The Police

Ghost in the Machine (A&M)

Sting’s lyrics for the Police are best known for psychosexual drama (“Don’t Stand So Close to Me,” “Every Breath You Take”), but there’s another mode that produced dark songs concerned with war, death, spirituality, and technology. 1981’s Ghost in the Machine is the only Police album on which the latter predominates. Released a few months before Blade Runner, the album carries the same muted horror of the coming information age and the final domination of nature by culture and the state, most clearly on “Invisible Sun,” “Rehumanize Yourself,” and finally, “Omegaman.” Simultaneously, the album reveals a powerful vision of escape through spiritual struggle (“Secret Journey,” “Darkness”) and explosive sensuality (“Demolition Man,” “Hungry for You”). Musically, Ghost in the Machine enhances the jam-rock of the Police’s early albums with the overproduced artificiality of Synchronicity, a striking synthesis of nature and technology.

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This article appears in July 25 • 2008.

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