365 Days of Songs (1981)

One of my favorite songs from my favorite police record, “Ghost in the Machine.” In fact, the three songs that close this record—“Secret Journey” is sandwiched between “Omegaman” (written by Andy Summers) and “Darkness” (written by Stewart Copeland)—are three of my favorite Police songs, and the latter two are the best things Summers and Copeland wrote for the band. (Sting, ever the dick, vetoed “Omegaman” as a single because he didn’t write it. If this record was going to have a second single, “Omegaman” should have been it.)

Andy’s guitar synth is the perfect prelude to what I’ve always assumed was Sting’s version of the flashbacks from the old Kung Fu TV series with David Carradine. (I absolutely loved that series when I was a kid.) What follows is another great Summer arpeggio riff and Copeland’s off-kilter drums. Sting has always been an underrated bass player—hey, you try playing bass and singing!—and I always felt he knew the spots to throw in cool bass lines and when he just needed to ride the root notes to keep things moving. This one falls into the latter camp, though he throws in a few nice licks during the fade out. Summers’ guitar synth returns to usher us out the same door we walked through at the start of the song, feeling very different than when we entered.