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Posted on 10/04/2024 2:56:52 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Topping the charts in the UK and reaching No.3 in the US, The Police’s ‘Ghost In The Machine‘ included several of the band’s most enduring hit singles.
The Police’s multi-platinum-selling third album, Zenyatta Mondatta, stayed on the US Billboard 200 for almost three years and included “Don’t Stand So Close To Me”: not only the band’s third British No.1 hit, but also the UK’s biggest-selling single of 1980. A phenomenal success by anyone’s standards, the record set Sting, Andy Summers, and Stewart Copeland on course for its follow-up, Ghost In The Machine, and the global superstardom they’d attain when their fifth LP, Synchronicity, was released in June 1983.
Behind the scenes, however, the creation of Zenyatta Mondatta had been fraught with difficulty as The Police and co-producer Nigel Gray felt pressure from their label, A&M, into completing the record in three weeks. Accordingly, things went right down to the wire, with the sessions finally wrapping at 4 a.m. on the very morning the band departed on their world tour to promote the LP.
By comparison, The Police had the relative luxury of six months to nail the songs for their fourth LP, Ghost In The Machine, released on October 2, 1981. With Genesis/The Human League producer Hugh Padgham replacing Gray behind the console, the record came together during sessions in Montreal’s Le Studio and at Sir George Martin’s plush AIR Studio complex on the Caribbean island of Montserrat.
Unlike the brittle, guitar-based Zenyatta Mondatta, however, Ghost In The Machine proffered a harder, denser sound with a far greater reliance on keyboards and brass textures, most of which were executed by the band’s primary songwriter, Sting. Songs such as “One World (Not Three)” and the sturdy “Too Much Information” were assembled around infectious horn riffs, while the piledriving “Demolition Man” (later covered by Grace Jones) and the Andy Summers-penned “Omega Man” ranked among the most aggressive songs in The Police’s canon.
Crucially, though, Ghost In The Machine also paraded a trio of the band’s most enduring singles. Built upon a looped synthesizer motif, the enigmatic “Invisible Sun” (which featured hard-hitting lyrics relating to the Northern Irish Troubles) was a brave choice to trail the album, but the gamble paid off when it peaked at No.2 in the UK. The nervy, reggae-tinged “Spirits In The Material World” also peaked just outside the Top 10 on both sides of the Atlantic, but the record’s smash hit was the joyous, Caribbean-flavored “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic,” which climbed to No.3 in North America and again topped the UK charts in October 1981.
Promoted by a gargantuan, 120-date world tour with support bands ranging from Joan Jett And The Blackhearts to a nascent U2, Ghost In The Machine was greeted by a welter of positive reviews and eventually outsold its illustrious predecessor, going triple-platinum in the US alone.
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Thanks for posting!
This seemed to be Sting reaching beyond the limitations of a trio. His solo work evolved into more complex instrumentation with jazz influence.
Great album!
Well we certainly learned what Sting thought of The National Front.
check out “emptiness machine”... linkin park just released a new song with a new lead singer...
Ping
Well, the police may not have sounded as explicitly jazz-like, but had just as much jazz influence. Andy Summers knew even more jazz than sting, and was always adding sometimes obscure jazz chords.
Two Swords - English Beat (Another song about the NF from a similar group around the same time.)
Notice Sting was wearing an English Beat T-Shirt in the “Don’t Stand So Close To Me” video.
Exactly. Except they just called it The Beat.
Yes, because there was already an American band called “The Beat”, so they were “The English Beat” in the US, but just “The Beat” in the UK.
I don’t think I ever heard a song by the L.A. Beat, but they must be out there.
Saw them in ‘82 as a young teenager open up for The Clash. Little did I know, that both groups would be gone (relatively) soon.
One of my favorite album covers!
I still get goosebumps when I hear "Spirits In The Material World" which leads into "Everything She Does Is Magic" which is just magical.
The closing two songs "Secret Journey" and "Darkness" are sublime. Everything in between, just incredible. The perfect Police album in my opinion.
Their last album "Synchronicity" was a mess. While it had the biggest Police hit in "Every Breath You Take", well, that was basically a Sting solo song. The songs by the other members like "Miss Gradenko" and "Mother" are just painful.
"Ghost In The Machine" was the last true Police album in my opinion.
"Every Breath You Take"
I don't agree with that. If you listen to the Sting Demo, it's very boring. Summers put in all the interesting chords and stuff, and should have been credited as a writer. And wouldn't be the same without the drumming and guitar work.
I thought the worst was Walking in Your Footsteps was the worst. (3nd worst overall to Born in the 50s. And then Oh, My God. But Miss Gradenko I thought was a great cold war song. And I did hate Mother at first, but after many years it grew on me.
The English Beat opening for the Clash?
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