Reggatta De Blanc

Good album! Obviously we got the hits but there's loads of stuff I've never heard, and there's some interesting tracks there too! Saved songs: Does Everyone Stare, Bring On The Night, The Bed's Too Big Without You

This album was so entrenched in my brain as an 80s album, I was surprised it was 79. Not a big difference but still.

3.5

Goed album, lekkere mix van reggae, pop, en rock.

Are the Police a reggae band? This album says yes. Everyone knows the title track and it slaps but everything about it's been said. I think the real star of this album, for me on this listen through, is Copeland's drumming, it really elevates my connection with the material. Can you honestly say It's Alright For You is an interesting song without the momentum he injects? And for the rest of the album, where the songs stand on firmer shoulders, it adds an extra element. On deathwish its so locked in with the guitar it feels like one instrument.

Message in a Bottle gets this to a 4. Rest of the album is good enough.

A massive step from their debut less than a year before. There were signs on the debut, but things really begin to gel here. Better production, songs and focus results in an album that paves the way for their superstardom. Is this The Police album that goes on the list. I don't think so, but there is some very fine music and Message In A Bottle and the title track are tremendous.

Love this album. No sophomore slump here. Kickass opening track that sucks you in as you sing along. Bring on the Night, Bed’s too Big, It’s alright for you are also standouts. Great blend of reggae vibes and excellent rock and roll.

What an excellent group of musicians and strong group of songs, including a few I’ve never heard before. Two absolute bangers: Message In a Bottle, Walking on the Moon. The only “bad” song is “On Any Other Day” with the poorly aged line about his son being gay. Observation: The beginning of “Bring on the Night” sounds like “edge of seventeen”.

"Oh, I love Message in a Bottle, I hope the rest of this album sounds like that" I say as I am hit in the face with a bunch of songs that sound like alternate takes on the DuckTales theme song. The Police and Queen are the royalty of having some of the best singles you've ever heard in your life, but the rest of their songs being silly lasagna music. I don't know what that means either, but you get what I'm saying. Sadly this album doesn't contain any songs in which Sting has a conversation with a brontosaurus, so I can't go any higher than a 3/5. Glad they fixed that in their later albums.

New wave, reggae rock. Dos megahits. Un 4.

Bien. Message In A Bottle.

I do not see what other people see in The Police. This album is generally pretty okay, but certain moments (On Any Other Day and No Time This Time) are ROTTEN Favorite Tracks: Message In A Bottle, Bring On The Night 2.5-3/5

It’s evident they were ska influenced on this record. Message in a Bottle is simply a classic and the vibes of the record as a whole are very chill…that’s something to be proud of. Sting and the boys have crafted some decent rock n roll here.

i honestly wasn't expecting too much and because of that ngl it gave a lot. loved the rock steady and funk influences. did not expect that from "commercial classic rock" at all

I was always aware of The Police as a band but not their music style so I was expecting some classic rock/rock and roll style music which I would’ve welcomed too but I was pleasantly surprised to hear the reggae and jazz influences throughout this record. I’ll be honest I do find the lyrics to be slightly derivative at times with a lot of religion, however the instrumentation and style of this record is great. The opener ‘Message In A Bottle’ does have a bit more classic British rock band style but Sting’s vocal inflections really give that reggae undertone. Compare this to track such as ‘Walking On The Moon’ and you can see how parts of this record really embrace that reggae tone, it is a much more laid back track which gives focus to this spaced out guitar sounds. Then there’s the jazz influence which is clear as day on ‘Does Everyone Stare’ with the piano leading the way and some light percussion to accompany. Now I don’t think this album is perfect but it was a damn great listen, wouldn’t mind another Police album on this list if they’re gonna be more like that.

I've been known to traditionally not be a huge Sting or The Police fan. I mean, their music isn't terrible, and it is quite catchy, but I just never really jived with any of their stuff much. Message in a Bottle is a jam though! Actually, the only song I knew on today's record was Message in a Bottle. The Police sound a lot like UB40 (reggae mixed with pop rock). Actually, today's album cover (Reggatta de Blanc) translates to "white reggae" which is basically what this is. Maybe that is part of why I don't really care for The Police. The fact that reggae should be left to the Jamaicans (Bob Marley and Peter Tosh for example are both amazing artists). I just feel like Sting is trying too hard to be Jamaican (even mimicing their accent). Sting's larger than life ego isn't lost there either. On the album cover, for example, Sting's head has to be the biggest. Sonically, the band is tight. The drum work on this record is phenomenal, and the bass grooves are funky as hell! Amid the feel good reggae beats, there is some darkness though. In an interview one time, Sting said that The Bed's too Big Without You is a song about his ex girlfriend who killed herself. Overall, not a bad listen, but not something I gravitate towards. Listening to a full album did nothing to change my mind on the band. If anything, it introduced me to some of their quirkier songs (On Any Other Day for example). Favourite songs: Message in a Bottle, Bring on the Night, It's Alright for You Least favorite songs: Does Everyone Stare, On Any Other Day, Contact 3/5

