Top Artists – The Police (and Sting)

Sting – The Dream Of The Blue Turtles

More Sting and The Police

  • An original A&M pressing that was doing just about everything right, with both sides earning outstanding Double Plus (A++) or BETTER grades – fairly quiet vinyl too
  • Remarkably big, full-bodied and musical, with wonderful presence for the most important element of the recording, Sting’s voice
  • Even though the album was recorded at studios all over the world, the best sound can be found on the domestic pressings Robert Ludwig cut for Masterdisk
  • It was a wise move on Sting’s part to pick RL, a man who could bring the best aspects of analog to a modern recording that could really use them
  • Don’t waste your money on whatever dead-as-a-doornail Heavy Vinyl record they’re making these days – if you want to hear the Tubey Magic, size and energy of Sting’s debut solo album, a vintage 80s pressing like this one is the only way to go
  • 4 stars: “Sting incorporated heavy elements of jazz, classical, and worldbeat into his music, writing lyrics that were literate and self-consciously meaningful… he proves that he’s subtler and craftier than his peers.”

This album has long been a favorite among audiophiles and it’s pretty easy to see why. What Sting does here with jazz music is very similar to what Paul Simon later did with African music on Graceland.

Sting surrounded himself with legitimate jazz musicians and together they created an album that gives you the loose, relaxed feel of jazz mixed with Sting’s distinct pop sensibility.

There are elements of worldbeat, reggae, and soul here as well, but the album never feels disjointed. Sting managed to pull it all together to create a sound that is somehow unique and familiar at the same time.

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Sting – Nothing Like The Sun

More Sting and The Police

  • A vintage copy of Sting’s killer double album from 1987 with solid Double Plus (A++) grades on all FOUR sides
  • The sound here is clearly bigger, richer, fuller, and livelier than most other copies we played it against
  • Features phenomenal contributions from legendary musicians, including Andy Summers, Eric Clapton, Mark Knopfler, and Hiram Bullock
  • 4 1/2 stars: “…the melodies are insinuating, slowly working their way into memory, while the entire record plays like a mood piece – playing equally well as background music or as intensive, serious listening.”

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The Police – Reggatta de Blanc

More Sting and The Police

  • With solid Double Plus (A++) sound or close to it from start to finish, this copy is guaranteed to handily beat any other Regatta de Blanc you’ve heard – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • Most of the stuff we manage to acquire from overseas is in far worse playing condition – these were popular records in their day, and they got played plenty, so this one came as a pleasant surprise
  • Sting’s pulsing bass lines and the massive assault of Copeland’s kick really come to life here – you won’t believe how big and powerful the bass is on this record (particularly on side one)
  • Along with Ghost in the Machine, we think this album captures The Police at their songwriting and performing peak
  • “Reggatta de Blanc stands the test of time as one of the greatest albums of the post-punk and new wave era, improving in almost every way upon The Police’s debut album.”

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The Police – Outlandos d’Amour

More of The Police

  • This copy was giving us the sound we were looking for on the band’s debut album, with both sides earning very good Hot Stamper grades – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • Few audiophiles (I’m guessing) know how well recorded this album is – you need just the right UK pressing to show you what’s really on the tape
  • “Roxanne,” “So Lonely,” “Can’t Stand Losing You” all sound quite good on these two sides
  • 4 1/2 stars: “Although Sting, Andy Summers, and Stewart Copeland were all superb instrumentalists with jazz backgrounds, it was much easier to get a record contract in late-70s England if you were a punk/new wave artist, so the band decided to mask their instrumental prowess with a set of strong, adrenaline-charged rock, albeit with a reggae tinge.”

What’s amazing about this copy? There are sweet highs and ambience that we didn’t think were possible — and it rocks! Whatever it’s doing, it sure doesn’t take a pair of golden ears to hear it.

Not only does the high end exist, but it sounds sweet and doesn’t rip your ears out of your earsockets (trust me, I’m a doctor). This is vitally important in songs like “Roxanne,” where Andy Summers’ reggae influenced guitar can sound squawky and brittle if there is too much compression.

