keepers - 3
Not tremendously different from its predecessor, Regatta De Blanc has the same mix of new wave punk and reggae-influenced guitar. Big single "Message In A Bottle"**** does up the ante a bit with the hypnotic arpeggiated opening riff, while "Walking On The Moon" explores sonic space with combinations of sparse instrumentation with various delays and pans. "Deathwish"**** makes use of delay, but to create an endless echo, foreshadowing the use of this effect in "Welcome To The Jungle" and much of U2's output. Summers also creates a continuously bubbling guitar effect in "Bring On The Night"****, which is of course broken up by the standard faux-reggae chorus, like they haven't beat the up-pick guitar thing to death. Throwaway break song "The Bed's Too Big Without You" at least sticks with the reggae-influence thing, with some interesting stuttering riffs thrown in. "Does Everyone Stare" is an oddball, strongly driven by piano, while Copeland's "On Any Other Day" is pretty bad vocally, it's funny enough not to skip. Since a Police album must have a half-ass instrumental, the title song fills the bill here, prominently featured as the second track no less. If there is a 'Police sound' this has it, as well as Sting's trademark "ee-yoooo"s. While generic it inexplicably won the band a Grammy for best instrumental. The frantic closer "No Time This Time" sounds like a throwback to the simpler Outlandos De Amour, and for good reason - it's from the sessions for that album. The band did have to recycle old material a bit after they blew their wad on the debut album, and while not as energetic as Outlandos or as consistently excellent as Zenyatta Mondatta, it is consistently listenable and manages to avoid an obvious sophomore slump.
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