Police, The
Vinyl Villians

Listening notes

Vinyl Villians is a 1979 vinyl release attributed to The Police, issued without a catalog number on an unofficial self-titled imprint listed simply as Not On Label (The Police). That absence of formal label infrastructure places it outside the band's standard commercial discography and marks it as a release operating beyond the conventional channels of the recorded music industry at the time.

The record is categorized under pop, pop rock, and rock. Its eight tracks are divided evenly across two sides. The A-side opens with "Can't Stand Losing You," followed by "So Lonely," "Fall Out," and "Hole In My Life." The B-side presents "Truth Hits Everybody," "Peanuts," "Roxanne," and "Next To You." No track durations are documented for this release.

Several of the titles represented here are among the songs most closely associated with The Police during their early period, having appeared in various forms on the band's debut studio album, Outlandos d'Amour, released in 1978. "Roxanne," "Can't Stand Losing You," "So Lonely," and "Next To You" all featured on that record, as did "Hole In My Life," "Truth Hits Everybody," and "Peanuts." "Fall Out" was the band's debut single, released in 1977 on Illegal Records.

The overlap between this tracklist and the band's early official catalog is substantial, though the specific nature of this release — whether it constitutes a live recording, an alternate pressing, a compilation drawn from existing sources, or something else — is not established by the available documentation. Collectors and researchers approaching this title should treat the release details as a starting point rather than a complete picture, and independent verification of its origins and contents is advisable before drawing broader conclusions.