Very good, was delighted to discover which album Message In A Bottle came from

sort of fun but mostly just background music

EH

Enjoyed it but wasnt my favourite

Such a good album front to back

The album really lives up to it's name - white reggae. Before this I would never have thought that The Police was a reggae band, but this album definitely begs to differ. It effortlessly straddles the line between post-punk, new-wave and reggae rock. Best: Message In A Bottle Worst: Contact

I agreed with Stevie when he said the last police album we got this week should be the last. I guess this list has other ideas. Message in a Bottle is a great song, but I really don't think we need to be including albums that have one great song on them. No one likes being stopped by the police, especially not twice in one week.

Weird week for this list. Seems like only yesterday we got our first album from the The Police, but it was actually four days ago. Here we are, round two of, hopefully, not too many more. I said it before, I'll say it again: these guys are overrated. Doesn't mean they're bad; in fact, they are quite good. But if we're considering the competition (see Echo & the Bunnymen album we had yesterday, released the following year) they had in the UK, I guess I can start to see why people would think Sting is a godsend. "Message in a Bottle" goes stupid hard, one of my absolute favorites from them. These guys have the hitmaking ability, no doubt. But this one's not got too much for me. Definitely not as enjoyable as Synchronicity, but still decent. Favorite tracks: Message in a Bottle, Walking on the Moon. Album art: Photo of the lads, blue filtered. I only saved two songs in my playlist, and they were both already in my iTunes library from the greatest hits album, so I won't even see this in the playlist which I think is pretty funny. 3/5

For each album by The Police, it's more or less the same drill. The major singles are legendary, but the deep cuts are... well... very very *deep* sometimes. This one is no exception, even though I readily admit that "Bring On The Night", " On Any Other Day" and "This Bed's Too Big Without You" are good songs. Conversely, the instrumental title track, "Deathwish" or the last tunes closing the proceedings are sort of a borefest to me. And in between you have "It's Alright For You", not so bad but very derivative of former rhythm'n'blues hits, oddly enough. I'm not familiar with *everything* the Police has released, yet I feel like this album is indeed the one to select for those sorts of lists compared to the others, even though it only has two super-famous singles, "Message In A Bottle" and "Walking On The Moon". The debut *Outlandos D'Amour* has three of them, it's true: "Roxanne", "So Lonely" and "Can't Stand Losing You". Unfortunately it also has very awkward stuff such as "Hole In My Life", " Born In The 50s", "Be My Girl" or "Masoko Tanga", so I guess it's not an "ideal" candidate either. And no, don't get me started on *Synchronicity*. As much as I like "Every Breath You Take", that last album, often quoted in best-of lists, leers too much towards the sort of eighties pop Sting would soon release for his solo career. And here another story begins, I guess... To be honest with you, I have a "greatest hits" collection from The Police at home, and I'm perfectly happy with it. With their mixing of post-punk and reggae, coupled with great performances and Sting's songwriting at its best, The Police had every card in their game to help them become a legendary band. But sometimes, legendary bands are better for the singles format than they are for the one of albums. That's life. Number of albums left to review: 574 Number of albums from the list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 205 Albums from the list I *might* include in mine later on: 99 (including this one--it's a 8/10 LP for purposes that are more general than the ones of this list--but when it comes to "essential" albums, it's only a 3/5 one) Albums from the list I will certainly *not* include in mine (many others are more essential to me): 126

This band has no bad albums

There's a really cool documentary on the making of The Emperor's New Groove called The Sweatbox that I recommend to anybody who finds filmmaking and/or the creative process interesting. The crux of it is that the Disney executives end up looking like total buffoons, which is probably why you'd have to find on DailyMotion or something if you want to watch it. Anyway, Sting is also in it, and though he actually comes out looking okay, there are some really tense scenes where he basically threatens to hold up production because he's concerned the film is going to be selling anti-conservation messages to children, and at one point he says something about colonialism, which I find hilarious given his ridiculous accent on this album. Best track: Does Everyone Stare

Very weird to go back to this when you know their later hits, but good album overall. Solid performances from all 3. Mega hit to begin with and remains entertaining throughout. Some silly songs keep it from a 5.

less funk and more rock than their previous one which made the difference in enjoyment

Classic Police. Nice to hear an album with some hits, but also some different sounds and a different singer than Sting (or Mr Sting). Didn’t hear him let out a little tummy squeak though.

