Poll The Police

Crap, the lead quotes were cut off.

Outlandos d'Amour (1978) -- "A far more varied palette than most of the New Wave dreck appearing at the time...instrumental in proving that virtuosic rock had a post-punk future. Most crucial of all was The Police's grasp of reggae." - The MOJO Collection

Regatta de Blanc (1979) -- "Everything about the band was despicable and predicted all that was most despicable about the coming cultural clean-up. The horribly naff, contrived image, what with peroxide and tight things with stripes being the only way that they could convince us that they weren't session musos on the make, but cool new-wavey types. The blatant appropriation and bleaching of black musical innovation, performed with an utter lack of guilt that a white middle-class git should honestly get away with being Marley's ghost. Their invention of an adult-pop-rock aesthetic, copped by everyone from Dire Straits and Phil Collins to Keane and Coldplay, that aims itself at those whose resentment at not being young anymore requires something that faintly resembles what the young are doing, but with the spine extracted, and nothing but unspeific, shrugging misery left where its soul should be. Still...love this record." - Gary Mulholland, Fear Of Music: The 261 Greatest Albums Since Punk And Disco

Zenyatta Mondatta (1980) -- "While Sting would later criticize the album as not all it could have been (the band was rushed to complete the album in order to begin another tour), Zenyatta Mondatta remains one of the finest rock albums of all time." - ***** AMG

Ghost In The Machine (1981) -- "Lofty lyrical themes, an almost jazzy combination of relaxation and musical sophistication, and a retrospective admission that The Police were coming apart." -- The MOJO Collection

Synchronicity (1983) -- "Another album would have been a disaster." - Sting. - 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die

Zenyatta

Ghost in the Machine by a short head.

Zenyatta has grown on me over the years, as has "De Doo Do Do" and "Man In A Suitcase." It might be their best sounding album too.

BTW, the Spin Alternative Record Guide is a fun read at times, but I left off quotes from Rob Sheffield's joyless entry that make Trouser Press and Christgau seem giddy in comparison. Ratings of the albums starting with Outlandos are 7, 7, 4, 5, 6.

Zenyatta by a hair over Ghost, and then Outlandos, Regatta and lastly Synchronicity.

Ghost definitely has the best cover. You know Ralf Hutter was kicking himself when he saw that.

My gut reaction is to go with Ghost in the Machine but I think I really need to think on this one harder.

Zenyatta

Props, Fastnbulbous, for typing all that shit.

First two came out in what seemed to me like real quick succession in '79 (charted in March and November actually), and I've always gotten them confused in my head; mainly like their fast songs best. Third one is where they got funky, I always thought (esp with "Voices Inside My Head"), and that's the one I'd pick. Fourth and fifth albums are where they tried to get prog and I lost interest, despite some okay singles starting with the word "Every." (My wife, who is more prog than I am, and whose first concert ever was the Ghost tour and still has the sweatshirt she bought there to prove it, would probably disagree.)

I just love the sound on Ghost in the Machine, it is production wise a fine mix of those 80s synth programming sounds with a live group without getting too stiff. The synths are analog sounding and very lush and I love how they would just use these one note drones all over the place which just fit perfect with some of Andy Summers creamy and lush sounding guitar. They grooved harder on some of the earlier records and some of the tunes on Synchronicity are stronger, but the 'sound' of Ghost in the Machine is very consistent all the way through. For me, it is one of those touchstone records that sounds high tech 80s like say Dark Side of the Moon was high tech 70s or Sgt. Peppers high tech 60s. I like Ghost in the Machine it a bit more than the others for just this point, it just sounds cool.

also love the production on Ghost, which basically boils down to liking the reverb and mic placement. "One World" is maybe Copeland's best drum recording, but Too Much Information and Every Little Thing are really fun, and good songs to boot

Third one is where they got funky, I always thought (esp with "Voices Inside My Head"), and that's the one I'd pick.

― xhuxk, Sunday, March 7, 2010 6:02 PM (3 hours ago)

^^^^^^^^

I love The Bed's Too Big Without You so much - it's one of my favourite reggae songs of all time - and that just about tips it in favour of Regatta...

It was a close call for me. If they took the boring joke out of "Be My Girl" Outlandos would have been a contender too. "Behind My Camel" is not so much a dud as filler. "The Other Way Of Stopping" already fills that role nicely. If Zenyatta just had one more strong song, it would have gone to the top. Synchronicity is hopeless, so many crap songs, and "King Of Pain" and "Wrapped Around" are so boringly adult contemporary it's stretching it to call them classic. I chose Regatta because my favorites edge out the best ones on Ghosts, as do the merely "good" songs.

