3 keepers
keeper avg .272
Being on-par with Regatta De Blanc, a mediocre effort by Police standards, this transitional album provides some surprises. Though reggae-tinged, "Spirits in the Material World" has an appropriately creepy uneasiness, with the doubling of Sting's truncated vocals giving them an insectoid effect; an interesting choice for a single as however interesting it's not a song I needed to hear more than once. It's followed by the massive hit "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic"****, a perfectly-executed pop song despite the fact that only part of the song that sounds remotely like The Police is Stewart Copeland's drumming. Like "Spirits", "Invisible Sun" also pushes the limits of the band's sound with Sting chanting over a subtle throbbing rhythm section, with Andy Summers adding some tasteful flavor on guitar. Sting also tries to give "Secret Journey" and album-closing "Darkness" a spiritual feel with this chanted delivery. Though these are not the strongest songs they start a needed departure from the band's reliance on their mix of pop, punk, and reggae, though "Hungry For You" (annoyingly sung mostly in French), "Too Much Information", "Rehumanize Yourself", and "One World (Not Three)", fit exactly into that box; all are familiar-sounding, and all happen to be decidedly non-essential. "Demolition Man"**** borrows the driving kick drum and bass riff from the great "Driven To Tears" from the previous album, though it's differentiated by a distinctive saxophone riff and a loose, jazzy feel that suggests the direction of Sting's future solo work. "Omegaman"**** (the title stylized by the Greek letter), an aggressive, driving rock song that foreshadows "Synchronicity I" and "II" from The Police's next and final album, hurls headlong through the each verse until at the end Andy Summers stops it hard with a ballsy, angular guitar riff; it's the best song on the album by far and was chosen to be its first single by the band's label only to be refused by Sting (the fact that it's credited to Andy Summers may suggest Sting's motive). Though an inconsistent and in some ways disappointing album it found the band trying new approaches which would be refined and expanded on the band's mega-successful follow-up Synchronicity.
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