Police

Ghost in the Machine

A classic album, clearly their best

Review Score:

(10/10)
I always leaned hard in the direction of "Zenyatta Mondatta" because of its very cheery feel even if the subject matter was sometimes very serious ("When the World is Running Down..") but with repeated listens, "Ghost" appears to be their most thoughtful album, full of strong political overtones, anxiety at losing humanism in a rapidly approaching technological age and a love song you can dance to and think with ("Every Little Thing..."). This is the early gestation period of "Sting The Righter of Wrongs" with tunes like "One World (Not Three)" and "Invisible Sun". "Russians" is not far behind.

Though Sting is the main songwriting force, contributions by the other two members deserve note: Summers' "Omegaman" is a flat-out punk rock tune with a few tasteful embellishments (like Summers' intro to the guitar solo) and Copeland again with crisp drumming and what I think is his best performance on record ("Every Little Thing..."). Copeland always sounds like a "less is more" drummer until you listen to the details. The hi-hat intro to "Every Little Thing..." all the way to his work during the fade-out. Plus "Spirits.." and it's odd time-signature (sounds hard to my ear anyway). The guy is a drumming god.

Don't miss this record. The Police will never be as good afterwards.

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