Regatta - 6 classics (Message, Bring, Walking, Bed's Too Big, Contact, No Time), 0 duds
Ghosts - 6 classics (Spirits, Every Little Thing, Invisible Sun, One World, Omegaman, Secret Journey), 0 duds
Zenyatta - 6 classics (Don't Stand, Driven to Tears, Bombs Away, De Do Do Do, Man In A Suitcase, Shadows), 1 dud (Behind My Camel)
Outlandos - 5 classics (Next to You, So Lonely, Roxanne, Can't Stand, Truth Hits), 0 duds
Synchronicity - 4 classics (Synchronicity II, Every Breath, King, Wrapped), 6 duds (Walking in Your Footsteps, O My God, Mother, Miss Gradenko, Tea, Murder)

How is "Voices Inside My Head" (best thing they ever did as far as I and Electrifyin' Mojo are concerned) not classic? (Different strokes for different folks, I guess.) And I'd also take "Canary In A Coalmine" (their most obvious ska move?) over most Zenyatta tracks you list. Do agree Synchronicity finishes last by a mile though.

Early classics not on any album: "Fallout," "Landlord," "Dead End Job."

Synchonicity is filed alongside Remain in Light in my head. Both using world-music sounds to make something claustrophic and paranoid.

Voted Regatta but don't actually own Zenyatta. I forgot about the existence of the great "Secret Journey" but hate "Don't Stand so Close to Me" so I feel secure in my vote. If "Fallout" had been on Outlandos, though, that might have tipped me over.

Synchonicity is filed alongside Remain in Light in my head. Both using world-music sounds to make something claustrophic and paranoid.

Could Byrne have sung "Mother"?

"Voices" is funky, I like it. Not so sure about classic. I like "Canary" as a nice catchy ska diddy. I wasn't sure about "Shadows In The Rain" either, as I actually like the live rocking version better. But I didn't feel like I could consider both classic.

I do have those early tunes from the box set at the end of my Outlandos set.

It'll always be Regatta for me... despite crap title.

When my older sister brought home Zenyatta and kept playing "Canary in a Coalmine," I wanted to never stop punching the record player.

i probably go regatta > zenyatta >> ghost >> outlandos >> synchronicity

totally agree zenyatta is funkiest, but it also has more embarrassing lyrics than regatta. if that matters. (to really love the police, which i do, you have to sort of ignore a lot of the lyric sheets.)

xxp: If Byrne sang Mother, he could have made it into everybody's favorite single from the band.

Are we voting for the albums or for the accompanying critical blurbs?

Christgau ... what an asshole.

ghost

i kind of love how Christgau gives every album a B (most of them a B+) and insults them every time -- it's like they're his favorite band that he doesn't want to like

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

In Concert Germany (1980)

1. Voices Inside My Head
2. Don't Stand So Close To Me
3. Walking On The Moon
4. Deathwish
5. Fall Out
6. Man In A Suitcase
7. Bring On The Night
8. De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da
9. Truth Hits Everybody
10. Shadows In The Rain
11. When The World Is Running Down You Make The Best Of What's Still Around
12. The Bed's Too Big Without You
13. Driven To Tears
14. Message In A Bottle
15. Roxanne
16. Can't Stand Losing You
17. Next To You
18. So Lonely

Has anyone heard this? How does it sound?

Ghost, for reasons already well captured by earlnash above.

This is a weird poll for me 'cause I heard The Police a lot on the radio as an adolescent and later fell in love w/Synchronicity (for reasons I no longer really understand, though it may have something to do with finally getting a walkman and listening to the album through headphones a great deal). I both liked and loathed the band but in retrospect, I think Ghosts just barely beats out Regatta. A lot of their bigger hits make me almost cringe now from overhearing them but there are certain early songs where Copeland, especially, will always make me happy.

i kind of love how Christgau gives every album a B (most of them a B+) and insults them every time -- it's like they're his favorite band that he doesn't want to like
A "B" isn't exactly a good grade by Christgau's standards though.

So how much of this Synchronicity hate is due to its belonging to the canon/being overplayed vs. how well-written and performed?

That's a factor, sure; along with the band's drift away from their earlier appealing sound. But I'm speaking only for myself here. (Voted "Regatta" btw)

A "B" isn't exactly a good grade by Christgau's standards though.