From the police albums so far I got this has actually been a good one - less of the creepiness - still some of the hits - with Message in a Bottle still holding up, and Walking on the Moon being awesome - as well as a few other good ones. It’s not a perfect album - but it’s short enough to keep you consistently interested. And oh those Stewart Copeland drums …

the police's reggatta de blanc has one of their greatest and well known songs, "message in a bottle" and... not much else. i couldn't get much into it. this album has an interesting fusion of new wave and reggae, which definitely set the police apart. i like some reggae and some new wave, but not this combination.

I've always said that The Police really do new wave in their own way, and this second album, which helped launch them into stardom, really shows that fact off. The ways in which they saw that white reggae could fuse with punk and new wave (and before new wave was even really a thing) was a fascinating and well-received discovery that really led them to standing out from the crowd. This probably wouldn't be my first choice album of The Police to include in this project, but it is very likely among their most influential and defining moments for them in setting their unique tone. And who can say no to immediately coming out of the gate with "Message in a Bottle" as an album opener?

I'm shocked that this album is so... unpleasant? I expected something different. Sometimes Sting sings out of tune, ugh. The rest of the music is good. Only 2 songs were good, the rest were so-so.

It's all fine until Sting starts singing

Obviously I knew "Message in the bottle" and "Walking on the moon" so I was expecting kinda two hit wonder album. But the rest is just not pleasant. I just wonder why The Police was/is popular? And why Sting even considered himself as singer?

liked some, didn’t like some 3.5

I Stan Sting

fuck the police... but not THESE police. Who knew that their non-hits were so... quirky?? An enjoyable time. Sting knows how to sing and how to structure a song. Not sure if the album lives up to its promise of "White Reggae", but maybe the white reggae was the friends we made along the way. It's a high 3 for me, but I've been giving out too many 4s lately, so a 3 it shall be.

Going in, my expectation was of rather uninteresting, radio-friendly pop rock, with a chance of quality in the deeper cuts. Turns out, this was a lot more reggae than I'd thought - but combined with uninteresting pop-rock. I guess that's absolutely fine for people who're into both. But to me that sounds like an absolutely horrible taste in music. Unfortunately, I find reggae absolutely aggravating. Mixing it with bad rock music makes the reggae less insufferable, but it's still far, far removed from any positive qualities. 1.5 stars. Rounded down because I wasn't able to finish the majority of tracks.

My unconscious dislike of Sting and The Police (with a few exceptions) is pretty much confirmed by this album. I feel as though every song has moments I really like, but then really irritating vocals and white reggae (which is just plain embarrassing at points) rear their heads, and repeat ad nauseam. The opening track and Bring on the Night are very enjoyable. The rest, however, is not. 13/04/23

Supremely cool album name but also equally hilarious when it essentially translates to "white boy reggae". Appropriation questions aside it all adds up to a pretty strong musical offering. Especially love the take no prisoners intro track, just bang straight into a sharp as shit (and pretty famous) riff. Minus one star for Sting calling himself Sting.. get it together GORDON.

I didn’t have to listen to this to know it’s a 5. Every song is crafted amazingly. Even the songs I don’t know incredibly well are still so good sounding. Iconic album.

Punchy. I love the Police but early Police most of all, just so raw yet clear. I listened to this album recently because I remember buying it as a kid and ... really not getting into it right away. Often a sign of a deep album for me, and yeah - there's so much I love about it now. They were such a *band* on this album: Stewart Copeland's ridiculous precision especially on the hi hat; Andy Summers' best album - weird/odd yet tasteful chords, shimmering chorus on songs like "Walking On The Moon" and the (I think) underrated bass lines from Sting. Not a ton of hits here but that might be why I ended up liking it more as the years went on. Songwriting noticably tails off a bit near the end but it's still not enough for me to knock it down, I love it... 9/10 5 stars

no thanks 1.5/5

I guess I should get away from the political aspects of music, where it came from, etc... But I wonder if mainstream radio would have played this without context of the support behind it from the power players? Is it a good album? Would I listen to it again?

Was interesting to listen to it more intently, because the police certainly have pretty interesting/unusual music... seems pretty percussion focused, odd time signatures, and very distinct instrument sounds. Really good album.

