I’m doing at least an hour a day at the gym or riding a bike or whatever these days, and I’ve really been running out of things to listen to. Or at least finding it difficult to pick something… so today I’m embarking on a new project. There are a number of bands that I pretty much own the entire recorded output for, and obviously I like them quite a bit. So I’m going to attempt to listen to their entire recorded output, in chronological order, while exercising. Why? Why not. See how the bands that I love have evolved, watch the progression in songwriting, etc.
I thought I’d start with the Police, simply because “Ghost in the Machine” was the first tape I ever purchased for myself, Sting’s “Nothing Like the Sun” the first CD, Sting on the “Dream of the Blue Turtles” tour, my first concert. The first band I ever really got into.
So today I loaded up the iPod with “Message in a Box”, the complete Police boxset, as well as all the Sting albums. I’m leaving live concerts and bootlegs out of the mix at the moment; that would just be overwhelming, particularly when I get to the Cure. I’m including Sting because he’s obviously continued to develop as a songwriter (more on that below), but not Andy Summers or Stewart Copeland’s solo work because, well, I want to follow the main songwriting thread.
No guarentees I’ll make it all the way through Sting’s solo work, because, frankly, the last few albums have been wretched.
Anyway, today I hit the elliptical and make it through most of the first Message in a Box disc. All the pre-first album singles and the first album, “Outlandos D’Amour”. Impressions? they were pretty fucking punk rawk on the first few singles; interesting to hear Sting screaming “fuck” and “cunt”. Outlandos is a pretty decent album as well; they’d definately embrassed musicality and pop sensibilities in time for the album. Next To You, So Lonely and Can’t Stand Losing You are all great songs… and I love Hole in My Life. But there’s definately some serious filler… a habit they were to keep for all their albums. Be My Girl - Sally has a great melody, but the fucking stupid-ass spoken word part is just wretched beyond belief.
Still, overall, the album has stood up pretty well… it sounds very dated, but in a Clash/Sex Pistols/late 70s guitar rock way, which is ok. Nothing classic here (well, maybe Roxanne was until Sting pimped it out) but you can tell there’s something pretty serious happening here.
Tomorrow I’ll be starting off with second album Regatta de Blanc, which I’m looking forward to it. I used to really love that album and haven’t listened to it in years.
