Ghost in the Machine (1981)

Ghost in the Machine is the fourth studio album by the English rock band the Police. The album was released on 2 October 1981 by A&M Records. The songs were recorded between January and September 1981 during sessions that took place at AIR Studios in Montserrat and Le Studio in Quebec, assisted by record producer Hugh Padgham.

Ghost in the Machine topped the UK Albums Chart and peaked at number two on the US Billboard 200. The album produced the highly successful singles "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic", "Invisible Sun", and "Spirits in the Material World", with a fourth single, "Secret Journey", also being released in the US. Ghost in the Machine was listed at number 322 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. The album was reissued in 1983 on CD.

Production and recording

After having produced the previous album Zenyatta Mondatta within a tight deadline of four weeks under pressure from the record company to deliver an album to the market, the Police decided to loosen up when it came to recording Ghost in the Machine. This time they spent six weeks recording at AIR Studios in Montserrat, which was, according to drummer Stewart Copeland, "a 12 hour flight from the nearest record company".

This album marked a change in engineer/co-producer, from Nigel Gray – who worked on the band's albums up to that point – to Hugh Padgham, best known for the drum sound he achieved on records by Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins (see gated reverb). In fact, for this album, Padgham initiated a technique in which the band were recording together in separate rooms of the AIR Studios facility: Andy Summers in the main studio with all his guitars and amplifiers; Sting in the control room with his bass directly plugged into the desk; and Copeland in the dining room with his drums to get a "live" sound. This method would be repeated for the next album.

Ghost in the Machine was the first Police album to feature heavy use of keyboards and saxophone. Besides keyboards, the twenty minute section comprising “Hungry for You (J'aurais toujours faim de toi)" through "One World (Not Three)" includes many saxophone harmonies, while the opening to "Secret Journey" showcases the Roland GR-300 Guitar Synthesizer. Summers recollected:

I have to say I was getting disappointed with the musical direction around the time of Ghost in the Machine. With the horns and synth coming in, the fantastic raw-trio feel—all the really creative and dynamic stuff—was being lost. We were ending up backing a singer doing his pop songs.

For the album, much of the arrangements were worked out at demo stage; as Summers observed, the band's individual demos were too complete; this did not leave much room for the other members to contribute ideas, this being a delicate area for them. The band's frontman, Sting, recorded a demo of "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic" at Le Studio, inviting keyboardist Jean Roussel. However, the group could not improve on it at AIR Studios; they ended up using the demo as the backing track for the official recording, with drummer Stewart Copeland and guitarist Andy Summers overdubbing their parts. Sting also played all the saxophone parts on the album.

The album opens with "Spirits in the Material World", featuring keyboards dubbed over Summers' reggae-inspired guitar licks. "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic" features piano, a Caribbean vibe, and an extended non-verbal vocal solo at the end. "Invisible Sun" is a mixture of slow, steady verses, a bombastic chorus, and several guitar solos. "Hungry for You (J'aurais toujours faim de toi)" is sung mostly in French, with the bass and saxophones both repeating a single 8-note melody for the length of the song, while the guitar maintains a steady beat. "Demolition Man", the band's longest song—almost six minutes in length—features a prominent bass line and saxophone, and was written by Sting while staying at Peter O'Toole's Irish mansion. The song was originally given to Jamaican singer Grace Jones, who released her rendition on Nightclubbing earlier in 1981; the Police then recorded their own hard rock version for Ghost in the Machine. A solo recording by Sting became a belated hit in 1993 as the theme song for the action film of the same title, starring Sandra Bullock, Sylvester Stallone and Wesley Snipes. Manfred Mann's Earth Band also recorded a version—rearranged and with extensive use of synthesizers—in 1982 for their Somewhere in Afrika album.

"Too Much Information", "Rehumanize Yourself", and "One World (Not Three)" are centered around multiple saxophone riffs. As with "Landlord" and "Dead End Job", Copeland had written both music and lyrics for "Rehumanize Yourself", but Sting rejected the lyrics and replaced them with those he composed himself. The final three songs, "Omegaman", "Secret Journey", and "Darkness", return to the darker sound which opens the album.