1979 The Police: Message In A Bottle

The fact that The Police were a) a trio of blonde pretty boys who, b) played reggae has always been an anathema to many. As one who was there, I remember the very title of 'Message In A Bottle's parent album 'Reggatta de Blanc' (which loosely translates as 'white reggae') was like painting a big red target on each of their arses for the purist music writers of the time to kick. And kick they did, because how very dare they? But that's not to say that The Police ever made a career of trying to chant down Babylon - true the rhythms of reggae and ska dominate on at least their first two albums, but rather than promoting any kind of Rastafarian message the choppy guitar lines and prominent bass are used to spice up what would otherwise have been largely ordinary pop songs.

They weren't unique in this either - reggae was big business down at The Roxy too, courtesy of DJ Don Letts who brought in his own record collection when there were no released punk records to play. The Clash, The Ruts, The Members, Stiff Little Fingers, Public Image Ltd et al all incorporated roots reggae and dub into their music to compliment the rebellion of their own genre, albeit to greater and lesser effect (and certainly to lesser critical mauling). And that Roxy connection is pertinent - that's actually Stuart Copeland on the cover of 1977's 'The Roxy London WC2' album; the punks might have held them in high a regard as the weekly writers, but they were there at the outset. For my own part I'm ambivalent. I've written elsewhere here about my distaste of smug white men playing reggae for whatever reason, but I can't say The Police have ever raised any serious ire within me. When they make it work, they make it work well, but even when they don't the results are rarely less than passable.

'Message In A Bottle' at least tries to make it work; Copeland picks out a standard reggae beat on the kickdrum but hammers the Toms double time on an opening salvo while Andy Summer's B G A E riff cascades hand over fist through the whole song like a waterfall. It's busy, it's unpredictable and it has a ramshackle charm that's fun to listen to; if there's a weak link here then it's Sting himself who provides it. On much of their previous output his vocal is a standard new wave snarl cum yelp, but on 'Message In A Bottle' he unwisely tries to inject some patois into his delivery. Unfortunately, it sounds as genuine as a racist comedian lampooning 'The Banana Boat Song' with his 'sea oh' and 'me oh' inflections and irregular modulation ("a YEAR has PASSed since I WROTE my NOTE") providing a comic aura of novelty that fits ill with its subject matter.

Because in its theme, 'Message In A Bottle' is a precursor of sorts to REM's 'Everybody Hurts' but without the reassurance. Sting is lost and alone in a world that doesn't care, but in reaching out with his message 'to the world' the only responses he gets are a 'hundred billion' similar messages from people in the same boat. So tough luck.

And that's where it ends, though in fact, 'Message In A Bottle' doesn't conclude at all; by the fade out Sting is in no better place than he was at the start, and the repeated 'I'm sending out an SOS' drags on and on with all the conviction of a social inadequate signing up to a dating website. It's not that Sting is under any moral obligation to square the circle on his metaphorical song of loneliness with a conclusion, but we just don't care enough to care; desperation is a very unattractive trait and it all goes to make 'Message In A Bottle' an unsatisfying listen at heart and a song I can take or leave. Though mostly I leave it.