The Police - Ghost in the Machine
#494
By Rik Deskin
October 2, 1981
The Police
Ghost In The Machine
Genre: New Wave/Avant-Pop
Allen’s Rating: 3 out of 5
Rik’s Rating: 5 out of 5
Highlights: Spirits in the Material World
Every Little Thing She Does is Magic
Invisible Sun, and Secret Journey
Allen’s Highlights are the same as mine minus Secret Journey.
This is my all-time favorite album, period. This was one of the first albums for me to begin my collection with and it never disappoints. Listening to it in 2021, nearly forty years after the debut of this fourth effort from The Police, I was back to moving with Sting’s bass, Stewart Copeland’s rhythm/drums, and the always experimental lead guitar of Andy Summers...man it made me feel like forty years had never passed.
I had become aware of The Police in 1980 thanks to the televised America’s Top 10, hosted by Casey Kasem. At that time, I was an avid listener of the Album Oriented Rock & Roll format, learning about The Who, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, the Beatles and more. My particular radio station would pepper in less heard tracks from The Police. At this time I was more interested in music, then what kind of music it was (unless it was Disco or Country...no ear for those genres.) On America’s Top 10, Casey Kasem would play the top music videos (this was pre-MTV). One of these episodes highlighted a song from a trio, “Don’t Stand So Close to Me,” and thus, I fell in love with the dark chords, intriguing lyrics, strong bassline, and the mysterious rhythm from the drums.
Cut to about a year later. Same show. “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic” is the first single released, and the first video I see from the new album, Ghost In The Machine. I eventually received this album, along with the Go-Go’s Beauty In The Beat, as part of a Columbia House subscription.
Spirits In The Material World is track one, and leads off with a quick synth pop refrain, and then the first verse:
“There is no political solution
To our troubled evolution
Have no faith in constitution
There is no bloody revolution”
Are you kidding me? This to my evolving, 16 year-old brain was nourishment! The only context I had at the time was from Pink Floyd’s The Wall. That a band could both create hypnotic hooks, interspersing underlying political messages was simply stunning to me.
Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic, is a beautifully crafted track two song, with many lairs. That is the thing that I absolutely love about The Police, their songs were deep...even the poppy ones. Has there ever been a more beautiful verse than:
“Do I have to tell the story
Of a thousand rainy days since we first met
It's a big enough umbrella
But it's always me
That ends up getting wet”
Invisible Sun, the third track, is also political, so much so, it was banned by the BBC for being overly political with clear references to the conflict with Northern Ireland. Despite that, it has a mysterious, discordant tone, anchored by Sting’s Vocals and Bass, Andy Summers’s Guitar and Stewart Copeland’s Drumming.
Hungry For You (J'aurais Toujours Faim De Toi), Track 4 is a song completely in French, with the exception of one chorus and the outro. This was a departure for the band’s Reggae and Punk Roots, and enabled them to explore new musical territory and themes. The song is about “lust, impure and simple.” I like to think that it is also about Vampires. But that’s just me.
Demolition Man is Track 5, and is a super-charged locomotive of a song. Everytime I listen to this, it conjures up trains for me. Grace Jones had recorded a version of this song one year prior to when The Police recorded it...but it is their song.
Too Much Information is Track 6, and the start of side 2 of this album. It has a familiar three, rotating bass chord with horns, and Stewart’s rhythmic playing and Andy’s power chords. This is a forward looking song about the anxieties of globalization and the ever expanding reach of information technologies. Again, as in earlier songs, multilayered.
Rehumanize Yourself is Track 7, Written by Sting and Police drummer Stewart Copeland, The song is about how we can become disconnected from our humanity when placed in certain situations, like a police officer who takes on a different persona when he puts on the uniform, or a factory worker who can't see the result of his labor. Very catchy and playful...yet deep.
One World (Not Three) is Track 8. This song is a return to the Reggae roots, and has great drumming from Stewart, and Andy’s guitar picking is prevalent. It’s a song that can stand on its own.
Omegaman is Track 9, written by Andy Summers, and based on the 1973 film, Soylent Green starring Charlton Heston. In the film, poverty and climate change have led to food rationing, and a big corporation creates a foodstuff made by nefarious means. Summers used the idea behind the film as the basis for the break world the Omegaman inhabits. This has nothing to do with the earlier film titled, The Omega Man, also starring Charlton Heston.
Secret Journey is Track 10, and is my all-time favorite track by The Police. The lyrics by Sting, speak of a quasi-mystical journey, and the supporting music encapsulates this. This track would play on my local AOR station at night, (and I frequently listened to music at night, so as to affect my dreams). The intro of this song reminds me of being in a long cavern, and then the body of this song is a nigh perfect, pre-pop, pre-Synchronicity creation, wherein the three musicians come together at the top of their craft...though when I had the opportunity to see them live on their reunion tour, I would argue that they were in their peak-prime in 2007. This song for me, comes as close to the Beatles’ best songs for a parallel.
Darkness is Track 11, the final track on this album. It was written by Stewart Copeland, and has a basic formula, very low-key, but poignant all the same. It’s fun to listen to all of the songs and analyze each musicians’ contribution. It is a beautiful song to end this album with.
With that comes the end of my very long review of my all-time favorite album. The short time that this band played together is a magical time in music. Everything that the band has done solo, has been great, but not as perfect as The Police.
https://open.spotify.com/album/5jkwdY6jS1Hzi8epr6HW7h?si=4L9IY2okQAmWU9fRiCPHFQ
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