When the World is Running Down, You Make the POLL of What's Still Around – ILM Artist Poll #116 – THE POLICE - (Voting extended to Friday, Dec 2, 2022)

giant steps are what you take

Any guesses as to which album tracks will receive zero votes? (I'm assuming most of the b-sides will not get any.) There's a handful of their songs that I really hate, but I imagine somebody could say "it's funny" or "it's dynamic" or "it's moody".

Behind My Camel

But that's a Grammy-winning instrumental!

Plus "it's moody"

Behind My Camel is metal af tho

"No Time This Time" feels to me like it's too deep to get more than 1 or 2 other votes besides mine but it's in my top 5 for sure.

Okay I just sent mine over. I didn't put anything from Outlandos d'amour.

xpost Love that one, one of my fave Stew performances.

Up to 17 ballots, will send out confirmation emails this weekend sometime.

Just sent mine in. It came together surprisingly easily. These guys were so much a part of my youth, and my favorites have remained pretty constant since.

Any guesses as to which album tracks will receive zero votes?

"Born in the 50's"

"Contact"

"Peanuts"

"Born in the 50's" is charming in that reminded me that all three of them would've been old enough to witness someone like Carl Perkins or Buddy Holly as an enormous chart-topping pop star. The '50s seem ancient compared the late '70s, but it really wasn't that much earlier. When I think about 2002 vs. 2022, the cultural differences don't seem nearly as great.

Nope I voted for Contact. I love that instrumental pre chorus thing

Me too

will try and bash out a ballot now. i think all my votes will be for the weirdo ones no-one likes, not trying to be a contrarian but i never really feel the urge to listen to the hits anymore

No Time This Time" feels to me like it's too deep to get more than 1 or 2 other votes besides mine but it's in my top 5 for sure.

― billstevejim, Friday, November 25, 2022 12:51 PM (seven hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

i voted for this one

I voted for the other quasi-punk track on RDB.

It's Alright for You?

I think they both are necessary

Just realized I left off Canary in a Coalmine, which I should’ve voted for. Oh well.

I voted for all three of these, I gotchu

canary rose up my ballot pretty steadily, one of my fav summers parts

Sent!

Also, never forget:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlesUq8U7KM

I wonder if that (in its original version) will be the lowest-ranked of their singles in this poll? I've never seen it get much love.

I've always found "Do Do" almost hauntingly spare. So austere for a single.

Like most of that album, my favorite.

My ballot breakdown more or less reflects my album preferences, with 5 each from Regatta and Ghost and 3 from each of the others (plus 1 non-album).

If anybody needs to modify a ballot you may, just point it out.

― Bee OK, Wednesday, November 23, 2022 10:43 PM (three days ago) bookmarkflaglink

OK, please add "Contact" to mine, you can put it in position 11 if that's not inconvenient, or if that's a pain, put it at the bottom, I'm still under 20 at any rate

but no big deal if not, it's my own omission

Any guesses as to which album tracks will receive zero votes?

"O My God"

Copeland: 'Darkness' is a song about vertigo. I'm very proud of it, and there's not really much to say about it except that...

Sting: 'Vertigo' is an Alfred Hitchcock movie!

Copeland: True, but unlike you, Sting, I didn't steal my ideas from films or other literary sources. I came up with the crap I wrote my goddamn self!

Summers: That's easy for you to say, Stewart. You've never even read a book - or seen a film!

that interview is insane

In part 3, if any of you vote for Flowers in the Desert imma cut a beeyotch

By which I mean Desert Rose which is totally distinct from Tea in the Sahara

“Contact” is gonna be number one now, isn’t it

sent

Does anybody need more time?

lol I'm just sending my ballot in now :)

we’re we supposed to get confirmation emails?

lol I'm just sending my ballot in now :)

― poster of sparks (rogermexico.), Monday, November 28, 2022 12:24 AM (seven hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

it's alright for you

"O My God"

#15 on my tracks list.

What is everyone's favorite Synchronicity single?

Mine: "Synchronicity II." "King of Pain" almost gets points because (a) its effrontery (b) its excellent arrangement.

"Synchronicity II" is my #1 track overall. Their absolute high water mark, imho.

Something crawls to the surface
Of a dark Scottish LOCH

Props to Sting for (sorta) rhyming with "crotch."

Synchronicity II also my top vote from that album (and the only one in my top 10).

Unintentional, no doubt, but I hear "S II" as The Police tipping the hat to Rush, who'd already mastered their own version of their sonics and skank on the previous year's Signals.

many miles away……

We know all the suicides are fake

I made a little playlist of the songs on my ballot and my main reaction listening to it is what a phenomenal groove band they were. Almost every song — especially the non-singles — is built on one great groove or another. Which is why for all the surface connections they are a much different proposition than Rush. The Police absorbed and understood the space and movement in reggae and dub better than maybe any contemporaries. (This was mostly gone by Synchronicity, one of the reasons it's my least favorite.)