drummike wrote:I guess I meant successful in artistic terms more than commercial terms.
And I have doubts on both fronts.
The reunion tour was more than I ever thought possible
Agreed, more or less, although this was interesting - a week or so ago I sat down and watched "Certifiable" again for the first time since, well, probably since within months of the end of the tour/its initial release. And while there was much about it I still loved and thought was great and awesome (about their performances - I still maintain Certifiable is a horrible, lifeless concert film), with some emotional distance I could be a lot more critical about things I wasn't so crazy about in retrospect. And a lot of that comes down to the reinterpretation of the songs, "Stingifications" I really didn't care for (very notable in Truth Hits Everybody more than anywhere else...meanwhile I still love the tour version of Wrapped Around Your Finger better than the original and a lot of THAT has to do with the "Stewification" of the percussive elements.)
Granted, two members would probably have to be willing to allow the third member to call most of the shots
And this is partly why I don't need it. My favorite Police music is from the early days when you could feel it was much more of a democracy and give-and-take of creativity. An album where one leads and the other two are little more than glorified session players would do nothing for me. I am much happier enjoying the new music Stewart creates on his own and with others today (a la the Sacred Grove tracks), I'm curious to hear more about Sting's musical; I want to hear Andy really jam it up in a club setting again. I honestly want all of these things far more than a Police-reunion album that I just feel would have far higher chances of failure than success.
It would sell millions
To whom? Who is really buying albums today? The industry today is all about live touring and tie-in merch, you only sell physical albums to the die-hard collectors/audiophile and/or if you throw in sufficient physical-album only bonuses.
it would receive tons of press
Like the tour did? (That is, hardly any unless there was a scandal they could glom onto a la "Disaster Gig")
and it would continue the Police story line in a positive way
But only if it were truly up to the ground breaking, energetic, creative and hit-making levels of those 5 original studio albums. And that's a hell of a lot to ask for after all of this time (And when none of the band members are young, hungry and desperately wanting/needing to make it big.)
I'm not meaning to be a complete downer here, just pragmatic. The more I actually contemplate the pie-in-the-sky idea of a new album, the less I think it could ever live up to what any of us fans would actually want to hear.
