THE POLICE

Every Move You Make: The Studio Recordings UNIVERSAL

8/10

6CD box showing how three progjazz veterans conquered the world The peroxide barnets might have been a fluke (they dyed their hair for a Wrigley’s chewing gum ad), but everything else about The Police’s meteoric career – five albums in five years – suggests a ruthless determination to succeed. Even now, zeitgeist-surfing 1978 debut

Outlandos d’amour sounds every bit as spiky as their more credible peers, Sting channelling a punk bleakness into pop classics “Roxanne” and “So Lonely”. Timeless 1979 follow-up

Reggatta De Blanc established a sound that remains unique – Sting’s soaring tenor anchored by Andy Summers’ shimmering guitar lines and Stewart Copeland’s ice-cracking dub dynamics – and as the millions rolled in, their muso sensibilities were allowed free reign. With Sting sculpting pop hits inspired by everyone from Hungarian philosopher Arthur Koestler (“Spirits In The Material World”) to Swiss psychoanalyst Carl Jung (“Synchroncity 1”) – hell, even “De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da” was a comment on banality – it’s little wonder the B-sides collated on extra disc Flexible Strategies are largely the sound of the band goofing off. Still, it’s hard not to read Copeland’s 1980 gem “A Sermon”

(“When you reach number one... You can sack your roadies in Birmingham”) as a sarcastic comment on his frontman’s vaulting ambition. Extras: None, but all discs are remastered.