These guys are TIGHT. 3 guys who compliment each other really well. Every part is so perfectly precise. I don't normally care much for reggae but I love how they mix it in with rock and pop stuff. Cool subtle use of guitar effects like delay & chorus. Drumming is so good.

heh tunnistan bändin.. ja joitain biisejä.. tarkoittaa että yläkanttiin heh!! siis vaikuttaa se enemmän, että muut muut paitsi minä vaikuttaa tähän mielipiteeseen.. no hyviä biisejä kuitemkin. vaihtelevat mielipiteet hiteistä, parhaita ja paskimpia albumissa ja loput keskelle.. heh.. biisit tykkäävät toistaa itseään toistaa itseään toistaa itseään toistaa itseään toistaa itseään toistaa itseään toistaa itseään toistaa itseään ja fade out hiljalleen tuota hiljemmaksi menee se ääni mutta se ääni sinällään on sama, mutta vain hiljaisempi walking on the moon

Starts with a classic. It was hard to keep up after that. Not a bad driving album.

Two fantastic songs, a few good ones, some kooky tunes that don't even sound like The Police. A very good album.

I liked The Police a lot in the 80s and I saw them during the Synchronicity tour. I haven't listened to them very much since then, but when I hear any of their songs in recent years, I am increasingly impressed with Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland as musicians. Love the complexity they bring to their craft. It's hard for me to separate all the public image stuff around Sting from the music he was part of with this band and in later years, but when I set that aside and just listen to the work, I usually like it. His voice sometimes is a bit much for me, but ignoring what I might think of his public persona I do hear some great stuff from him from time to time. He's also put out some music as a solo artist that doesn't interest me, but that's probably something I'd say of any musician who has recorded so many albums over decades. This is a solid album even today and very much brings me back to some fun memories.

Brilliant at the time.

Let's be real: true black reggae is fucking boring. There's a reason you only hear it in seedy bars in Thailand that cater to cooked westerners: if you listen to reggae with a clear head you notice very, very quickly that there is ZERO variation in tempo, chords, themes, etc. If you've heard 30 seconds of real reggae, you've heard it all. Not exaggerating there. Is what The Police did appropriation? Probably... but who cares. It's not like The Police took their kazillion dollars out of some starving Jamaican's mouth. True reggae sucks too much to have ever been pop chart big. People idolise the IDEA of Bob Marley, not his music. Reggae only became palatable on a large scale once The Police mixed it with new wave. And that's worth noting: they mixed it with something as shit as new wave to improve it. 2/5 because message in a bottle is a legitimately good song.

Combing the usual sound I know as The Police and the sound before I knew them as The Police. Definitely progressive new wave.

The Police also nochmal. Die Platte kommt nicht recht in die Gänge, wenn man mit konventionellen Pop-Erwartungen rangeht und kriegte mich erst beim vorletzten Song. Eher Musik für Musiker, insgesamt solide hörenswert. Im Übrigen ist da noch das bekannte Message In A Bottle drauf, was einfach mal ein geiler Song ist.

It's a good album. Like The Weather Report the other day, and Jacob's bass, this album lives and dies by Stewart Copeland's amazing drumming. Propulsive, rigid but off kilter, sharp and beautiful. You can see the marked difference between these exciting, jittery songs and the shoes off new age bollocks that defined Sting post 1985, and know that without that drumming, Sting is adequate at best.

Not usually into white man's reggae but this was an exception

Good solid new wave album, well deserving of its place on the list. Message in a bottle the stand out song. On any other day the low point.

Firstly, he drumming - Stewart Copeland is an absolute genius! I love what he's doing on the hi-hat, especially on Message In a Bottle, which is also the best song on the album. The rest of it is good too, the highlights include Walking on the Moon, Bring On the Night (oh how I love this subtle guitar riff in the background) and The Bed's Too Big Without You. The rest of it is a bit of hit and miss, which I've found to be the usual within the new wave genre. Regarding the accusations of cultural appropriation - I don't know, I read somewhere that Sting grew up in a neighbourhood with immigrants from the Carribean and that made him fall in love with the music and this is sort of a tribute. I want to believe that. Also, the reggae inspired instrumentation is fantastic. It only gets a bit weird when Sting tries to do the accent too hard. The lyrics are smart and amusing (as is the title of the album). I like it a lot, just a few filler tracks but overall 4/5

Lovely punky pop reggae. Of course covering topics like depression, isolation, prostitution, suicide. I don’t think we’ll ever get a band like The Police ever again.

Didn't hate this anywhere near as much as I expected to. Aside from the cringe in the opening song it was actually pretty punky.

