Category: Uncategorized

About to embark on his first US tour since 2008, Andrew Eldritch joins Louder from a car en route to London’s Heathrow Airport. Although ‘seriously over-tired’, in this long and wide-ranging interview he talks about America, lost albums, geopolitics, getting shot at, how The Sisters almost never happened and his current burst of songwriting.

Since entering their fifth decade – and Eldritch his sixties – The Sisters have become   unusually fecund (well, as fecund as you can be for a band that hasn’t actually released a studio recording in 30 years): The Sisters have played thirteen new songs live between 2019 and 2022, most debuting only last year. For context, they performed just ten new songs in the 25 years between 1993 and 2018. 

As they prepare to kick off an American tour with an appearance at Sick New World festival in Las Vegas, alongside System of A Down, Deftones and Korn, we caught up with the man himself to hear him cock an eyebrow at Iron Maiden, recall his pre-Sisters days in a skinhead band, and much more.

All these new songs. What the hell has happened, Andrew?

Andrew Eldritch: I’m tempted to say – in a jocular fashion – that the floodgates have been opened because I’ve lowered my standards. But I don’t think I have. 

I’m not in the best position to judge, being so in the middle of it and hoping it doesn’t go away. If it’s a gift horse, it would seem daft to look it in the mouth.

Then the flow of new songs could easily dry up and things revert?

I don’t think anybody was miserable before. We might find something else to do. Like record the damn things! I kid you.

So America will be getting the set that evolved post-Covid on tour, ie predominantly very new material interspersed with the hits?

Yes. It seemed to work well on those constituencies.

Any temptation to flip that ratio around for the Americans who have not seen you for a while?

No. You have to give people what they need and not what they want.

What does songwriting look like now, more specifically lyric-writing: once upon a time it was on napkins in bars in Hamburg…

I’ve generally got an audio book burbling in the background, or a movie. Whether I’m handwriting or not depends if I’m in front of a screen or not.

Bruce Robinson, the writer and director of Withnail & I once recalled being at his typewriter with red wine and ending the night typing with his nose…

The next day can indeed be cruel!

It seems fair to say that the band was in an extended holding pattern for a number of years, recycling the back catalogue, dropping in the odd cover version.

I think we were still good at it, offering good times.

But you admit that the current version of the band is better? 

We think it’s better but it’s up to you to judge and you seem to think it’s better. And I’m happy to accept that verdict right now because it suits me.

Fundamentally, you don’t care what I think, do you? Any more than you care about people asking, “Where’s the bass player?” “Why don’t they sound like 1985 or 1990?” or similar schools of thought?

Only in so far as unfavourable criticism hinders ticket sales which hinders one’s financial independence, which hinders one’s creative independence. Other than that, I don’t care at all. I have a very solid sense of my worth. Or lack of it. I don’t rely on other people for that.

There’s reaction video of a US-based vocal coach giving her views on the 1992 version of Temple of Love with Ofra Haza.

Did she say one of those people can really sing and is amazing and the other is a waste of space?

Not quite, but she loved Ofra Haza and compared your singing to Devo.

Fair enough.

Tell me about the evolution of one of these new Christo/Eldritch/Smith songs. How are your lyrics interacting with the music Ben (Christo) and Dylan (Smith) are writing?

Firstly, the music is not all Ben and Dylan. Obviously, they like the music they write better, which is perfectly natural. 

They have access to my lyrical sketchbooks, just as I have access to their guitar doodling, or keyboard doodling. We think to ourselves, “This goes well with that and that goes well with this.” It’s not like I have a finished lyric and say, “Score this!”

Dylan plays the harmonium. Any circumstances when you think a Sisters track could really do with some of that?

Maybe when I’m feeling very Ivor Cutler. Or a bit Nico.

The routine of touring can be both monotonous and irritating …

It has its benefits. It’s nice for a while to have a regulated lifestyle: get fed, be told where to go, have your shopping done for you.

Don’t you miss the extreme privacy of your non-touring life? You once described yourself as a “hermit”?

If we were still touring in a van, that would most definitely be the case. But on a big Nightliner bus, there’s always somewhere to hide, if you need to. And there’s less interaction with everybody these days too. Everybody has their own entertainment devices on their person. In the old days, everybody would have to gather round one of the two televisions and have to watch the same films, which is a lovely bonding experience. It makes Twin Town an even better film than it already is.

I know someone who does merchandise who went out with a heavy metal band that watched nothing but shitting teenagers on the video for the whole tour. Apparently there is a film called that: Shitting Teenagers. 

Do you get out of the sealed world of touring into the real world much? You’ve referred to the bus as being like a submarine.

It’s not often but I like to go high and low. When in Madrid, I do like to go to the Prado, which is a bit rococo for my taste – I’m more a fan of your Soviet sculpture park, to be honest but I also like to hang out in bars or a café pavement. I just like to listen to people. I’m quite good with languages, so I can act natural and blend in. I don’t walk around places like the peacock I might have seemed to have been in the past when I was permanently dressed up on tour, when basically all I had was stage-wear and wasn’t acting natural or blending in. 

A quick word association. If I say “US Tour”, you say…

Nebraska. A whole heap of nothing.

The Sisters haven’t played Nebraska.

No, but we’ve had to drive through it for what seemed like weeks on end. 

It’s been 15 years since your last US tour. Which US cities are you looking forward to being back in?

Given that we are a forward-looking entity, we’re looking forward to the places we’ve never been to: St Louis, Kansas City, for example. We might have a dreadful time, but we don’t know that yet. I’m ever the optimist.

