Call the Police exploitative if you must, but Reggatta de Blanc's title at least shows that they can be funny as well—chilly players who are nevertheless capable of a warm, pleasurable outburst like "Roxanne." It's the old story—black music played by white faces for maximum profit—but there's a twist. Lots of Jamaicans live in Britain (another old story, colonialism), so the reggae these new-wavish enforcers have grafted onto their pop is nothing more than the exploitation of a natural resource. (p. 92)

The Police are more razor cut than dreadlocks, a cool mixture of influences—icily modern (and generally thin) lyrics, a winning sense of hard-rock dynamics …, and Sting's voice, which floats in the arrangements like bubbles in Perrier. Their detached approach to pop riffers like "Can't Stand Losing You" and "So Lonely" (from the generally rockier Outlandos d'Amour) and "Message in a Bottle" (from...