Reggatta De Blanc

The Police

A&M, 1979

http://www.thepolicetour.com

REVIEW BY: Jason Warburg

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 06/08/2007

Second albums are always tricky.  If you get to make one, it means your first album struck a chord somewhere, somehow.  So do you keep playing to that same audience, or do you expand your vision?  If you’re as talented and musically ambitious as the Police, that isn’t even a real question.

Reggatta De Blanc is that rare sophomore/transitional album that succeeds in virtually everything it attempts.  Outlandos D’Amour, the debut disc from the British trio of Sting, Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland, was raw punk-pop that melded reggae rhythms with aggressive guitars and vocals.  Reggatta takes that template and expands its borders outward in all directions, pushing toward a sound that’s more sophisticated and complex without losing the adrenalin and attitude that drove their debut.

Album-opener “Message In A Bottle” might in fact be the best pop song this band ever cut, its instantly memorable circular riff punctuated by Copeland’s hyperactive drumming as Sting wails a lyric that hits at the core of every human being’s loneliness.  If that opening suggested a more mainstream focus for the band, the title track which followed veered off in a whole different direction, a virtuosic instrumental jam that decorates reggae rhythms (the title translates as “white reggae”) with the shimmering, cascading guitar effects Summers was in the process of perfecting into a trademark style all his own.  A sequence of evocative, almost tribal chants from Sting and a driving outro with terrific Copeland flourishes completes this brilliant vignette.my_heart_sings_the_harmony_web_ad_alt_250

From there the band brings back Outlandos’ punk edge with the Copeland-Sting co-write “It’s Alright For You” -- although the middle and outro solos again feature Summers twisting, bending and echoing notes with hypnotic precision.  “Bring On The Night” is where things really start to stretch out again.  The opening verse features some of Summers’ most intricate, precise riffing and his tone is phenomenally clean.  Sting’s keening vocals and the fine work of one of rock’s most underrated rhythm sections propel the song forward until they drop into the reggae-pop chorus, an almost revelatory moment; these pieces shouldn’t fit, but they do.

From there the musical proceedings continue to branch out in different directions.  Copeland writes three tracks -- “On Any Other Day,” “Contact” and “Does Everyone Stare” -- all assertively odd and brimming with a messy punk energy that veers between melody and dissonance.  Sting nearly matches him with the frantic closer “No Time This Time,” a track whose careening pace reinforces the lyric. 

Sting’s other two solo compositions here, “Walking On The Moon” and “The Bed’s Too Big Without You,” are two of the album’s highlights.  The former finds Summers virtually painting with his guitar, one minute carrying the chunka-chunka reggae backbeat, the next strumming echo-laden brushstrokes of sound.  Sting might have composed the addictive bassline and surrealistic lyric, but it’s Summers’ spectacular guitar and Copeland’s firm, precise work on the snare and cymbals that make this song into a thing of wonder.  “The Bed’s Too Big” has a similar feel, albeit with a more grounded lyric and denser, heavier music.

Reggatta De Blanc was a major step forward for the Police, an album on which they successfully bridged the gap between their reggae-punk roots and the more melodic jazz-pop sound of their later years.  They would go on to make more successful albums, but they never recorded one on which they were a more cohesive, yet adventurous, musical unit.

Rating: A-

User Rating: A-


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