Outlandos D’Amour, the debut album by the reggae/powerpop/post punk trio The Police, is now available on MP3 format from Amazon this month for only $5.00, as part of their monthly 100 MP3 Albums For $5 Each promotion.

What’s great about Outlandos D’Amour, first released 35 years ago this year, is that it’s still fresh and adventurous after all these years, gleefully free of the superstar trappings that later came to be associated with the band, especially with its lead singer/bass player/main creative force Sting. The band sports a sort of rag-tag way about them here on this record, employing a nice hybrid of white man’s reggae with some punk sounds, and even a little rock and roll to boot. Drummer Stewart Copeland keeps a superb energy and creativity throughout (as he’s done during his entire career with the band and onward in his solo projects); ex-Animals guitarist Andy Summers brings a sense of authority and elder statesmanship with his guitar noodlings, and Sting supplies just the right formula as the man up front.

The album has a kind of playful, attitudinal spontaneity that the band would never showcase again in further releases, as great as those subsequent releases are. Many of the songs on Outlandos D’Amour are now regarded as musical classics, especially “Roxanne,” “Can’t Stand Losing You,” and “So Lonely,” all of which showcase (along with its deep reggae grooves which propel them) creative arrangements and unexpected turns. Lesser known tracks like the kickin’ album opener “Next to You” with its chug-a-chug pace, “Truth Hits Everybody,” the macabre and darkly hilarious “Be My Girl-Sally,” and “Masoka Tanga” are great as well. Outlandos D’Amour remains a nice sonic opener for a band who ultimately became one of music’s finest hours.

Browse all 100 albums on sale this month in MP3 format for only $5 each, as well as those for only $2.99 each.

If you’d like a physical copy of Outlandos D’Amour, the CD is only $7.99 right now and includes a FREE MP3 download of the entire album.

Track Listing

1. Next To You
2. So Lonely
3. Roxanne
4. Hole In My Life
5. Peanuts
6. Can’t Stand Losing You
7. Truth Hits Everybody
8. Born In The 50’s
9. Be My Girl – Sally
10. Masoko Tanga

Note – when you purchase MP3s through Amazon, it stores your purchases to Amazon’s Cloud Drive; from there you can stream the music right from their online player. Also, if you have a Kindle Fire, your MP3 purchases will automatically be available for you to stream on your device. All your purchases are backed up and available for you to download at any time. You can download the files to your computer to load to an MP3 device and to your iTunes account if you have one. If you’d like to gift these MP3 purchases, you can – just click the “Give album or song as gift” button on the right on the product page. From there you enter the recipient’s email address and then select either specific songs to gift or the entire album.