The Police - Ghost In The Machine (Music Monday)
Do I have to tell the story of a masterpiece thats somehow might be their 4th best album but also might be their best?
If Zenyatta Mondatta was The Police's full-on descent into eccentricity, then the follow-up Ghost in the Machine found them shakily trying to reassemble the pieces. Half the album sounds like it could be Zenyatta (“Hungry For You” and “Too Much Information”) whereas “Secret Journey” could swap for “Tea In the Sahara” on Synchronicity and you might not notice.
You can hear The Police striving to merge their newfound taste for heady, existential explorations with more accessible pop instincts throughout. Sure, lead single "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic" (my favorite Police song) is still a twisted chunk of minor-key studio trickery crammed with bizarre percussive digressions and warped vocal effects. But that woozy hook and Sting's lovestruck lyrics provide a relatable counterbalance to the weirdness. Same with the beguiling folk-pop charm of "Hungry for You" set against Copeland's disjointed drum phrasing.
Conversely, clear attempts at straightforward pop songwriting like "Invisible Sun" still have tantalizing shades of weirdness around the edges, from their subliminal keyboard effects to shape-shifting transitions. It's as if Sting and co. felt compearly to ground their art-punk/prog tangents more closely to actual pop songforms, but just couldn't resist lingering flashes of psychedelic freak-out at every turn.
At their best, Ghost strikes a thrilling equilibrium between visceral pop hooks and cosmic sonic adventuring. Case in point - the sublime opener/closer duo of "Spirits in the Material World" and "Darkness." Anchored by monster riffs, percolating basslines, and chanted vocal melodies that lodge in your cerebellum, both represent The Police fully synthesizing their polar impulses. Those hypnotically fluid arrangements bleed pop songwriting and unhinged avant-experimentation into seamless, trancelike states. No other band this chart-conquering could oscillate so fluidly between such intense weirdness and sugary songcraft.
Even at its most obtuse moments, there's an undeniable allure and narrative pull to Ghost. Between Sting's increasingly disillusioned lyricism, the band's ever-expanding sound palette, and their mounting emphasis on ambience/texture over muscularity, this album feels like their definitive "mature" culmination before the smash success of Synchronicity. An uncompromising, vaguely unsettling, but mesmerizing piece of work that splits the difference between their art-rock impulses and a more studied pop craftsmanship. In a world without Synchronicity, maybe this is their masterpiece - but then again what was Outlandos D’Amour?
Ghost represents the liminal state between two eras - the intrepid progressives of Zenyatta and their transition towards the more globally-aimed stadium ambitions that would end the band. There's a palpable sense of restlessness and evolution happening as they strive to transcend their new wave roots towards something grander, thornier, and more spiritually/intellectually engrossing. It's the sound of The Police shedding their tendencies towards a new phase of heightened creativity and introspection. An amazing album before the metamorphosis into Synchronicity's blockbuster ubiquity.
In the sub-headline I mentioned this might be their 4th best album. I dunno. It’s really hard to rank these 5 albums.
Is their best album Ghost? Synchronicity? Reggatta?
Is Synchronicity actually their worst album? Is Ghost?
Are they all tied for first?