Gotta say the title made me cringe before even looking at what was on this album. I've always liked the 2 singles on this album but somehow hadn't noticed Sting's fake Jamaican accent bits before. Ugh. Ruins what would otherwise be a good album.
Before listening to this album, I only knew Message in a Bottle, Bring on the Night and Walking on the Moon. I consider Message in a Bottle a great song, the other two are good too. Hence, I expected to be more excited while listening to this album. Rock songs with repetition of always the same reggae elements do not do the trick.
The mix of new wave and reggae is interesting, the bass guitar is omnipresent and very melodic; when the lead guitar is not playing dull reggae riffs it's actually interesting even though it sometimes a bit too low in the mix to my taste. The way Sting sings with Carribean-like inflexion is quite annoying, that's probably the worst part of their "white reggae" (with the cultural appropriation issue it draws; the title itself makes me uncomfortable). Whatever its flaws, it's clearly good quality pop music.
There’s no denying that The Police wrote some great pop tunes. There were a few songs here that I don’t think I’d heard before and they didn’t stand out as much as the singles. I would listen to it again, though.
Today's album is Regatta de Blanc by the Police, and another one where I am very familiar with the hits but not the rest. Oddly enough these were the bits that grated, with reggae being sung in a cod Jamaican accent by a white bloke from Tyneside. In contrast the standout for me was the instrumental title track and some of the spikier new wave style songs.
Ich mag The Police eigentlich sehr gerne und "Message in a Bottle" ist einer meiner Lieblingssongs von ihnen (auch hier der beste Song des Albums m.M.n.). Aber ab der Hälfte wurde das Album doch etwas repetititv. Mir ist dadurch auch bewusst geworden, wie der Refrain fast immer nur aus dem mehrfach wiederholten Titel besteht - was zwar gerade live ganz toll ist, um schnell mitsingen zu können (looking at you, Powerwolf), aber über die Dauer eines gesamten Albums doch sehr zäh ist. Daher fühle ich für The Police dasselbe wie bei Powerwolf: immer wieder eingestreut sind es großartige Songs. Aber ab 5 am Stück stellt sich die Übersättigung ein. Ich bin aber gespannt, ob auch "Synchronicity" hier seinen Platz findet - das ist in meinen Augen deutlich besser!
Meh Sure, everyone of a certain age group knows The Police and there’s two well known songs on this album that give an instant connect. The only other song that made my ears twitch was ‘Everyone Stares’. I have to admit that I really wasn’t much into listening to albums until this past year. Truthfully, I was expecting more and found it rather disappointingly bla and in parts too annoyingly repetitive. Someone told me recently that Sting isn’t a nice guy in the being a giant arrogant dicktwat kinda person. That soured him for me.
I only knew a couple of songs on this album. "Walking on the Moon" was my favourite track, but I also got a big kick out of "On Any Other Day". Kind of a funny song! Generally I don't listen to this kind of music much, but I think I liked it more than I expected.
The musical equivalent of a white guy with dreadlocks. Uggh. I'll pass on listening to any more 'white reggae'
Evergreen & lifelong companion
Regatta de Blanc features one of the biggest hits of The Police, "Message In A Bottle". However, according to Last.FM I never listened to the album at all. And I can tell, apart from Message In A Bottle all other songs are new to me. You can still hear Punk, Reggae and Ska influences on this album, which never gets boring. The tempo of the songs vary a lot, I tend to like the faster, less Reggae style songs, such as "No Time This Time", better. Overall it's a really strong album.
Not my cup of tea at all