Reggatta De Blanc
The Police

I was promised WHITE REGGAE. What I got were elements of reggae infused into new wave rock. All while the cunty bartender dad from Lock Stock & Two Smoking Barrels puts on a funny accent and sings over it. I didn't hate this Going in I was already aware of Message in a Bottle. My memory of it wasn't as favorable as I recalled, this song is definitely worthy of its success beyond this album. I liked It's Alright for You and Bring on the Night quite a bit as well. But the big surprise/standout for me was Walking on the Moon. This song as well as Message in a Bottle are the two best instances of Sting's Carribean inflections. I love the opening to this one especially, the echo of the guitar between its very intermittent chords. It feels like this overseeing presence in the song as you are mostly accompanied by the Bass and Drums. I am a real sucker for dreamlike soundscapes in music and this one was really nice. Unfortunately the rest of the album was either very middling in quality or pretty bad. On Any Other Day stuck out to me as being particularly bad, the over-pronunciation of the lyrics in this American accent got on my nerves almost immediately. I could almost see this song being good if they took it in a different direction. The revelation of their son being gay is pretty funny if not for just how it dates the song. Not sure if this one was just a victim of being so early in the rankings that it became a punching bag but I don't see how its worse than a lot of the other music we have gotten so far.

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