The Police

While the Police were already huge in Britain, it took this 1980 release to finally break them in America. Songs like "Don't Stand So Close to Me" and "Shadows in the Rain" brought a new sense of lurking dread to their lean reggae/new wave sound, while "Driven to Tears" previews the more mature work that was to just around the corner. "When the World is Running Down..." may be the single best song on this classic album.

In the two years since they first arrested America's attention with singer-bassist Sting's Top
Forty love song for a prostitute, "Roxanne," the Police have gotten trapped in a credibility
gap between their commercial importance as a New Wave phenomenon and their artistic
standing as a New Wave band. On one hand, the group's minimalist approach to tour
economics, Sting's riveting charisma on stage and screen (he was the ultracool A... More >

Not to be confused with Regatta de Blanc, I don't think, this is where the latest vanguard of musicianly postminimalist abandons all pretense of pop (or reggae) mindlessness. Stewart Copeland's rhythms skank plenty while looting the whole wide world. Andy Summers's guitar harmonies are blatantly off-color, his melodic effects blatantly exotic. And Sting's words are about stuff--itchy general, teacher not petting with teacher's pet, plus, ahem, the perils of stardom. Summing it all up is their first true hit and only true masterpiece: "De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da." (Grade - B)