Customer Reviews

The Very Best Of Sting And The Police

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Music: 4.5 stars; Compilation: 3.5 stars.

Saw Sting in concert a few weeks back (surprisingly strong set with LOTS of Police-nuggets such as Bed's Too Big Without You etc.) and that lead me to revisit this album. This was rushed out in 1997 as a result of P.Diddy's monster hit "Missing You", sampling "Every Breath You Take".

"The Very Best of Sting and the Police" (18 tracks, 78 min.) is "politically correct" in that it brings an equal number of Police hits and Sting solo-hits (9 each). It has a lot of things going for it: first and foremost, much of the music is outstanding. Best of all is the inclusion of "So Lonely", a major hit which somehow was omitted from The Police's "Every Breath You Take: The Classics". This can directly be attributed to using the full extent of a single CD capacity. The sound quality is surprisingly good as well. What is very unfortunate is that all 18 songs are mixed and matched without any apparent rhyme or reason. Thus we go from the Police's "Can't Stand Losing You" directly into Sting's "An Englishman in New York. Say what? Or we go from Sting's "Seven Days" into the Police's "Walking on the Moon"! Why couldn't they simply present the songs in chronological order? That said, there IS a lot of great music on this CD. It's simply up to you to play it in an order that makes more sense and pleases the ear more.

It's a solid collection but not the very best of.The absence of

"Fortress around your heart" by Sting as a solo performer is a shame."King of Pain" and "Wrapped around your finger" are also

missing somehow on this collection.If you want the very best of

both worlds here,you will have to purchase the greatest hits of

both individually,and then you will have the very best of both in my opinion.

One of the most popular groups of the eighties, the Police disbanded at the peak of their popularity so that frontman Sting could begin a solo career. This disc updates the collection of the same name from a few years back, adding recent Sting tracks like 'Brand New Day'(excellent) and 'Desert Rose'(overplayed and overrated). Still, like the previous set, this one is of a piece, excluding both 'King Of Pain' and 'Wrapped Around Your Finger', which I consider essential Police singles, and 'All This Time', which is simply one of Sting's best solo records. Thankfully, on the other end of the spectrum, the Puff Daddy remix of 'Roxanne' is gone. Overall, a solid overview, but the addition of the aforementioned tracks would have made it nearly complete.

I must admit that while I liked the music on the 1997 reissue, I thought it was just a pre-holiday cash in on the fanbase and it lacked a lot of the strongest music from both Stings former band the Police, and his solo hits.

The updated version takes 13 of the 15 tracks off the 1997 collection "The Very Best of Sting & The Police" and has five others to replace the two ones that were not pulled off the original. This 2002 re-issue has the beautiful "Fragile", and the great "Seven Days".

It's not suprising that "Every Breath You Take" and "If You Love Somebody, Set them Free" is included because they are among the very best material they've ever made but why didn't they include "King of Pain" or "We'll be Together" on here? However at least they didn't include the disasterous P. Diddy version of Roxanne because it's just drab boring hip-hop fluff aimed at the TRL masses.

Even still though, this 2002 version while much improved, is still a relatively muddled up collection of material from Sting as a solo artist and from The Police. You're best bet is to buy Every Breath You Take: The Classics or Fields Of Gold: Best Of Sting 1984-1994 even though the latter came a bit early in Stings solo career. This CD is not necessarily one to leave alone but it's not exactly the place to start your Sting or Police collection. The newbie fanbase should definately get this one as an introduction to them.

The ultimate choice though is to buy all of Stings solo albums and The Polices albums.

The music on this disc ranges from 3 stars to 5 stars, which would give it an average of 4.5 But I'm subtracting 1 star for false advertising and 1.5 stars for the abyssmal remix of Roxanne. There are a lot of problems with this CD.

For starters, some of the best songs, like "King of Pain", aren't even on it. And this isn't MY personal opinion. "King of Pain" was a chart-topping grammy-nominated tune. In fact, it sold more copies and got more airplay than most of the other singles on this disc. Wouldn't that make it a "best of" hit?

And why are there NO tracks from "The Soul Cages"? "All This Time" sold a whole lot more records than "Desert Rose" or "Russians".

So clearly, this is not "The Very Best Of"

Why else might you buy it?

Well, if you're a fan, you'd want to be completist and get it for the Roxanne remix. Don't bother, it is TERRIBLE. It is really really really bad. Really. I now want to invent a time machine to go back to a point before I ever heard it.

Why else might you buy it?

If you're not a fan, you might want an intro to the band and it's music. Well then please indulge me in a little quick education so you'll understand why this is not the disc for you.