8/10

7/10. Ah, yes, the reggae cops

Alright and it has Message in a Bottle. 7/10

The adoration for The Police continues to elude me. They're great musicians (and I'm not even counting out Sting himself here), but the record has occasional flits of greatness (seriously, even I enjoy "Message In a Bottle"), but never really nails it: some songs feel half-finished, and it switches between serious and almost-Offspring-level of jokey ("On Any Other Day"). I will say, I never noticed their post-punk tracks before, but those aren't the ones that usually play. Favorite tracks: "Message In a Bottle", "Deathwish", "No Time This Time"

Love this one.

reminder of my youth a good album to start my journey. The tracks released as singles are fabulous. The album tracks a little bit samey. Copelands drum beats too fast for me in some of their songs sounds like they are rushing to finish the song and makes the lyrics indistinct.

Classic Album. Message in a bottle and Walking on the Moon have been around my playlist forever. Some different influences, like Reggae

The spiky new wave is largely good, you know the singles. Less said about Sting's fake Jamaican accent the better. On Any Other Day is terrible

4.1 - Lots of energy, lots of snap. For just three guys, they create a ton of sound. They're also incredibly tight - there's not a missed note or beat in the recording. I love the dreamy reggae-infelected interplay of bass and guitar on "Bring On the Night" as well as the trippy guitar sonics on "Walking On the Moon."

the cunting prototype for chris martin. stings got to be a nonce right? fucking acts like one.

A regrettable experience. Torture to my young ears. A real abortion of melody and lyrics that should have never seen the light of day. A festering wound in the back of your eye.

Somebody call the police...to tell then this album is shit.

Great singles, and some reasonably good album tracks.

I didn’t like this as much as I thought I would. Other than message in a bottle, which is great, nothing else really stood out to me

Brisk paced.. Definitely popular back in the day.

Sting can really croon you know? That was great. Message in a Bottle is a classic and Reggatta De Blanc was cool. Loved contact too.

Es repetitivo, pero nunca llega a ser tedioso. Al menos no es muy difícil saber que canción escuchas, pues no hay mucha diversidad en la letra fuera de repetir el titulo 30 veces por pieza. A pesar de esto, es completamente disfrutable. No siento la necesidad de saltar alguna canción y, personalmente, me gustó mucho

4 Fantastic album. I give it a solid 4/5 for now.

I hadn’t heard this album in ages and wow it hasn’t aged a bit. Really great album.

Not so interesting, a couple nice ones tho

I mean, I guess you could say the fell to the sophomore slump. This one isn't as packed with hits and seems a little laid back for the band, but its still the FUCKING Police and it still rules. It's still better than like 85% of all music ever made.

This was great

Good bit of fun

FIRE

Official Police Fan club, member number 606 and stayed up late to watch them on Old Grey Whistle test. Great days! Every track on this is a classic- they were huge at the time but time moves on, although it still makes me turn up the volume. Listening back now Stewart Copeland's drumming is particularly noteworthy, the vibe with bass and Sting's vocals were so influencial. I can't believe this has only just made it to the list. Shame on you Robert.

A rampant appropriation of reggae. A rock-based, generic, new wave album. A minor album from a one hit wonder.

Pretty fun album. Never listened to much Police before. Knew the 2 most popular tracks. Theyre pretty good. Can't pin down his accent though. Album ended kinda flatly. Just a fade out? But entertaining throughout

I Like The Police so I was glad this showed up. It's fine but they have better albums I'd even go so far as to say that Zenyatta Mondata, Ghost in the Machine and Synchronicity are all better and I'll be lucky if even one more of those is on the list. Best tracks: Message in a Bottle, It's Alright For You, Walking on the Moon. Stewart Copeland of course is amazing on the drums.

It's pretty much exactly what I expected, but with less quality throughout the album. Very little desire to listen to this again.

Not my favourite Police album but still good.

A serviceable Police LP – gives away the ghost by letting its best track ('Bottle' by a long shot) up front, with not much achieving that high bar for the rest of the runtime. That being said, even a ho-hum Police album is a solid listen, as Sting and co. pilot their way through the standard mix of chorus-drenched guitar + unconventional rhythms to great effect.

Fedt!

Sting’s vocals are not for me and I never really got the reggae in punk thing but after a while those grooves did kinda win me over

Yeah there's gonna be a lot of this isn't there. Some nice instrumentation for sure, wasnt upset by it, but for the most part I don't eally understand The Police. 2 and a half. Fav track: Bring on the Night

Some great instrumentation, but Sting’s vocal style I never seemed to warm towards. Title track is probably the standout for me.

fairly decent, fairly police, fairly good listening. was impressed.

Rating: 8/10 Best songs: Message in a bottle, It’s alright for you, Walking in the moon