― Jazzbo, Friday, March 12, 2010 12:46 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

oh i know that, but a band never dipping into C territory and consistently falling just short of A for their entire career kinda says something imo

or whatever he calls a C again, dud, turkey, etc.

ZM

BTW, the Spin Alternative Record Guide is a fun read at times, but I left off quotes from Rob Sheffield's joyless entry

There's a lot of joy in that entry. Doesn't he dock points on one of the albums for its butt-ugly yellow cover or something like that? He's clearly experiencing joy ripping on them.

So how much of this Synchronicity hate is due to its belonging to the canon/being overplayed vs. how well-written and performed?

Writing songs at the arena-rock level made their faults noticeable. I'm glad fourteen-year-old boys learned about Paul Bowles and Jung, but otherwise Rush did this sort of thing better.

There's a lot of joy in that entry. Doesn't he dock points on one of the albums for its butt-ugly yellow cover or something like that? He's clearly experiencing joy ripping on them

Yes on this, but he doesn't rip them, necessarily – it's obvious he likes a lot of their songs without much cottoning to their approach or albums. He also manages to cite Stevie Nicks and Morrissey.

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

Can't remember if I came back and actually voted for Ghost. Either way, kind of surprised here...thought Zenyatta would place higher!

boy, the second side of GITM is great fun, and Dominique OTM about the miking of Copeland's drums on "One World."

Zenyatta their funkiest though.

Surprised by these results, I thought Outlandos was the fave - it's the one I've listened to 500 times as a teen at least... But I guess I should try and do that with the others. They always just sounded too... grownup I guess, compared to Outlandos.

This band probably candidates for weirdest run of album titles.

I liked "Canary in a coalmine" but then again I like "Get out of Denver" so..

Surprised by these results, I thought Outlandos was the fave

There definitely seems to be a group who thinks Outlandos is the only 'acceptable' Police record, or whatever, so yeah the fact it only got two votes is surprising. To be honest I think all five are of similar quality, though the middle three are the most well-balanced. Regatta has so many tasty drum fills and awesome guitar licks that I'd probably vote there, though I'm probably one of the few who likes the second half with all the Copeland songs on it. In fact that CD of Copeland's solo tracks as Klark Kent ranks right up among these, if you ask me. Though I admit I'm kind of a fanatic - I've played that boxset straight through several times and I love it. I think they had very few weak tracks in their entire catalogue.

See, I always had it that ZM was the consensus favorite! So weird. I guess, as fastnbulbous points out at the top of the thread, there really isn't a clear "fan favorite," which is interesting to me.

ZM is the one I always reach for but I would probably buy the Police box set if I saw it cheap.

Never heard Synchronicity all the way through despite being born in 1978 and "Every Breath You Take" being everyfuckingwhere throughout most of my childhood.

I’ll be honest with you I usually don’t check what thread I’m posting in

there is only one thread, i'm on the same page. literally

Message in a Kettle

what police album would you recommend to someone who largely dislikes their hit singles but suspects that there may be album cuts that they would be into

Ghost in the Machine

...which won this poll

I like Reggatta de Blanc for that, that one really demonstrates how crisp and tight they sound as a band. I know parts are born from jam sessions and Copeland has a heavier hand in the songwriting which is probably a good thing at this point. Zenyatta is also a bit like that but more sterile and there's less material. Can't argue with Ghost either though the direction that goes in after the 3 hit singles is not really the Police's main sound, I mean Sting plays a bunch of sax on it for whatever reason, though the songs themselves are very good

These were the top voted deep tracks from the recent ILM Police poll, if you want to pick and choose:

5 When the World Is Running Down, You Make the Best of What’s Still Around
7 Bring on the Night
8 Driven To Tears
13 Synchronicity I
16 The Bed’s Too Big Without You
17 Ωmegaman
19 Secret Journey
21 It’s Alright for You
22 Next to You
23 Darkness
24 Canary in a Coal Mine
26 Voices in My Head
27 Truth Hits Everybody
28 No Time This Time
29 Demolition Man
30 Man in a Suitcase

Oh, "The Bed’s Too Big Without You " was apparently a single.

I have distinct memory of being five or six, sitting in my parents' car while they were playing News of the World and being a little anxious because I swore they were singing, "we will, we will, we will rob you". Proving that my terrible sense of humor was present from an early age, I told my parents, "maybe they should call the band The Police to come get these guys" and thinking it quite witty.