"Oasis members reunite for charity album". What a SENSATIONAL! title!

He has more albums with Oasis than Tony McCarroll though And Gem Archer is also in it.

The Police were a great band, Sting used to be a great pop songwriter and they were one of the most original bands at the time with their reggae-rock approach which is now their trademark. I know many people in UK don't get them, but they were huge in USA and mainly in South America.

I like their albums but I like more their more atmospheric stuffs.

I really loved their first 2 albums. Listened to "Outlandos d'Amour" and "Regatta de Blanc" again and again in my teenage days. Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland are both very talented great musicians.

Sting and Bono, these two are the ones I loved in my teenage years, but they let me down when they became well-known and now I can't stand them.

Also I don't think that The Police created that especific sound, but they popularized it, it became their trademark sound in the end.

On the first Police album, Outlandos D'Amour, there were some punk songs like Peanuts, but they did it just to get signed, however on their next album, Regatta de Blanc, it shows best their more reggae-rock signature sound.

The third one, Zenyatta Mondatta, is my favourite, but it isn't perfect, it's similar to Oasis DOYS, in the way that the first 7 tracks are all great, but then the last four tracks are very weak, the album was rushed, so we have unfinished tracks and three instrumentals.

Ghost in the Machine was their most experimental one with brass and synthesizers, also it was their weakest, too many fillers on it.

Synchronicity, the last one, was an amazing album, Sting wrote a perfect set of songs, the second side comprised only of worldwide hits, but then the contributions by the other members ruined the album a bit, Copeland wrote the throwaway Miss Gradenko and Summers wrote the odd Mother, one of the most obnoxious songs you will ever heard, in the end Synchronicity was an almost perfect album.

My favorite Police song was always Can't Stand Losing You off their first one. Hilarious!

I think it's very much the sound of a man who's very comfortable socially, economically, domestically and all that - but comfortable creatively, as well. Which, as they say, you should never be. I'm not sure that that superstition holds quite so much weight with Divine Comedy records as it does conventional rock bands, what with the kind of records Neil makes being suited to keeping things quite straight anyway, but it definitely does seem like he's reached his 70s Lennon (2010s Noel, even?) period now - in that he's comfortable in his own skin and doesn't feel any great inkling to shake things up.

Like Lennon (and Noel), I'm sure that comes from him being loved-up now: this record is not only the most 'loved-up' Divine Comedy I've heard, but possibly the most loved-up record I've EVER heard. From anyone. And sometimes I think that works really well (when he sings "Everybody thinks it's all lies, until they can see Foreverland" on the title track, for instance, is really quite lovely, and of course, he gets to wring out some of that customary self-deprecating wit on How Can You Leave Me On My Own), but sometimes it also sounds a bit self-congratulatory and, dare I say it, even boastful, on songs like The Pact and The One Who Loves You. 

And I swear that's not just grouchy old, chronically single me talking. I'm actually really glad he's found love and is in a happy place (no pun intended) now; he seems a nice man with a gentle soul, so he deserves every scrap of happiness he can find. But I would be lying if I said I didn't want to hear the tortured Hannon of Note To Self again. Or the downright weird Hannon of If... and A Woman of the World. 

To conclude... even though all that above sounds very negative, I do actually like the record. It's a collection of mostly great songs (that run of songs from How Can You Leave Me to A Desperate Man, I absolutely adore!), and I guess that's all you can hope for from someone so far into their career. It is slightly disappointing there isn't a moment of undisputed brilliance on there - like a Down In The Street Below or a A Lady Of A Certain Age - and, from a personal perspective, I would like to see him work with a professional producer again (maybe if it's true what people say, that A Moon Shaped Pool will be Radiohead's last, we could see Nigel Godrich come back for the next one...), but mostly, I'm quite pleased with it.

I'd score it a 7 out of 10.




What about you?

YES!

The most beautiful song (and sound) ever made by anyone, at least in my little world. Usually I try to avoid listening to it, so the experience doesn't wear off. Astonishing tune.

Speaking of which, I love her voice. It's so silky smooth, calm, and beautiful. She is someone the World lost way too soon. 

Rabbits featuring James Graham (The Twilight Sad)

There are lots of similar bands/songs in tv show Chuck. That's also the show that introduced me to Oasis