Outlandos d'Amour (Remastered)

iTunes Review

The punk-new wave movement of the late ‘70s had an interesting effect on seasoned musicians and the UK’s Police are perhaps the finest example. Drummer Stewart Copeland, guitarist Andy Summers and bassist Sting were all accomplished instrumentalists with a working knowledge of many genres and a studio savvy beyond their contemporaries. Yet, in order to cash in their chips, they smartly aligned themselves with the style of the times and stripped their approach down to its essentials, releasing with Outlandos d’Amour (Outlaws of Love), a smart, compact debut album that features sharp staccato guitars and tight, whiplash rhythms and remains one of the highlights of the era. Opening with the feral charge of “Next to You” and expanding outward with nods to reggae (“So Lonely,” “Hole In My Life”) and exquisite power pop (“Roxanne,” “Can’t Stand Losing You”), Outlandos only hints at the artistic scope the group had in its sights (though one can hear Summers leaking a dexterous guitar solo during “Peanuts”). Ironically, the disciplining and limiting rules of the punk genre enabled the Police to define themselves as one of the era’s most important and influential groups.