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)

I voted for two things off the Brimstone & Treacle soundtrack, and could have voted for more.

I will defend "Mother."

That is all.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkB67-TIDsg

I'm definitely voting for Mother. I mean come on.

definitely gonna try and bang out a ballot for this!!

the Kent 10" is full of great jams, with "Away From Home" being the best, next to "Don't Care":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99c8HMxtg-Q

as far as barely-eligible covers, samples, etc. go, i just want to share out The Blow's bedroom-pop interpretation of "Everything She Does is Magic," "Come on Petunia," which first grabbed me on a mixtape left behind in a well-intentioned but under-used DIY "recess center" in 2004:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MO1HSfzK1Ns

a lot of the best Klark Kent stuff isn't on the 10", you gotta get the Kollected Works CD for everything. if you like that stuff I highly recommend the Gizmodrome album, or even better the live album. I know a lot of people were disappointed in it but I think that was mostly because it was marketed as some crazy prog supergroup when it's really just Klark Kent with a better backing band.

surprised myself by including three copeland songs on my longlist. one of them will def make my final ballot

The Mother debate should be interesting and do wonder where it will end up.

Controp: the stingster's contribution to long long way to go > his contribution to money for nothing

Although money for nothing is a better song

Sidenote: I first typed monet for nothing, and I giggled imagining a very good art transaction

Also, I sing Come on Petunia to the tune of Billy Joel's "Only the Good Die Young."

Come on Petunia, don't make me wait

Controp: the stingster's contribution to long long way to go > his contribution to money for nothing

otm

"Long Long Way to Go" is a better song and record.

Voted.

Voted - I think this was the easiest ballot I've ever had to compile, 20 tracks is the perfect number for these guys.

^^^ same, this went really quickly. In theory I could have done some dedicated listening to Zenyatta and Ghost, the albums I know the least well, but I think I've got a pretty great set of tracks here in an order I could more or less defend. Feel like there'll be a lot of little things to discuss and praise with the rollout!

Voted! Didn't think about it too hard, mostly went on vibes. Really looking forward to this rollout.

Every time I see this thread title, the song comes into my head and I get lost in its groove, so maybe that tells me what my favourite Police song is.

growing up the Sting Bring on the Night live CD was playing constantly so it was pretty strange to hear the original versions of When the World is Running Down, One World, Demolition Man, & Bring on the Night. I think they work in both contexts but the arrangements are so much different it really does show what the other two brought to the band

I really like that live album, as far as solo Sting goes. But yeah, the jazz-funk vibe is very different from the Police.

Maybe I should have re-listened before voting but I've listened to these records so much in my life (OK except "Ghost") that I voted based on what I felt like hearing when I saw the title.

voted!

Voted

Ghost In The Machine became my #1 over the last 5-6 years. I get it now.

Aside from "One World" it's probably their least corniest album. And "One World" isn't even that corny.

one world is fun. didn’t sniff my list but heard it in a department store recently and it was great department store music

It's so hard to hear Synchronicity side 2 with fresh ears. Do I squeeze them in or drop them in favor of challopsy picks?

GITM has Copeland and Summers' best songs.

Saturday night I went to my local bar and a jam band was doing a cover of Driven to Tears with a saxophone rave-up in the middle that kind of sounded like Can't You Hear Me Knocking. Pretty sweet.

Alfred - Do you mean because there are so few of them?

Personally I prefer RDB because it more of a group effort. GITM is Sting with special guests.

yeah

Speaking of non-corny, relistening to “Rehumanize Yourself” (which was on my ballot) made me think it’s Sting’s best didactic song. The verses have a punky directness that holds up.

Rehumanize Yourself was the first time I heard the c-word in a song as a kid, closely followed by Two Swords by The Beat, in both instances it's used for far-right racists. That was my early-years anti-fash education

Same, it was shocking especially to American ears because we don't have the same colloquial use of it.

Can’t recommend this enough

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w71K0ff1VBs

I recently rewatched that actually - having loved it when it was released - and although the musical segments are fantastic I was floored by how mindblowingly precious and pretentious Sting is throughout. He sounds like someone who believes his own PR. The rest of the band are relaxed and stunningly capable, and the performances are loose and vibey ("Consider Me Gone" etc.) but the "portrait of a genius" element is grating.

We got into double digits over the weekend, there is still plenty of time to vote.

Didn't Sting switch to guitar for Blue Turtles?

He plays guitar on much of the live solo stuff, yes. That said, iirc he played the guitar first, so the characterization may be somewhere between switching and switching back.

(obligatory apology for boring semantic distinction)

yeah, rightly or wrongly, I assume so-called bassists switch often, especially if they're songwriters (and plenty of guitarists switch to bass when needed).

My impression of Sting is that he's a capable guitarist but a terrific bass player. (I don't know enough to assess his lute abilities.)

if I made a list of the Top 10 lutists off the top of my head he would probably be on it yeah

Sting Bring on the Night live CD

Iirc, live CDs; I think it was spread across two!

One of the last times I saw Sting he played "Message in a Bottle" on a classical guitar, replete with food propped up on stand, and ... he fucked it up a bit! It's hard to play, that song. Anyway, he's a great bassist, but only a functional guitarist.

xpost Here's Sting playing the Hurdy-gurdy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gg-0KXjGyGE

And here's my brother in law, who looks remarkably like Sting:

https://i.imgur.com/G31S0Qi.jpg

(I don't know enough to assess his lute abilities.)

Oh, I think you know plenty!

uhh he looks like all 3 morphed into 1 person

In other words, Sting's dream.

controp: Andy is an extremely skilled guitar player, among my personal icons, blah blah blah. Mad props to him.

But I don't believe for a second that he wrote or originated the guitar lines of "Every Breath You Take" or "Roxanne" or most of the Po-Pos' hits. Those were the work of mr. tantra ego yoga blondie-bear infuriating sweater guy.

It pains me to grudgingly admit it. But The Stingster, for all his well-documented personal faults, did bring a level of songwriting creativity that the others simply could not match.

The lute shit is boring, so at least we have that to fall back on when we want to tear down the rock icon.

A song like Roxanne, I imagine that was a band taking his pretty basic blueprint and making it more interesting. but Every Breath, if Sting came up with that guitar part, Sting would claim credit for that guitar part.

in fact, guitar part aside, that song is a pretty run in the mill doo wop progression by way of Leo Sayer.