Ghost in the Machine by The Police

Ghost in the Machine, the Police's fourth album, landed on A&M on 2 October 1981, and it's the record where the trio's airy, bouncing sound got darker, thicker and more crowded. Sting, Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland produced it themselves with Hugh Padgham helping out, working from January to September 1981 at AIR Studios on Montserrat and Le Studio in Quebec, and you can hear the tropical sun and the northern chill fighting it out across the grooves.

"Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic" is the giddy pop blast, a UK number one and the brightest thing here. "Spirits in the Material World" rides a clipped, skanking groove that sounds like reggae run through a factory, and "Invisible Sun" is a slow, brooding crawl that lets the gloom seep right in. In America a fourth single, "Secret Journey", followed them out. Elsewhere "Too Much Information" and "One World (Not Three)" keep the pulse restless and funky.

It went to the top of the UK Albums Chart and to number two on the Billboard 200, and Rolling Stone later slotted it in at number 322 when it counted down its 500 greatest albums ever made. Only Synchronicity was left after it, which makes Ghost in the Machine the sound of a band at the height of its pull getting restless in the studio, not long before the finish line.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.