there's a reason why there aren't really any good covers of the Police out there. hearing Sting put things together on his solo album definitely gives some creedence to Stew's claim that the Police used Sting's songs and lyrics but little else. nothing in Sting's solo career sounds anything like the Police, outside of parts of Synchronicity of course. then again I don't recall Sting trying to take credit for everything on that level, as much of as prick as he is (and seeing him live, he definitely came off like a prick, but hey...he's a prick I like)

'Synchronicity' is my favourite.

My fave track from them is "Fallout", but with such spotty albums, i have to give my album vote to Synchronicity for it relative consistency.

I always found Born in the 50's quite annoying from the first album.

Yeah! It's not even true!

Sting was just] about born in the fifries. Stewart and Andy were not.

So, "We was born.. born in the fifties" should be "Speaking personally, I was born.. born in the fifties"

Copeland was born in the fifties iirc. It was just Andy Summers that was the old man in the band. He's in his 70s now btw, which is just astonishing to me.

oh, ok then...

Maybe Sting and Stewart both sing the song, and Andy just keeps quiet and plays..

More than likely, the song is from their Henry Padovani days...

He keeps quiet and thinks 'I hate these twats already'

He's in his 70s now btw, which is just astonishing to me.

I guess it's not so astonishing if you think of him as a contemporary of the Stones and the Animals etc who got his break a lot later on in life.

They had better songs and musical interplay on some of their other albums but I always liked Ghost in the Machine as that record has a distinct vibe through the whole record. I think part of it is that there is synth throughout most of the record and it's like the same synth and when added with the echo guitar kind of gives that album a somewhat uniform sound, which gives it a pretty distinct flow compared to the Police's other albums.

These interview excerpts are amazing, thanks Alfred.

Kitchen Person and Naive Teen Idol otm about the first and last three Ghost in the Machine tracks, Omegaman/Secret Journey/Darkness is such a great bit of sequencing.

agree with all that has been written here - all albums have filler, sting is a prick, etc. considering that, 'Ghost...' and (to a lesser degree) 'Synchronicity' feel more coherent for me - if not in songwriting terms, at least in terms of mood and sonically/production-wise. I'm going for 'Ghost...' since it was the first record i heard from them, apart from one of the greatest hits.

I'm looking through the tracklistings and I keep changing my mind. Reggatta is probably the most listenable front to back.

lol this is grim

Post-Police (1984-2007)
Summers' solo career has included touring, recording, composing for films (including 2010, Down and Out in Beverly Hills, The Wild Life and Weekend at Bernie's), writing books, and exhibiting his photography. In 1992, he served a brief stint as Musical Director on the short-lived Dennis Miller Show.

I'm looking through the tracklistings and I keep changing my mind. /Reggatta/ is probably the most listenable front to back.

To that point, something that's mostly forgotten now -- when Ghost came out, the critical consensus was that the denser production by Hugh Padgham didn't play to their strengths. In retrospect, it was a pretty amazing left turn -- one I kind of wished they had explored more on Synchronicity.

the Police seem like they had one of those rare charmed careers where each album was bigger than the last, but once they hit their peak all boats lifted and hear songs from all five albums pretty equally, even the first two from before they 'broke' America.

and they were, I guess, the Biggest Band in the World in '83. Rare for a band at the peak of its powers to simply....stop.

The only other one I can think of is The Jam splitting around the same time - although they obviously weren't as popular worldwide. Some obvious parallels between the two as well.

okay reading these quotes of them bouncing off of each other is reminding me of why I ever liked Sting in the first place

Like them all. But going for Zenyatta Mondata for 2 reasons:
1) it features the first pop song I was really mad about Don't Stand So Close to Me (fish aged 5)
2) Shadows in the Rain and Voices in My Head

his Klark Kent stuff is like a lost Police album

I dispute that "Don't Care" could have been a Police song

OK:

Outlandos best album though it's very close and Regatta is probably my sentimental favorite and one I've listened to most times in my life (w/ Synchronicity second)

Worst filler tie between "Born in the 50s" and "On Any Other Day" though I can't deny really digging the SOUND of both these songs.

Cosign love for "Fallout" -- if they'd put it on Outlandos my vote would have been easier. Have never heard the B-side, "Nothing Achieving," is it good?

Listening now, no, "Nothing Achieving" is not that good.

On Any Other Day is the best of the filler.

I dispute that "Don't Care" could have been a Police song

― Guayaquil (eephus!), Friday, April 12, 2013 9:53 AM (10 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

agreed but if you have the Kollected Works comp (I don't know what's on the actual album) you can hear that a lot of these songs were written for someone with a higher range. the overall sound is much closer to the Police than anything Sting's done!

that group interview is really really great by the way

There's a little black spot on the sun today
That's my lute up there

ANOTHER BOR-ING FUCK-ING LUTE SONGGGGGGG

Sting throws his lute down a well, it lands on a butterfly and kills it. many miles away, a man writes a song about it, then stars in a remake of "The Bride."

"We're sending a lute down the well"

http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/4f451c4deab8ea9455000004-590/we-also-enjoyed-sting-as-himself-in-season-3-episode-13-radio-bart-after-bart-tricks-the-town-into-believing-an-orphan-fell-down-a-well-the-singer-along-with-others-performs-his-charity-single-were-sending-our-love-down-the-well-the-episode-was-nominated-for-an-emmy.jpg

Regatta>Ghost>Zenyatta>Outlandos>Synchronicity

Even when I was a teenager and they were my favorite band, I loved them more for sound and texture than songs or lyrics. That's what's most unusual about them as a pop band, I think -- they made great singles out of sound and texture. And hooks, obviously, but even the hooks are as much a product of ambiance as melody. Like on "Don't Stand So Close to Me," that little nagging guitar figure that just repeats and repeats. Or the spacey, dubby middle 8 on "Message in a Bottle."

(OK that's not even a middle 8, it's the just the trailing bars of the chorus -- I exaggerated it in my head, because it creates so much space in the middle of this wired, hyper song.)

Deathwish?

That's what's most unusual about them as a pop band, I think -- they made great singles out of sound and texture. And hooks, obviously, but even the hooks are as much a product of ambiance as melody.

This is otm, there are a few of their best songs (including some of the big singles) where the chorus is the least interesting part of the song because of this.

That's probably why I don't mind the '86 rerecording of "Don't Stand So Close to Me" – I dig those washes of guitar – despite how the track sounded dated even then (it's closer to "Don't Stand So Close to Me '84").

voted zenyatta, i hated these dudes for so long (though a friend of mine in hs who was a huge sting fan meant i was very familiar w/ their catalogue) i think some weird way getting into the dinosaur acts that clearly looked to them as a means of coming to terms w/ new wave (rush, yes) is what gave me the means of coming to terms w/ the police. plus, as soto noted, the chops. love those interview quotes above. really love that dry vibe they mined, sounds so spartan on classic rock radio.

Deathwish?

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Well, no complaints there. Switch Ghost In The Machine and Zenyatta Mondatta around and you'd pretty much have the order that I'd rank them in.

Damn, I should give those last couple records another try.

For OutdoorFish

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cavbeMsk5Y8

Why thank you

I'm not surprised by how close this was but it's a little weird that Outlandos got so few votes, I thought that was the one that the hardnosers loved the most

I'm confused by popularity of Synchronicity. It's not bad, just not that good.

I came up with a list regardless.

one of the few bands whose chops force me to reconsider the songs

Alfred otm here. also kinda surprised that Sync did so well in this poll.

"Voices" is so dope you listed it twice!

I heard voices iirc