Do it now fucks. lol

The Police, gotta love em. Egotistical Stingie.

Bands like The Police and The Smiths I love for coming, doing, achieving their potential, and then GOING quickly before it got old, leaving fans wanting more. There's something to be said for that. They're also an interesting band in that (like some others, for example Springsteen) fans always disagree on what their best album is.

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Anyway:

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Outlandos D'Amour (1978)

4 stars

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Regatta de Blanc (1979)

4.5 stars

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Zenyatta Mondatta (1980)

4 stars

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Ghost in the Machine (1981)

4 stars

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Synchronicity (1983)

4 stars

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So I guess I'm gonna pick Regatta de Blanc as the best, although this is splitting hairs. But it is the album that made them big stars in the UK and had a nice mix of the power-pop ('Message in a Bottle', 'It's Alright For You'), the ska-pop sound that made them famous ('Regatta de Blanc', 'Walking on the Moon') and the more mature jazz-inflected stuff ('The Bed's Too Big Without You', 'Bring on the Night'). It's just really cool stylistically, with nary a synthesizer or AOR-nod in sight.

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Zenyatta Mondatta suffers a bit from the first-album-made-under-pressure syndrome, and it was kind of rushed and made on the cheap. (Sounds the most dated, too.) Some people are turned off by the 'colder', synths and saxes sound of Ghost in the Machine but I really like it (the sax-parts are all played by Sting himself). Synchronicity's second half is one of the all-time greats, but the first half is all over the place with no rhyme or reason, including Andy Summer's (and The Police's) worst-ever song, "Mother".

[Edited 8/28/16 17:59pm]

[Edited 8/28/16 17:59pm]

The Police 7/10

Zenyatta Mondatta 10/10

Ghost In The Machine 8/10

Synchronicity 9/10

Outlandos d' Amour 8/10

Outlandos D'Amour (1978)

4 stars

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Regatta de Blanc (1979)

4 stars

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Zenyatta Mondatta (1980)

5 stars

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Ghost in the Machine (1981)

4.5 stars

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Synchronicity (1983)

20 stars