Sting’s vocals are detailed, present, and you can really hear his background vocals separate themselves away from the lead, obvious on this copy in a denser track like “So Lonely.”

There’s a ton of punchy bass which actually equates to a ton of life and energy on this album. If Stewart Copeland’s kick drum isn’t punching you in the chest, then you’re missing out on some of the fun. We even heard ambience around the cymbals, and that is information most copies of the album simply cannot resolve.

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On Reggatta de Blanc, Steer Clear of Bilbo

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Sting and The Police Available Now

A White Hot Stamper shootout winning copy went up on the site recently (4/2025) and this is how we described it:

With INCREDIBLE Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound or close to it from start to finish, this copy is guaranteed to blow the doors off any other Regatta de Blanc you’ve heard.

Most of the stuff we manage to acquire from overseas is in far worse playing condition – these were popular records in their day, and they got played plenty, so this one came as a pleasant surprise.

Sting’s pulsing bass lines and the massive assault of Copeland’s kick really come to life here – you won’t believe how big and powerful the bass is on this record.

Along with Ghost in the Machine, we think this album captures The Police at their songwriting and performing peak.

However, many of the copies we played left much to be desired, as you can see from the notes we made for two of the copies we played (out of a total of nine):

Bilbo has cut many of our favorite records over the years, but for this album his side two is way too bright and therefore NFG.

Sheffield Labs Mastering (SLM) also cut many great sounding records, but for this album the sound was “very thin.” The grade of 1.5+ means the record is playable and enjoyable, but the top copies we offer will be dramatically better sounding.

Tone (not pictured) is a British mastering house that has mastered many excellent pressings. In the case of Reggatta they can be very good, but they never win shootouts.

British, Dutch or Domestic?

The first two can be good.

The domestic copies are consistently sub-par, as is the Half-Speed, and whatever Heavy Vinyl pressings are available are sure to be mediocre at best, as that has been our experience with the hundreds and hundreds of such pressings we have played to date.

Some of the most recent ones we’ve played were especially bad sounding. When it comes to Heavy Vinyl, devolution seems to be the operating principle.

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Letter of the Week – “…I am surprised at how muddy the bass sounds on the new one.”

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Sting and The Police Available Now

One of our good customers had this to say about a record he read about on the blog, the Nautilus pressing of Ghost in the Machine.

Hey Tom,   

Did you write something about the Nautilus record… I thought so, but I couldn’t find it.

[This Ghost in the Machine link will take you to it.]

This is one of my favorites from my teenage years and so I decided to do my own little test… Sterling vs. Nautilus vs. Half Speed Abbey Road reissue… it feels pretty clear the Sterling is tops with Nautilus close but I am surprised at how muddy the bass sounds on the new one. And just how tamped down the record sounds. Which is I guess your point.

Geoff

Geoff,

You now know a great deal more about this album than most of the audiophiles expressing their opinions on audiophile forums.

You conducted a shootout, something most of them can’t be bothered to do.

You should not be surprised about muddy bass on Half-Speed mastered records, they all have it.

And tamped down? Tell me about it.

Compressed and lifeless are two qualities the audiophile record can be guaranteed to deliver. How these companies get away with producing one shitty remaster after another is beyond me. They’ve been making this junk for more than forty years and they apparently haven’t learned anything about records in all that time.

Welcome to the upside-down world of the modern audiophile record. The worse they sound, the more audiophiles seem to like them.

Your shootout provided you with a good lesson to learn right from the start. It has set you on a better path.

Try this experiment: Take four or five UK pressings, clean them up and then compare them to any of the ones you played — the sound should be night and day better. And, after doing that shootout, one of the four or five would be a truly Hot Stamper pressing.

