• AllMyVinyl #99
• Band: The Police
• Album Title: Ghost in the Machine
• Release Date: 2 Oct 1981
• Date purchased: Unknown
• Location purchased: Unknown
• Color of vinyl: black
• Number of discs: 1
• Links: [ Wikipedia | Discogs | Band Website | Complete album on Youtube ]

The Police were always a band I liked songs from, not whole albums.  In fact, this being in the pile of vinyl rescued from my mom’s basement surprised me a little.  I don’t recall buying it.  But I obviously did as this wasn’t a band my brother was into (that I recall), so somewhere I bought this vinyl.  I just don’t remember doing so.  That’s pretty much the extent of my thoughts of the past with this one.  I don’t remember buying it at all.  I did buy the Synchronicity album on cassette somewhere, but this one – zero background, although I do know several of the songs for sure – I also have a Police Greatest Hits CD somewhere, but this is the only vinyl of theirs I own.  Speaking of the vinyl, if you look at the picture, it hasn’t held up well.  The disc itself has a bit more pops than most of the ones I still have from this era, but the cardboard sleeve bears its age right out front for sure.

This is one of those albums that follows the format I recall from years gone by.  The album is known for three big songs, and they’re the first three on the album.  There’s no spreading them around, one on the beginning off Side 2, or one to end the album…   Spirits, Every Little Thing, & Invisible Sun all lead off the album back to back to back.  That will get the ones I know out of the way first, and tracks 4-11 will be more a mystery.  I suspect I’ll remember them when I start listening as I did own the album, so the songs are probably wedged in my head somewhere.  Just not by title.

To that, I’m going to move past my short intro and head to the songs, as there’s not a lot of memories I have to draw from to write the intro like I generally do in this series.

Spirits in the Material World – As I mentioned above, the album starts off with the big singles first.  Spirits was actually the third single off the album, but IMO it was my probably my second favorite track on the album (from memory).  Sting was doing the “play bass and keyboards at the same time” before Geddy Lee in Rush did that.  The music video for this song reminded me of that.  The video is just performance based – they recorded themselves in what looks like the recording studio.  I know the Police wasn’t just Sting, but he’s all over this.  It has a nice bass riff, and of course he sings.  Good opening track to the album.

Every Little Thing She Does is Magic – This is probably the most well known song off the album.  If they hadn’t also put out “Every Breath You Take” on the next album, I’d wager it would be the most well known Police song of all time.  I used to love singing this one when it was new.  Would always stop and play it when it came on the radio.   When I was younger and this was new (I was 16 when it came out), the lyrics from this one that went “I resolved to call her up a thousand times a day and ask her if she’ll marry me some old-fashioned way” always stuck with me.  When I did eventually ask someone to marry me for real, I didn’t need 1,000 times a day.  She would have told me to fuck off if I actually did that.  But seriously, a nice catchy song – light pop rock, which works great for me.  Song holds a great memory for me.  As I sit here listening, I’m reminded that this song ended up on more than one mix tape I made back in the 80’s.  Good times. The music video shows them dancing in the studio which made ’em seem like friends. Wish that still survived today.

Invisible Sun – This was actually the lead song off the album.  I suspect that was chosen by the band, it doesn’t seem like the kind of single you’d get chosen by a record label who tend to go towards more poppier songs – I suspect they wanted to choose Magic, but Invisible Sun was the actual first single.  It’s not as catchy as the first two tracks and really feels like an odd choice for a lead single, but here we are.  The music video is mostly an out of focus Sting singing behind footage of life on the streets, which I’m sure is a message they wanted to deliver.  That’s probably got something to do with the song being about IRA members from what I can gather.  Definitely not a light subject for the opening salvo from the album.  It’s not a bad song at all, just just as accessible as the first two.

Now I move past my built in memories of tracks from the past, as I honestly don’t remember any of the subsequent tracks by title.

Hungry For You – A faster beat to this song is the main driving force.   It’s got the same kind of pace as Magic, but it is a bit lower on the musical scale in terms of how high Sting is singing and what the music itself sounds like (if that makes any sense).  It seems like a good companion track to Magic – probably good they weren’t back to back on the album.   If you liked Magic, you’ll probably like this one, but it’s not as catchy for sure.

