Outlandos d'Amour

Outlandos d'Amour is the debut studio album by The Police, recorded intermittently between January and September 1978 at Surrey Sound Studios in Leatherhead, England, on a shoestring budget of roughly 1,500 pounds borrowed from the band's manager, Miles Copeland. The band squeezed in studio time whenever another act canceled a booking, giving the sessions a scrappy, unhurried character.

The record fuses the raw energy of the era's punk scene with reggae rhythms and pop songcraft, a combination that set The Police apart from their more orthodox punk contemporaries. Its lead-off single, Roxanne, was nearly an afterthought within the sessions until manager Miles Copeland heard it and rushed it to A&M Records, a reaction that reshaped the band's trajectory and the album's fortunes.

Contemporary reviews were mixed, with some critics dismissing the album as thin, but retrospective assessments have been far kinder. It eventually reached number 6 on the UK Albums Chart and number 23 on the Billboard 200, going platinum in the United States.