Customer Reviews

Complete Guides to the Music of the Police & Sting (The Complete Guide to the Music of...)

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Omnibus Press's CD size 'complete guides' are very popular and this book is a belated but welcome addition to the series. Penned by Chris Welch, an ex Melody Maker journalist this compact book includes a brief history and examines each song on each album including Message in a Box, and Sting's solo releases. There are also plenty of photographs including several in colour. The narrative for each track is, understandably, coloured by the author's view and it's obvious that he doesn't rate Stewart and Andy's songwriting talents too highly, but this aside the book is inexpensive and generally very good (and it fits perfectly next to your Police and Sting CD's!) and is excellent value for money.

To cut to the chase, this book has some interesting pictures and covers every song by the Police and into Sting's solo career up to _Ten Summoner's Tales_. Some photos are in color, but most are in b/w. Each section describes another album, when the album was released, what songs you'll find on it and what kind of reviews it received. The main thing I disliked about this book was the frequent commentary of the author regarding the meaning of songs. Sometimes we agreed, sometimes we didn't, but I would have been happier with more Sting quotes, more facts and less editorializing by the author. All things considered though, the affordable price makes this title worth buying.