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The Police – Ghost in the Machine

More Sting and The Police

  • With INCREDIBLE Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) grades or close to them on both sides, this vintage UK pressing was giving us the sound we were looking for on the band’s 1981 release – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • Here are just a few of the things we had to say about this stunning copy in our notes: “huge and weighty”…”big bass”…great energy”…”fully extended down low”…”breathy vox”…”relaxed and open top”…”jumping out of the speakers”
  • These Sterling pressings, whether domestic or imported, are the only ones we know of with the potential for top quality sound
  • Features some of the band’s most sophisticated hits: “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic,” “Invisible Sun,” “Spirits In The Material World,” and more
  • Hugh Padgham took over engineering duties for both Ghost and the band’s next album, resulting in a dramatic improvement in the quality of their recordings
  • “This album has more variety than the menu in a Bangkok brothel. In particular, Sting’s voice has taken on a new depth and fresh maturity. The opening song, ‘Spirits In The Material World’, may have what sounds like a dumb title, but the song is a dream of close harmonies and nicely understated drums.” – Record Mirror

If you’re looking for big hits, this is the Police album for you. I mean, get three tracks in and you’ve already heard “Spirits In The Material World,” “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic” and “Invisible Sun” — not a bad way to get things started!

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Listening in Depth to Synchronicity

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Sting and The Police Available Now

The choruses get LOUD and are so POWERFUL on the best copies of this album that they make a mockery of most of the pressings out there.

Let’s face it, this is a big speaker record. It requires a pair of speakers that can move air with authority below 250 cycles and play at fairly loud levels. If you don’t own speakers that can do that, this record will never really sound the way it should.

It’s the kind of recording that has caused me to pursue Big Stereo Systems driving Big Dynamic Speakers for as long as I can remember. You need a lot of piston area to bring the this recording to life, as well as to get the size of all the instruments to match their real life counterparts.

For that you need big speakers in big cabinets, the kind I’ve been listening to for more than forty years. (My last small speaker was given the boot around 1974 or so and I have never looked back.)

To tell you the truth, the Big Sound is the only sound that I can enjoy. Anything less is just not for me.

Side One

Synchronicity I

One of the two title tracks on this record (huh?), it’s also one of the quickest ways to hear what is happening sonically on this side. It’s a high energy, take-no-prisoners rock track that usually ends up sounding bloated and brittle on the typical pressing. However, when it’s cut right it’s amazing.

The bass guitar and kick should be driving the track, not making you want to skip to the next one. Also, when you can hear the separation and detail in the multitrack army of Stings during the chorus, you’re in good shape.

Walking in Your Footsteps

Is that a pan flute I hear? More than likely it’s a synth, but if you can hear the “air” going through it and all of the ambience surrounding it, you’re not off to a bad start.

Also, the percussion should actually sound like a drum and not like a stack of textbooks getting smacked. (more…)

Strawberry Cut By Far the Best Sounding Pressings of Zenyatta Mondatta

Hot Stamper Pressings of Sting and The Police Available Now

Forget the domestic pressings, forget the lightweight Nautilus Half-Speed, forget whatever lame reissues have come or will come down the pike – if you want to hear this album right, a Hot Stamper UK pressing is the only way to go.

And take it from us, you need to see that little Strawberry marking in the dead wax of your UK pressing to have any hope of hearing audiophile-quality sound.

Why go to all that trouble? Because the album is an absolute classic – it leads off with “Don’t Stand So Close To Me” and never lets up. (Well, toward the end of side two it lets up, but it’s plenty strong before then.)

Consider taking our moderately helpful advice concerning the pressings that tend to win our shootouts.

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The Police – Zenyatta Mondatta

More Sting and The Police

More Records We Only Sell on Import Vinyl

  • A Zenyatta Mondatta like you’ve never heard, with STUNNING Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound or close to it throughout this original UK-pressed copy – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • Forget the domestic pressings, forget the lightweight Nautilus Half-Speed, forget whatever lame reissues have come or will come down the pike – if you want to hear this album right, a Hot Stamper import pressing is the only way to go
  • This album is an absolute classic – it leads off with “Don’t Stand So Close To Me” and never lets up
  • 5 stars: “Zenyatta contains perhaps the quintessential new wave anthem, the haunting ‘Don’t Stand So Close to Me’… Zenyatta Mondatta remains one of the finest rock albums of all time.”  [That’s a bit much.]

It is brutally difficult to find great copies of this album, which explains why only a handful have gone up since 2006.

This copy was doing practically everything we wanted. The vocals are present, the bass is well-defined, the guitars have harmonic texture, and the drums are punchy and lively.

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