The Police: Every Breath
You Take -- The Classics
A&M 069 493 607-2
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 If you're an SACD
advocate looking for more releases (or a CD holdout who wouldn't mind stockpiling a
collection of hybrid discs toward a possible future SACD player purchase), there's another
batch of classic rock albums ready for its moment in your must-play pile. On March 4,
2003, A&M Records is issuing The Police's back catalog on Hybrid SACD discs (Hybrid
SACDs are two-layer discs than can be played in SACD players, CD players, or in DVD
machines).
The five Police albums will be joined by Every Breath
You Take -- The Classics, a 14-song compilation of the group's biggest singles
(including a 1986 remix of "Don't Stand So Close To Me" and what is called a
"new classic rock mix" of "Message in a Bottle," which clocks in at one
whole second longer than the original).
I have yet to hear the individual albums, but based on the
sound of EBYT -- TC, the project is an immense success. It ought to be -- Universal
(A&M's parent company) and Sony (SACD's staunchest advocate) have really gone the
extra mile on the enterprise. Bob Ludwig of Gateway Sound, fresh from the fabulous ABKCO
Rolling Stones remastering project, did the mastering honors and Universal lucked out at
the 11th hour as the master tapes from The Police's analog recordings, long rumored lost,
were discovered at Abbey Road Studios just in time to be used. The results are The Police
as you have probably never heard them.
I attended a Sony press conference in late February at
which it was announced that the version of "Roxanne" that has been heard for
many years was actually played back at the wrong speed. I can't testify to that -- I
haven't heard the song on my own hi-fi since its release -- but the version on EBYT --
TC sounds spectacular, with deep, percussive bass that illustrates precisely what a
Fender Precision bass really sounds like.
In fact, it's hard to pick a song on the disc that doesn't
sound spectacular. I tend to think of The Police as an album-oriented band; at least, to
me, their work seemed to be created in LP-side-length suites. However, EBYT -- TC
makes a strong argument for the group as a singles band.
The album includes most of the usual suspects:
"Roxanne," "Can't Stand Losing You," "Message in a Bottle,"
"Walking on the Moon," "Don't Stand So Close To Me," "De Do Do
Do, De Da Da Da," "Every Little Things She Does is Magic," "Invisible
Sun," "Spirits in the Material World," "Every Breath You Take,"
"King of Pain," and "Wrapped Around Your Finger." Conspicuous by their
absence are "So Lonely," "Synchronicity II," and "Tea in the
Sahara" -- all of which were hugely popular (and which have appeared on previous
Police greatest-hits compilations).
But that's just piddling around; the release is certainly
what it claims to be: a collection of classic sounds. Even better, they sound marvelous. I
know that DSD has its critics -- even folks who claim it's all wrong -- but it sounds
fantastic to me. EBYT -- TC has a detailed yet liquid sound that will even enchant
analog lovers (especially for the sound of the material from Ghost In the Machine
and Synchronicity, which had all the hallmarks of early PCM recordings). There are
tons of detail, terrific timbre, and some of the best bass sound I've ever heard from any
form of digital. In short, if you're serious about sound, you have got to hear Every
Breath You Take -- The Classics.
And if you also happen to dig great rock'n'roll, well, I
probably don't even need to finish my recommenda...
...Wes Phillips
wes@onhifi.com
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