THE POLICE
EVERY MOVE YOU MAKE:
THE STUDIO RECORDINGS
UMC / ISLAND
★★★★
RICK ASTLEY
THE BEST OF ME
BMG
★★★
There’s no obvious need for a
new Police boxset: their 40th
anniversary was last year
and it’s not as if Sting’s recent
reworkings album My Songs is
forcing anyone to cash in. But
it’s good to see all five Police
albums wrapped up in a 6-CD
package that even adds in
exclusive B-sides compilation
Flexible Strategies for a
bargain £18. To accompany
Every Move You Make, all the
It’s pretty much impossible to
begrudge Rick Astley his second
heyday. Not only does he seem
hugely likeable, he’s a grafter
willing to put the work in to
climb his way back up and
game for hamming it up with a
new generation paying tribute,
going on stage with Bastille and
Foo Fighters. Most importantly,
Astley’s new albums have finally
found the backing suitable for his
powerhouse voice.
Until recently, Astley’s vocals
always sounded older than he
metal instrumental Behind
My Camel. By 1981’s Ghost
In The Machine, they were
still capable of the carefree
brilliance of Every Little Thing
She Does Is Magic, but were
starting to rely on horns to
cover up a lack of real melody
on the likes of the empty
Too Much Information and
Rehumanize Yourself.
They had the grace to splitvoice to drive the song along,
a formula he’s returned to since
2016’s 50 album powered him
back to No.1.
Astley can still cut loose – the
gospel-tinged Keep Singing and
lively new song Every One Of Us
are impressive pop to competeat their commercial height.
Synchronicity is a strange
album 36 years later, three
talents working separately,
each trying 10 new ideas
before breakfast. Stalker
ode Every Breath You Take
is horrible, Walking In Your
Footsteps now sounds gauche.
But you could never fault The
Police for ideas. Stadium pop
never sounded so weird. JEwith his modern equivalent,
George Ezra. He’s not ready
to leave the disco just yet, and
nor should he. The Best Of Me
reminds listeners how Astley was
sometimes led astray – and why
he’s entitled to be making up for
lost time. JEalbums bar The Police’s already
available debut Outlandos
D’Amour, are being reissued on
heavyweight vinyl.
It’s a tidy clear-up operation
which revisits what a peculiar
operation The Police ran
for seven years. While it
unwittingly helped usher in
terrible ska-punk, it’s not The
Police’s fault that any cover of
their early singles ends up a
din: Outlandos D’Amour and
Regatta De Blanc are stuffed
with memorably catchy punk
choruses underneath Sting’s
sharp lyrics and a sense of
otherness which was still
convincing when the band
were outsiders.
Third album Zenyatta
Mondatta was the peak of The
Police’s early energy, would-be
sophistication and commercial
success letting them try out
rum ideas like the shriekingdid. It was a dissonance perfect
on a disco monster like Never
Gonna Give You Up and the
festive cover of Nat King Cole’s
When I Fall In Love. But the Stock
Aitken Waterman treatment was
unworthy on Whenever You
Need Somebody and Together
Forever. Having written solid
pop tunes, they give Astley’s
rich vocals the tinniest backing- it’s no wonder he looked so
uncomfortable frugging away
forlornly in those videos. Astley
has remained on good terms
with SAW, but his decision
to re-record 10 songs for this
compilation’s accompanying
disc Reimagined demonstrates
a more befitting arrangement,
certainly for 2019 sensibilities.
In its new guise, even the
disposable She Wants To Dance
With Me has a relaxed charm.
In hindsight, 1991 ballad Cry
For Help was the turning point.
Astley’s last Top 10 hit to date,
its unshowy restraint allowed his
© Getty Images© Rankin