The Police – Live! (1995) [SACD 2003]
PS3 Rip | ISO | SACD DST64 2.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | Scans included | 2,36 GB
SACD-ISO PS3 Rip to FLAC 2.0 | 24 bit / 88,2 kHz | 143:56 minutes | Scans included | 2,94 GB

1995 finally saw the release of the Police’s long-rumored first official live album, the two-CD Live!. The first CD was recorded back in 1979 in Boston, for an FM broadcast during the tour for their second album, Reggatta de Blanc, while the second disc is from their final tour in 1983 during a tour stop in Atlanta. While the first disc is excellent — it captures the Police at their most frantic and energetic — the second disc is pretty darn uninspired (Sting’s vocals in particular), as evidenced by the unnecessary and annoying backup singers that are detected throughout. Highlights abound on disc one, including early faves like “Next to You,” “So Lonely,” “Bring on the Night,” “The Bed’s Too Big Without You,” “Roxanne,” “Walking on the Moon,” and “Can’t Stand Losing You.” And while disc two contains a few standouts (“Tea in the Sahara,” “Every Breath You Take”), those dastardly backup singers make most of the songs sound like blah lounge versions (“King of Pain,” “Synchronicity I,” “De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da”). Still, the first disc of Live! makes it a recommended purchase to the serious Police fan.

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The Police – Synchronicity (1983) [SACD 2003]
PS3 Rip | ISO | SACD DSD64 2.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | Scans included | 1,82 GB
SACD-ISO PS3 Rip to FLAC 2.0 | 24 bit / 88,2 kHz | 44:32 minutes | Scans included | 862 MB

Simultaneously more pop-oriented and experimental than either Ghost in the Machine or Zenyatta Mondatta, Synchronicity made the Police superstars, generating no less than five hit singles. With the exception of “Synchronicity II,” which sounds disarmingly like a crappy Billy Idol song, every one of those singles is a classic. “Every Breath You Take” has a seductive, rolling beat masking its maliciousness, “King of Pain” and “Wrapped Around Your Finger” are devilishly infectious new wave singles, and “Tea in the Sahara” is hypnotic in its measured, melancholy choruses. But, like so many other Police albums, these songs are surrounded by utterly inconsequential filler. This time, the group relies heavily on jazzy textures for Sting’s songs, which only work on the jumping, marimba-driven “Synchronicity I.” Then, as if to prove that the Police were still a band, there’s one song apiece from Stewart Copeland and Andy Summers, both of which are awful, as if they’re trying to sabotage the album. Since they arrive on the first side, which is devoid of singles, they do, making the album sound like two EPs: one filled with first-rate pop, and one an exercise in self-indulgence. While the hits are among Sting’s best, they also illustrate that he was ready to leave the Police behind for a solo career, which is exactly what he did.

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The Police – Ghost In The Machine (1981) [SACD 2003]
PS3 Rip | ISO | SACD DSD64 2.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | Scans included | 1,65 GB
SACD-ISO PS3 Rip to FLAC 2.0 | 24 bit / 88,2 kHz | 41:07 minutes | Scans included | 803 MB

For their fourth album, 1981’s Ghost in the Machine, the Police had streamlined their sound to focus more on their pop side and less on their trademark reggae-rock. Their jazz influence had become more prominent, as evidenced by the appearance of saxophones on several tracks. The production has more of a contemporary ’80s sound to it (courtesy of Hugh Padgham, who took over for Nigel Gray), and Sting proved once and for all to be a master of the pop songwriting format. The album spawned several hits, such as the energetic “Spirits in the Material World” (notice how the central rhythms are played by synthesizer instead of guitar to mask the reggae connection) and a tribute to those living amid the turmoil and violence in Northern Ireland circa the early ’80s, “Invisible Sun.” But the best and most renowned of the bunch is undoubtedly the blissful “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic,” which topped the U.K. singles chart and nearly did the same in the U.S. (number three). Unlike the other Police releases, not all of the tracks are stellar (“Hungry for You,” “Omegaman”), but the vicious jazz-rocker “Demolition Man,” the barely containable “Rehumanize Yourself,” and a pair of album-closing ballads (“Secret Journey,” “Darkness”) proved otherwise. While it was not a pop masterpiece, Ghost in the Machine did serve as an important stepping stone between their more direct early work and their more ambitious latter direction, resulting in the trio’s exceptional blockbuster final album, 1983’s Synchronicity.