Sting and The Police are two seperate entities. The Police was a Rock Band infused with punk and reggae stylings. Sting is a singer/songwriter.

While Sting may have written most of The Police's songs (and all of their hits), the idea for the band came from Stewart Copeland and the sound of the band owes much more to the atmosphereric arrangements and keyboard work of Andy Summers. The Police are certainly one of the greatest bands of the 80s and had a great influence on the 90s.

The Police sold out Shea Stadium. Sting sold out Jones Beach.

That is NOT to say that Sting's stuff is poor. Far from it. Sting's first three solo albums "The Soul Cages" (1990) and "Nothing Like The Sun" (1988) and the be-bop influenced "Dream of the Blue Turtles" (1986) have a level of sophistication in songwriting, production, and lyrics that are a cut above The Police's stuff in many ways. But they are very different.

Then there's Sting's recent stuff.

There is this great Onion parody editorial "written" by Sting entitled "You Know, I Used To Be Cool Once." In it "Sting" reminisces on the period in his life where he wrote abrasive challenging tunes. A time before he became the Compaq spokesperson and began writing songs for Disney movies.

Sometime shortly after 1991 things started going downhill. Whatever you want to call it, "Mercury Falling", "Brand New Day" and "Ten Summoner's Tales" are sub-par.

So if you're not a fan, and you're looking for an introduction, I'd like to recommend getting The Police's Greatest Hits collection "Every Breath You Take". Then, if you're looking for something else, pick up "Sting's Greatest Hits" or one of his first three solo albums (which all top the greatest hits).

But don't sell yourself short by buying this disc. There's no real reason for this disc even to exist!

Right from the start all the way to the end Sting delivers the hits. This is very easy music to like. And you can listen to it anywhere, it fits. Ok, maybe you can't listen to Fields Of Gold while you are lifting weights, but other than that this music can go anywhere with you. If you don't have any Sting, but are looking for some, this album is perfect for you.

This has to be the best music CD I have ever owned. Sting has an incredible voice. All of his songs tell stories. I especially enjoy "Don't Stand So Close To Me". It is the story of a male teacher being subtlely seduced by a girl in his classroom, but he resists the urge to satisfy her desires. That is the way of life. There is always that impulsive feeling to do what one would like to do even though it would be a huge mistake to do so. Stories like that were clearly made possible by Sting's Catholic faith. Everyone should listen to this album. It is so romantic. Sting sang from the heart. It's obvious that he was in love during the making of this album. Many people complain because "Wrapped Around Your Finger" and "King of Pain" are missing from this album. Those were popular songs, but it's impossible to put every song on one album. I agree with some of the other reviewers. I'm thankful they didn't include that awful version of "Roxanne" with P. Diddy Colmes. Listening to P. Diddy rap to "Roxanne" is like listening to someone rap to the "Star-Spangled Banner". I applaud Sting for being experimental. "Desert Rose" is another good example of Sting's willingness to experiment. Some music from the Middle East does sound beautiful. "Desert Rose" was more popular than "Roxanne" with P. Diddy. This is a big album. There are eighteen songs on this album. I think "When We Dance" is song number fifteen, but I didn't see it listed. This album gives you the best of both worlds. You get to listen to Sting and the Police, and you get to listen to Sting as a solo artist.

For the musicians that came out since the 1970's, nobody remained as strong, or a determined, or even as a brotherly love-hate relationed game, better than The Police. Since 1978, The Police captivated millions with their Punk edge, and skilled tales and songs. For Sting, it has been 25 years ago, since The Police broke out of Newcastle, England. Although The Police have had a great legacy, this collection lacks the focus of Sting.

The 2002, revised collection of The Very Best Of Sting And The Police, reflects upon 18 of Sting's biggest recordings from his smash solo career, and with The Police. Although the album has huge hits like Every Breath You Take, Desert Rose, and Can't Stand Losing You, the record lacks some of their best songs including, Invisible Sun, and Don't Stand So Close To Me '86. The album also drags down, with a shame of few of Sting's solo recordings, without putting up a little more to the table. There were a lot of good songs missing including, You Still Touch Me from Mecury Falling, The Soul Cages, and even After The Rain Has Fallen, even his Oscar-nominated song My Funny Friend And Me wasn't even displayed.

Let's face it, when it comes to record labels making good Greatest Hits collections, they always seem to fall flat on their faces. For Sting, I truly do not recommend this collection. Instead, I suggest that you get two seperate Greatest Hits albums, Every Breath You Take: The Classics, and Fields Of Gold: The Very Best Of Sting 1984-1994. You'll be a little happier if you have both of those as a die hard Sting fan, than the newer collection.

