There was a reggae tribute album to the Police in 1997 (Ark 21’s Regatta Mondatta) but do note that this release draws both on the band’s music and items from Sting’s subsequent and very successful and diverse solo career. The hits are (mostly) all here: back in the day, some critics felt that Every Breath You Take was a bit creepy, maybe about a stalker, which might have fitted with the darker side of the band’s repertoire, but Maxi Priest’s superlative vocal and a complementary lover’s rock arrangement ensure that this treatment is unashamedly romantic. Roxanne was one of The Police’s reggae numbers, about a prostitute, and here The Elovaters from Massachusetts mellow the backing somewhat, whilst Steel Pulse, who were of course around during The Police’s heyday and were partly involved in the same Zeitgeist, give So Lonely a more reggae feel than the original but do also keep a little of the punky reggae party attitude. They recorded The Police’s Can’t Stand Losing You around a decade ago.
California’s Groundation tackle Spirits in the Material World in Bob Marley fashion, though with a lengthy saxophone solo. Sting’s pastoral title track is given another beautiful treatment by Third World, a classic performance, whilst Kumar Fyah sounds very close to Sting vocally on Message In A Bottle. There are subtle traces of jazz on J. Boog’s Shape of My Heart and Richie Stephen’s otherwise hard roots rock reggae cover of If You Love Somebody Set Them Free which is appropriate given Sting’s own jazz interests.
The London born female singer ALA.NI turns in a thoughtful version of Sting’s They Dance Alone (Cueca Solo) from 1987, a tribute to the mothers and daughters in Chile who had lost husbands, fathers and sons to the brutal Pinochet junta then in power. Singer Jack Radics and the great Big Youth (in a very U-Roy mood) tackle Fragile very convincingly, and The Skatalites convert Desert Rose to their own style, before this entertaining set closes in somewhat different fashion with Renee & Jeremy’s indie-folk approach dubbed up by Clive on Little Something.
Just a thought to end with – how come there’s no cover here on Walking On The Moon, perhaps The Police’s most obviously reggae number?