The Police - Wrapped Around Your Finger (A&M)

Follow The Police and learn about places like Scylla and Charybdis. As my dictionary explains, these traps are Greek mythology for the Devil and the deep blue sea. Life is no bowl of cherries as Sting has often pointed out, never better than here. Almost as mean, moody and magnifique as 'Every Breath', Sting's latest piece of bleating has me worried about the boy. If he's not watching his lover threateningly, he's trying to wrap her around his finger. Someone should tell him there are simpler forms of romance. (Mark Cooper, No 1, July 16, 1983)

Sting's mystical edge gets an airing on a track that's probably in the top 10 as we speak. It's impossible not to take your hat off to a band who, while sneered at by the press, can produce the most insidious melodies around. (Mike Gardner, Record Mirror, July 16, 1983)

Gorgeous, light and the perfect music to have playing as someone massages that coconut sun oil between the shoulder blades. What you doing on Sunday afternoon, Sting? Andy? Stewart? (Deborah Steels, Smash Hits, July 21, 1983)

The Police - Synchronicity II (A&M)

After making two of this year's best singles, this release smacks of sheer commercial greed on the part of the record company. "Synchronicity II" is a decent enough track on the album Synchronicity, so why wasn't it left there? Still I can't wait to see the video on Top Of The Pops. (Peter Martin, Smash Hits, October 27, 1983)

Those diamante collars sparkle again. Sleek and smooth as an old tom after a two week course of cod liver oil capsules and the fastest track from thee mega-selling album. The Police know the business inside out but they never sit complacently on the fence. (Robin Smith, Record Mirror, October 29, 1983)

Strangely jumbled and rambling choice for a single - this isn't the kind of song you could commit to memory in one or two easy listenings. But who am I to criticise the band that conquered a world of Sting-struck teenagers and musical intellectuals alike? Who am I to suggest that this track should have been content to remain on the album in favour of something more accessible? (Debbi Voller, No 1, October 29, 1983)

The Police - King Of Pain (A&M)

Yet another song prised off the Synchronicity LP which is an infuriating mixture of the brilliant and the routine. This is one of the brilliant. Sting strings together chilly pictures of people and animals in pain in a voice that sends icicles up your spine. A Grower. (Ian Birch, Smash Hits, January 5, 1984)

My problem with The Police has been that even though I've liked almost everything they've done - almost! - I've never ever liked it the first or second time I've heard it. The first three times I heard "Every Breath You Take" I couldn't remember what it was called or anything about it. At the moment this just sounds like another good Police single, but just how good I'll only be able to judge in about a month's time. (David Grant, Record Mirror, January 7, 1984)

An eerie little song from the bountiful Synchronicity LP which emphasises the gap between The Police and nearly all their rock/pop contemporaries. Like "Every Breath", this is very simple, very subtle and very classy. Now perhaps Sting and Michael Jackson will get on with some new material. (Paul Simper, No 1, January 7, 1984)