Ghost in the Machine
Studio album by  the Police
Released	2 October 1981
Recorded	June–July 1981
Studio	AIR (Montserrat)  Le Studio (Quebec)
Genre	New wave  avant-pop
Length	41:03
Language	English  French ("Hungry for You")
Label	A&M
Producer	The Police  Hugh Padgham
The Police chronology
Zenyatta Mondatta (1980) Ghost in the Machine (1981) Synchronicity (1983)
Singles from Ghost in the Machine
"Invisible Sun" Released: 25 September 1981 "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic" Released: 6 November 1981 "Spirits in the Material World" Released: 11 December 1981 "Secret Journey" Released: April 1982

Ghost in the Machine is the fourth studio album by 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

Critical reception

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic
The Austin Chronicle
Chicago Tribune
The Philadelphia Inquirer
Record Mirror
Rolling Stone
The Rolling Stone Album Guide
The Sacramento Bee
Smash Hits	6/10
The Village Voice	B+

The reception for Ghost in the Machine was mostly positive. Rolling Stone's Debra Rae Cohen found that the Police "display more commitment, more real anger, on Ghost in the Machine than ever before." In Record Mirror, Robin Smith praised the album as "the best thing they've ever done", noting its "overall sense of dedication and quality" and more varied range of musical styles. Robert Christgau of The Village Voice remarked: "It's pointless to deny that they make the chops work for the common good—both their trickiness and their simplicity provide consistent pleasure here." Smash Hits critic Mark Ellen was less receptive, deeming it a "patchy" album with both "dazzling singles" and filler tracks reminiscent of the band's earlier material. Ghost in the Machine was voted the 24th best album of 1981 in The Village Voice's Pazz & Jop critics' poll.

In a retrospective review of Ghost in the Machine, Greg Prato of AllMusic observed that the Police "had streamlined their sound to focus more on their pop side and less on their trademark reggae-rock." He found that the album was "not a pop masterpiece", but "did serve as an important stepping stone between their more direct early work and their more ambitious latter direction." J. D. Considine, writing in 2004's The New Rolling Stone Album Guide, stated that "well-modulated" compositions such as "Spirits in the Material World" and "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic" reflected the band's continued experimentation with more dynamic rhythms.

In 2000, Q placed Ghost in the Machine at number 76 on its list of the "100 Greatest British Albums Ever". Pitchfork ranked Ghost in the Machine at number 86 on its 2002 list of the 100 best albums of the 1980s. It was ranked at number 322 on Rolling Stone's 2003 list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, and at number 323 in a 2012 update of the list. The Guardian featured the record in its 2007 list of "1000 Albums to Hear Before You Die".

Writing in 2021 for a Best Albums of 1981 list, Paste contributor Saby Reyes-Kulkarni observed that "There are albums that envelope you in an ambience so unlike anything else you’ve ever heard that listening to them is like taking a trip to another world," further describing Ghost in the Machine as "the most sonically unified work of [The Police's] career, a seamless and revolutionary integration of reggae into [the band's style] that, like Talking Heads and Peter Gabriel, established a futurist vision of pop that could absorb sounds from all over the world—in some ways, pop music has operated from the same premise ever since."

Track listing