This was the first album that I purchased that was by Sting and I am so glad that I acted on my hunch to get this cd. I love how he magically melds very creative songwriting lyrics with his very unique voice. There are quite a few good tracks on this album. Some of my favorites are "every little thing she does is magic", "if you love somebody set them free". "if I ever lose my faith in you", "fields of gold", "brand new day" and "desert rose". I grew up listening to his music on the radio and finally decided to buy one of his cd's last year. I also love how confident his voice sounds in the songs. If you like 80's music, classic soft rock and/or pop and you want to hear a mix of 80's and 90's I would definitely recommend this cd.

For a band that were at the height of their fame, It seemed a shock too hear that 'The Police' were to disband. (Due to tensions between 'Sting', and the rest of the band, "Andy Summers (Guitar)" & "Stewart Copeland (Drums)". But what they did leave behind, was a collection of incredibly well-crafted, slick, literate & lively songs that touched upon Jazz (a particular favourite of Sting's, and one he would explore on his solo albums), Album rock, Pop/Rock ("Message in a Bottle", was the perfect encapsulation of intelligent Pop music, for a more discerning listener). New Wave (The spookily infectious anthem, "Don't Stand so Close to me" was one of the most successful new Wave-oriented tracks to climb the singles chart). Alternative Pop (The angst-ridden swagger of "Roxanne", was as reflectively beautiful enough for it to become one of their most requested/Covered songs, of their career). Songs with a slight reggae-ting to them ("Cant stand Losing you", toyed with elements of reggae instrumentation to marvellous effect). Alternative Rock/Post-Punk (The spaced out freeform guitar on "Walking on the Moon", perfectly summoned weird images of life on another planet), Cerebral Pop (The unforgettable catchiness of the mildly melancholic "Message in Bottle" will arguably remain one of their best known songs). Singer/Songwriter tracks (the Haunting "Every Breath you Take", is all the more disturbing, when you realise the song is about a 'Stalker' watching his victim, read the lyrics for the song again, and it'll start to make sense).

And all these established /Classic tracks are included in this reasonably comprehensive complition of the work of The Police. But there are several things that are going to divide listeners, as to the merits of this release. Firstly, there are a couple of tracks that haven't been included in this release that fans will (reasonably) have expected to make it. Songs like "Wrapped Around Your Finger", "King of Pain", "The Beds Too Big without You", "Driven To Tears", "Spirits in The Material World", and my personal favourite...the Exotic/World music influenced "Masoko Tango", are all curiously absent. This is probably so there's enough room on the disk to include tracks from the solo work of "Sting".

Now I'm not going to lie to you, when I bought this album...and it said "Sting & The Police", I didn't really think anything of it (maybe 'Sting' just wanted Top Billing??, I thought). When I realised that It included his solo work, I Thought.....D'OH!!!, Sting's okay I thought, and he has released some nice songs in his solo career, but I'd had no intention of picking up any of his Solo Albums. Well, thankfully the compliers here have chosen the best/most accessible tracks from his career, and interspersed them amongst the Police songs. and although I'm big enough to admit this, his tracks, although far more subtle in sound, and Jazz-tinged are generally excellent, and whilst it's hard to ignore the fact that isn't wholly necessary to have his tracks on this album, the actual music selected from his solo work is very good. (I'll even admit that I love "Englishman in New York" & "If you Love somebody Set Them Free" & "If I Every Lose my Faith in You"). Sure....It would have been perferable to have more "The Police" tracks than Sting's Solo stuff, but by picking some of his more intimate work, his work doesn't in any way disgrace this album. And I'll wager that this compilation isn't really suited for the devoted 'The Police' fan/enthusiast....instead this is far more suited for either the casual fan, or someone that likes both 'The Police', and Stings's Solo work (does such a person exist??......**Joke**). If it'd had possibly featured more "The Police" tracks, fitting in some of the tracks that I mentioned, that didn't make it, or trimmed back slightly on Sting's Solo work, to make space for more "The Police" tracks, This would have most definitely gotten a 5 Star rating. It's not that Sting's solo tracks are weak....far from it, although very different in sound to 'The Police's' work, it sits nicely in amongst the bands work (although a definite shift in tempo is noticeable), but "The Police's" work is so inspirational / Timeless, that you'd have to argue that the strongest songs, should have made the compilation. Irrespective of that, this is still a marvellous compilation, that tries to compile work, from two very different sources, and largely succeeds. And Essential for anyone that's a fan of both bodies of work ("The Police" & "Sting").