The Police

The Police are touring the planet

In the very beginning of 2007 the music news reports discovered that the legend of British scene The Police are preparing for a worldwide tour. And quite soon, that is on 11 February, The Police did really appear before the public in their classic lineup and opened the Annual Grammy Awards announcing: "We're The Police and we're back!" before performing their old hit Roxanne. The Police started their world reunion tour on May, 28 in Vancouver in front of a crowd of 20 thousands admirers, and according to initial information they will finish touring in late January of 2008 in Australia. This large-scale event may indicate only one thing – the band has a gigantic potential, they managed to keep both their consequence and a huge fan base even after 20 years of silence. Simultaneously with these events The Police released a retrospective album of their best songs under quite an uncomplicated title The Police, which, in its turn, is also a collection of uncommon character. First of all, both the tour and the album itself are dedicated to a 30th anniversary of the release of the band's first single Fallout, secondly – this is the first double album in the band's history and, at last, this is the best The Police collection ever since, which neatly covers the entire catalogue of the band.

Is there any sense in another songs collection?

In fact, The Police is surely not the first collection album this band ever released. They do such things approximately one time in a decade. Thus a question if there is a real necessity in a new one looks quite appropriate. And, strange as it may seem, the answer is yes, there is. The songs collections may be good or bad too, even despite they include best songs. The main feature that differs this album from the former releases of the kind is a desire of compilers to represent a fullest picture of the band's creativity in the most comfortable way. Try as you might but you can't depict the significance of such a huge band as The Police on a set of ten or twelve songs. Along with such all time hits like Roxanne, Message in a Bottle, Don't Stand So Close to Me, Every Little Thing She Does is Magic, Every Breath You Take the album offers less appreciated but absolutely necessary and probably even more important for understanding of the inner essence of The Police songs, for example Demolition Man, Driven to Tears или Bring on the Night. The overall selection of songs here is really good and any diehard fan or a casual listener will be pleased with it.

Feel The Police style

For nine years of existence The Police released five albums and each of them has found its place on this new disc. So, the breakdown of the albums' songs looks as follows. Outlandos d'Amour (1978) - 6 tracks. Reggatta de Blanc (1979) - 4 tracks. Zenyatta Mondatta (1980) - 5 tracks. Ghost in the Machine (1981) - 4 tracks. Synchronicity (1983) - 8 tracks. Quite an informative selection, as you can see. Another curious fact about the album is that the tracks are presented in a chronological order so while you listen to the entire album you can watch how The Police evolve from punk and reggae to a consistent and qualitative pop rock. The only song that is not a part of any album and simultaneously the main hero of the occasion is the single Fallout, which certainly stands on the very first place. However, The Police still has one little failure. It concerns that fact that a couple of outstanding songs are missing here. If such tunes as Bed's Too Big Without You and, say, Rehumanize Yourself were included in the list than this album would be truly complete and definite. Yet, overall, this album stands as a perfect overview of The Police' career. It will be especially interesting for those who are unfamiliar with the band because this is a perfect and comfortable way to sense their style in case you don't have time to listen to all their albums.