'Don't Stand So Close To Me', 'De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da', 'King Of Pain', 'Invisible Sun' and the other big hits are all duplicated, while 'Synchronicity II' and 'The Bed's Too Big Without You' are the two major additions. Flung together with a casual lack of effort extending from the obvious choice of tracks to the lazy, generic title, the album is a virtual re-run of the 13-track 'Every Breath You Take - Singles', released in 1986. Sting, of course, has had the last laugh and Summers and Copeland will doubtless be glad of the extra revenue which this latest compilation will generate. If Sting had proposed 'The Dream Of The Blue Turtles' as the title of a The Police album, the other two would have laughed him out of the house. As powerful personalities and assertive musicians in their own right, they gingered up Sting's basic ideas while putting the brakes on his tendency to earnest excess. Indeed, compare the brisk, alert stride and neatly ordered punch lines of 'Roxanne', 'Can't Stand Losing You', 'Walking On The Moon', 'Every Breath You Take' and 'Message In A Bottle' to any of the songs on 'Soul Cages' and it becomes clear that Copeland and Summers were far more than a passive vehicle for Sting's songs. What is most striking about this superb body of work, is the lean economy of the arrangements and the directness of expression in the lyrics, especially given the wearyingly verbose nature of the songs on Sting's recent albums.

Now The Police are a fading memory - no idle talk of reunions for them - and to coincide with a slack period in the cycle of Sting's multi-platinum activities, A&M Records has assembled, for the second time, a collection of the group's most successful songs.

For, if Sting had needed drummer Stewart Copeland and guitarist Andy Summers more and they had depended on him less, it's just conceivable that one of the great rock groups of our time might still be functioning.Д«ut, when in 1985, the photogenic bass player's first, tentative efforts to establish a solo career yielded immediate and handsome rewards, the group he had transformed (creatively) from pseudo-punk hopefuls into a pan-global colossus was ruthlessly cut dead in its prime. As an epitaph for The Police, this simple statement of fact could hardly be bettered. And his version of Eddie CochranвЂ™s вЂњSummertime BluesвЂќ sounds like it was born in a Bakersfield saloon.All songs written by Sting it says under the 16 titles on Greatest Hits - 15 of them Top 20 hits, five of them Number 1's. He reworks covers to sound like his own songs, giving George JonesвЂ™ вЂњTall, Tall TreesвЂќ a contemporary remodel, while retaining the original beer-joint boot-scoot boogie. вЂњGone CountryвЂќ is a witty, razor-tongued jab at failed pop singers trying to make it in country music. Though heвЂ™s since become a seasoned balladeer, the crux of this material is upbeat and uplifting, especially the opening вЂњChattahoochee,вЂќ which moves with a fast roadhouse shuffle over a watery pedal steel, old-timey fiddles, and twangy Telecasters. Unlike many вЂњhat actsвЂќ of that era, Jackson kept one boot deeply rooted in honky-tonk, while the other foot toed the contemporary line of (then) modern radio-friendly production. Comprising his early material up to 1994вЂ™s Who I Am, the compilation is a time capsule harking back to the new traditional craze that was ignited (but not pioneered) by Garth Brooks. This Alan Jackson collection has a little something for both longtime fans and curious newcomers.

The greatest hits collection