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The Police – Zenyatta Mondatta (1980) [SACD 2003]
PS3 Rip | ISO | SACD DSD64 2.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | Scans included | 1,54 GB
SACD-ISO PS3 Rip to FLAC 2.0 | 24 bit / 88,2 kHz | 38:08 minutes | Scans included | 766 MB

The stage was set for the Police to become one of the biggest acts of the ’80s, and the band delivered with the 1980 classic Zenyatta Mondatta. The album proved to be the trio’s second straight number one album in the U.K., while peaking at number three in the U.S. Arguably the best Police album, Zenyatta contains perhaps the quintessential new wave anthem, the haunting “Don’t Stand So Close to Me,” the story of an older teacher lusting after one of his students. While other tracks follow in the same spooky path (their second Grammy-winning instrumental “Behind My Camel” and “Shadows in the Rain”), most of the material is upbeat, such as the carefree U.S./U.K. Top Ten “De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da,” “Canary in a Coalmine,” and “Man in a Suitcase.” Sting includes his first set of politically charged lyrics in “Driven to Tears,” “When the World Is Running Down, You Make the Best of What’s Still Around,” and “Bombs Away,” which all observe the declining state of the world. 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.

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The Police – Regatta de Blanc (1979) [SACD 2003]
PS3 Rip | ISO | SACD DSD64 2.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | Scans included | 1,69 GB
SACD-ISO PS3 Rip to FLAC 2.0 | 24 bit / 88,2 kHz | 41:35 minutes | Scans included | 872 MB

By 1979’s Reggatta de Blanc (translation: White Reggae), nonstop touring had sharpened the Police’s original blend of reggae-rock to perfection, resulting in breakthrough success. Containing a pair of massive hit singles — the inspirational anthem “Message in a Bottle” and the spacious “Walking on the Moon” — the album also signaled a change in the band’s sound. Whereas their debut got its point across with raw, energetic performances, Reggatta de Blanc was much more polished production-wise and fully developed from a songwriting standpoint. While vigorous rockers did crop up from time to time (“It’s Alright for You,” “Deathwish,” “No Time This Time,” and the Grammy-winning instrumental title track), the material was overall much more sedate than the debut — “Bring on the Night,” “The Bed’s Too Big Without You,” and “Does Everyone Stare.” Also included was one of Stewart Copeland’s two lead vocal appearances on a Police album, the witty “On Any Other Day,” as well as one of the band’s most eerie tracks, “Contact.” With Reggatta de Blanc, many picked Sting and company to be the superstar band of the ’80s, and the Police would prove them correct on the band’s next release.

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The Police – Outlandos d’Amour (1978) [SACD 2003]
PS3 Rip | ISO | SACD DSD64 2.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | Scans included | 1,54 GB
SACD-ISO PS3 Rip to FLAC 2.0 | 24 bit / 88,2 kHz | 38:11 minutes | Scans included | 779 MB

While their subsequent chart-topping albums would contain far more ambitious songwriting and musicianship, the Police’s 1978 debut, Outlandos d’Amour (translation: Outlaws of Love) is by far their most direct and straightforward release. Although Sting, Andy Summers, and Stewart Copeland were all superb instrumentalists with jazz backgrounds, it was much easier to get a record contract in late-’70s England if you were a punk/new wave artist, so the band decided to mask their instrumental prowess with a set of strong, adrenaline-charged rock, albeit with a reggae tinge. Some of it may have been simplistic (“Be My Girl-Sally,” “Born in the ’50s”), but Sting was already an ace songwriter, as evidenced by all-time classics like the good-girl-gone-bad tale of “Roxanne,” and a pair of brokenhearted reggae-rock ditties, “Can’t Stand Losing You” and “So Lonely.” But like all other Police albums, the lesser-known album cuts are often highlights themselves — the frenzied rockers “Next to You,” “Peanuts,” and “Truth Hits Everybody,” as well as more exotic fare like the groovy album closer “Masoko Tanga” and the lonesome “Hole in My Life.” Outlandos d’Amour is unquestionably one of the finest debuts to come out of the ’70s punk/new wave movement.

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