Written by Emma Davolt
Having just returned from my first trip to San Francisco i thought it was appropriate to review the Police’s Ghost in the Machine. Almost all of the billboards and ads plastered on bus stops were selling AI models. I kind of laughed when I got on the plane and saw Blade Runner as one of the movie offerings. Ghost in the machine, released in 1981, is the fourth album from the Police. I am a huge fan of their discography. This is not my favorite album from them but I do love it and its the only album I own a physical copy of. My frenemy brought me back the record from his trip to Japan.
The name of the album alludes to the contrast between the soul or humanness and our rapidly changing reality as well as increased emphasis on the technical production of the songs. There are a lot of threads of explicit social commentary in the lyrics. It makes me wonder if the band has crazy foresight or what they think about how our relationship(dependence) on technology has evolved.
This album has an amazing live sound. The Police are great about creating and maintaining tension in their songs as well as blending genres together in a way that is weird but still really accessible I think I would compare this sense of tension to the Talking Heads, how they make you want to jerk around in a strange dance. As much as I love Sting’s voice, I love how the mixing has the vocals at the same level or a little quieter than the rest of the band.
I think my main critique of the album comes from a comparison with their previous release, Zenyatta Mondatta. Because the theme and commentary are more explicit, somehow the songs don’t work as effectively like in the big Z. I still think that the songs are really powerful, but I would also point out that I can’t defend all of the corny lyrics. The line “Looking like something that the cat dragged in” from Invisible Sun might have worked on another album, but the tone is too serious here in a song about The Troubles in Northern Ireland.
Having listened to a lot of this album and The Police in general growing up, I have a nostalgic connection to many of these songs. The last track “Darkness” was new to me but stands out as one of the most lyrically impactful. The closing song on the album, it is a little more reserved in its sounds.
“I could make a mark if it weren’t so dark / I could be replaced by any bright spark”
“The darkness makes me fumble for a key to a door that’s wide open”
The darkness has been recognized, not reckoned with or defeated. The song is commenting on how the struggle with forces external and internal confound us into clumsy complacency. It kind of reminds me of Beware of Darkness from George Harrison, where he identifies ‘darkness’ among other things in maya. This is the blockage between consciousness and transcendence represented by the aum sign.
As a whole the album wrestles with how we understand our world, reckoning the micro scale interactions that seem to change everything with macro scale global happenings that sometimes don’t change our daily lives right away. You know what I mean? Is it appropriate to worry what your crush thinks about your hair when we’re facing a climate crisis? How do I process my tourist experience of SF having witnessed the realities of homelessness and addiction in the city? The thematic strength is a real selling point of this album but I think it will hit different people in different ways. Overall I must say I wish I could see a Police performance live but I’ll settle for hiring a cover band for my wedding someday (are you there frenemy? It’s me, Emma.)