Demolition Man – This one has a bit of history.  Before the Police recorded it, Sting wrote the song and it was released by Grace Jones as a single from her album released earlier in the same year.  The Police then recorded it themselves and it appears on this album.  It was also released in 1993 on an EP by Sting for the movie “Demolition Man”, so this song has some legs.   The Police version isn’t quite the same as the Grace Jones version, but then I wouldn’t expect it to be.  As a piece of music, it’s a fairly simple song, not a ton going on musically, which could be why as it was written for someone else, then the Police did it anyway.   It’s “ok”, not my favorite song of theirs – it sounds like The Police attempting to cover an EDM song.  It’s also 5:57, it could have lost like three full minutes and I don’t think they would have been missed.

Too Much Information – The opening notes from this make me think it was going to be a guitar heavy track.  But it didn’t end up that way, so I got faked out right at the start.  This kind of feels like a faster version of Demolition in some regard.  It’s got a beat that repeated through the entire song just like Demolition, but this is more in line with the traditional Police sound then the last track was.  I’m conflicted with this song.  I wanted to say I didn’t care for it, but at the moment my fingers started typing that I noticed my foot bouncing up and down to the beat, so do I like it?  I’m honestly not sure.  It does end with some nice guitar work at the end during the fadeout – I wish there was more of THAT.

Rehumanise Yourself – A faster Police track here.  While fast Police songs don’t approach the “speed” of say a Metallica, it’s faster for them.  The pace of this track got me instantly.  Sucked me in despite there’s not a lot going on beyond the main beat.  This is one of those tracks that “simple works” applies to.  It also kind of sounds like something else I’ve heard before, but I can’t place that.  The phrase “rehumanize yourself” is repeated a lot.  Not a lot going on lyrically, but the song worked for me – the beat was enough.

One World (Not Three) – This one has a slower beat, kind of sounds a bit reggae.  Lyrically it is about wanting a unified world that we can all live in, not something split into various parts.  The initial beat continues – The Police aren’t really known for time changes in their songs, and this holds up that idea.  It’s the most reggae sounding song on the album, IMO.  Whether you like this is probably dependent on whether you like reggae at all. I do like Sting’s bass work on this track a lot.

Omegaman – In reading about this album, this was the track that the label wanted as the first single, but Sting refused.  Musically this sounds more like the first three songs on the album, and could be more in line with Spirits.  In fact if they couldn’t agree on this as a lead single, I’m surprised they didn’t go for Spirits, as they sound similiar in certain parts.  It’s a good track that I’ve completely forgotten about.   The guitar sound played when Sting is singing the chorus sounds a little out of place for the Police, it’s definitely a different choice there.  But overall, a good track.

Secret Journey – This was the fourth and final single from the album.  It is definitely slower than the other three singles, I wouldn’t have chosen this for a single at all.  I don’t actively dislike it, but it doesn’t do anything for me, really.

Darkness – The album closes out with this track which I quite liked.  It actually sounds like a slower version of “Every Breath” from the next album in places.   Of the tracks I don’t remember from the album (which is most of them) I think I liked this one the best of any of them.

It’s been quite awhile since I listened to this album in full.  I moved to Texas in 1992, and it wouldn’t surprise me if the last time I listened to this album fully was long before then.  I simply have few memories of this in the past, and when I listened to day the first three tracks I remembered well, and totally got into, yet struggled to get into the rest of the album.  It’s not bad at all, it’s the Police after all.  But this album today in Dec 2024 didn’t hold me as much as its reputation says it should.  I find myself drawn to the big singles from this album FAR more than anything else other than it – but that’s kind of more in line with my holding of The Police as a singles band and not an album band – an opinion I suspect would keep me in a minority.

Fun fact: If I remember my history correctly, this is the same studio that some years later Black Sabbath recorded parts of their 1987 album “The Eternal Idol” at – AIR studios in Montserrat.