Outlandos D'Amour [Digipak] [ORIGINAL RECORDING REISSUED] [ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED]

The Police

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 4, 2003)
• Original Release Date: November 1978
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered
• Label: Interscope Records
• ASIN: B00008BRBG
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (64 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #18,051 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com essential recording
Outlandos D'Amour is a product of the late-'70s British punk scene, but the Police were never really punks. The album lacks the class-conscious awareness that fueled early Clash albums or the angry, antimusical nihilism of the Sex Pistols. The material, although constructed with guitar, bass, and drums, often at tempos that would never be matched in their later studio recordings, stands apart. Andy Summers' guitar textures are here more traditional and without their later ethereal quality, but his chord choices on "Roxanne," for example, or his expansive solo lines on "So Lonely" would have baffled most of the burgeoning punk guitar school. So, too, would Stewart Copeland's drumming, enriched as it is by a multinational upbringing and stage experience in the last gasps of the progressive-rock movement. The rhythms of reggae are woven into the music and Sting's vocals pay conscious tribute to Bob Marley. The songs are mostly about love, or a lack of personal connection, and are frequently obsessive; the hits alone are worth the price of the album. --Al Massa

Amazon.com
Britain's Police got its start in the late-'70s days of punk, but the trio's background in jazz, fusion, and rock belied the punky image suggested by the band's dyed-blond hair. Indeed, where many punks were inspired amateurs, the Police (Sting on bass and vocals, Andy Summers on guitar, and Stewart Copeland on drums) were accomplished players who quickly developed a sophisticated approach to the power-trio format. Still, this debut album is filled with growing pains, with a handful of tracks far more interesting than the rest. The Police's primary stylistic innovation was to put the pulse of reggae into a rockier context, a strategy evident in the up-tempo "Can't Stand Losin' You" as well as in the band's first hit single, "Roxanne," a love song to a prostitute that would remain Sting's best- known tune until he wrote "Every Breath You Take." To this day, the first two notes of "Roxanne" are among the most recognizable melodic hooks in contemporary music. --John Milward

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Proto-punk pop pleasure, from the once-greatest band around, April 30, 2003

By	M J Heilbron Jr. "Dr. Mo" (Long Beach, CA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

As I listened to "Outlandos" on my iPod last night, after I dutifully purchased all of the newly remastered editions on CD, I felt the need to wax rhapsodic.
Listening to these impossibly crisp and detailed recordings, I remembered, as if it was yesterday, buying the LP. After "Ghost In The Machine", I had become a monstrous Police fan. I lived and breathed the Police. I went back and bought their first three records, and proceeded to memorize them.
This will not be an unbiased review.
I made a copy of the LP, on a cassette tape, Years later, when CDs came out, I repurchased the Police catalog, as I have with each remastering. The box set goes without saying. VHS tapes, laserdiscs, and now DVD's. I have listened to them in every conceivable media.
As the million-miles-an-hour "Next To You" opened the album, I was taken back to my high school and early college days. These guys were supposed to be punk, or punk-ish, but like The Clash, they threw more sounds...more textures into the mix. Sting occasionally sings with a tonsil-thrashing punk howl, but the airy voice always reverts to a classic melody some time before the final chorus. Andy Summers' guitars sounded like no one else at the time, and Stewart Copeland's polyphonic drumming put him head-and-shoulders above the DIY crowd.
Calming myself down just a bit, I must admit this is NOT a perfect record. "Masoko Tanga" sounds like three guys messing around in a studio with a tape running. The "Sally" interlude is funny the first few times, then gets kinda tedious. "Hole In My Life" is too long.
Who cares? "Next To You", "So Lonely" and the stone-cold-classic the first-time-you-heard-it "Roxanne" open the album in a way few debuts ever have. An instantly recognizable, commercial yet edgy, punk yet not punk, individual and unique, defiant statement proclaiming their arrival.
"Peanuts" ends side one in a manic flurry.
I could go on, about comparing the near-delicate guitar sounds in "So Lonely" to the beefy thrash in parts of "Born In The 50s", about the reggae-ification of beats that twisted conventional tunes into extraordinary ones, the nimble bass...
And this was just the beginning. The first of only five albums. The Police lit up the pop world for half a decade and then split. The three of them apart were never as potent as the three of them together, but seeing them together at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony offered us a delicious, delirious reminder of their talent.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Debut Album and Very Well Remastered!, February 17, 2006

By	Frederick Baptist (Singapore) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Born out of the tail end of the British punk scene, this debut album by the Police is a severely underrated offering. Sting gives us a hint of his great lyric-writing abilities so evident on future albums on tracks like "Roxanne" and "Born in the 50's". It becomes very clear as one listens to the tracks here that this is not your usual run-of-the-mill punk band with lame, brain-dead lyrics and 3-chord 4/4 time music but the great musicianship of Summers, Copeland and Sumner and the complex stylings and arrangements of the compositions come to the fore on "Hole In My Life" and "Can't Stand Losing You" This digipak version is a real treat too as the sound quality is very well remastered and sounds excellent. Recommended.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent debut, December 26, 2004

By	egon_beeblebrox (Georgia) - See all my reviews

I became a Police fan upon many nights cruising with pals cranking their greatest hits album. Upon hearing all those songs, I decided that this was a band that I needed to look more into. So, I quickly bought all their albums, as I'd already done with Pink Floyd. Seeing as how The Police have around 1/3 the number of albums that Pink Floyd have released, this was much easier on the wallet.

OUTLANDOS d'AMOUR is an excellent album, and I think it just might be The Police's finest. There's really not one bad song on it. "Next to You" is a great rocker. I think "Born in the 50's" might be my favorite one on the album. It should've been released as a single, along with "Roxanne" and "Can't Stand Losing You." "Roxanne," by the way, is one of the greatest rock songs ever, even with its vehement overexposure. Just avoid the MOULIN ROUGE version.

Buy this album, quick-like.