You loved the old Robocop-style Detroit…

The urban wasteland of Detroit is actually on the cover of Vision Thing. Behind that TV eye of Horus, that is not just a kind of mottling of black on the cover, that is a picture of the 40-square miles of inner-city urban wasteland which is what Detroit had become. 

Your first time in the US was New York City in 1983. A baptism of fire?

I had a brilliant time. I came over privately before the Sisters ever played. It was high summer, so New York was a bit smelly but fantastic. I got to go to places like the Paradise Garage – had a good time there. Got to go down Bleeker Street – had a good time there. Hung out in the Village quite a lot – had a good time there. 

I got the Long Island Rail Road into the city every day. Long Island was lovely. I was staying in a place quite near the beach. 

Perhaps the early days of nipping over from the UK and playing a handful of shows at places like the I-Beam in San Franciso, the Alexandria Hotel in L.A. or Danceteria in New York were more fun than when the band got big.

We were playing short sets in small venues with no sense of responsibility whatsoever. Had a great time. We weren’t spending weeks on the road in a van, so it was certainly a lot less like work. 

Lucretia, My Reflection described The Sisters as a “hard reign held up by rage”. Isn’t that a young man’s game?

Ah, I’ve still got the rage. When I come to America more so. I was a pretty happy camper when Obama was in office. The orange shitshow we’ve had since displeased me.

There’s a pair of very good political new songs – Eyes Of Caligula and On The Beach –tightly packed lyrics, yet continually melodic. On The Beach resembles a State of the Nation address … 

I think it’s about three different kinds of ex-patriation.

You’re an ex-patriot, so it’s also a personal song.

I’m all kinds of ex-patriation.

Eyes of Caligula is your “last word” on Margaret Thatcher. She’s been dead for 10 years. What took you so long?

I wasn’t looking to either do it or avoid it. It just happened and I thought, “Yep, that pretty sums it up now.”

Both songs are underpinned by a dose of old-school left-wing rage. The Sisters first logo – the legendary Head and Star – always reminded me of the emblem of the Red Army Faction.

Left-wing people do like to put a star behind things, whether it’s the RAF or Che Guevera

I once compared you Che – and to Andreas Baader. Did you take that badly?

I think this is a dangerous, suspicious line of questioning.

Could There Is A Door be considered part of a trio of socio-political songs?

When I was writing that, I was picturing to myself an American who is so patriotic, he’d rather live in his car than talk to his immigrant neighbour about how she was making something of her life.

Dominion, although a Cold War-era song, disappeared for most of 2022 due, I assume, to a reluctance to sing “Mother Russia, rain down” during the invasion of Ukraine.

It was due for rotation. We did play it recently in Australia, just to prove we’re not embarrassed about what it’s saying, or what it was saying at the time it was written. There certainly was a discussion about playing it in this day and age, but the upshot was that we played it. 

There are some schisms in the world of rock over the invasion of Ukraine, some more sympathetic to Russia (Roger Waters and Brian Eno) than others (Dave Gilmour and U2).

I think it’s entirely Russia’s fault but I have not encountered let alone examined those views [of Eno and Waters]. I do read a lot about Ukraine and I do read a lot about Russia. My worldview is informed by having read all the Anne Applebaum books but this isn’t a topic for ten-minute conversation and I wouldn’t want to be misrepresented by a one-minute comment I might make. But Russia invaded Ukraine, Ukraine didn’t invade Russia, that much is clear.

Also among on the very good new songs is Show Me (On The Doll). I don’t read it at all as being a song about the circumstances in which someone might use a doll to communicate something unspeakable.

I thought I’d write something sensible and tasteful under that title to see if I could get away with it.

It’s actually the same song as This Corrosion: “Hey now, sing a stupid song for me.” It’s about Barbie rock‘n’roll. It’s about retail rock‘n’roll, plastic rock‘n’roll, rock‘n’roll you can buy by the yard from Hot Topic, which is the American version of Primark for Goths.

The lyrical ideas about artifice, I thought might be more about hyper-reality, simulacrum, that sort of Jean Baudrillard thing…

I prefer to go to Philip K. Dick for that…

… and the line ‘show me’ is used very tenderly at one point in The Outlaw Josey Wales. 

That’s not where I’ve drawn it from. I prefer The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.  

Let’s assume my reading of the song is entirely different to your intended meaning. Is that OK – for someone to utterly misunderstand what you’re driving at?

It must be. What I write is oblique – I wouldn’t say obscure – and that of course allows room for people to come up with interpretations that I disagree with.

You’re quite at ease with the idea of Author-God, the hander down of meaning as being powerless, dead even?

That’s difficult when you are also the performer of it but I’m sympathetic to that theory. Biographical stuff has got nothing to do with whether the song is any good or what the song means. 

And I’m aware of the different layers in authorial voice: the author, the protagonist, the antagonist, the chorus and as a performer you are dealing with all of these things at once. It’s a fine art to do these things one at a time or all together or keeping them separate. That’s one of the things that makes performance intriguing, if you are doing it right. Or at least trying.

Right now, there’s an album written that won’t get recorded, one of many Sisters ‘lost’ albums: ‘lost’ in the sense they never happened.

There’s loads of stuff that’s never happened!

In 1985, you were planning Left On Mission And Revenge as the follow-up to First and Last and Always. Some of that ended up on Floodland, what happened to the rest?

Some of that Left On Mission And Revenge material has been recycled, some is still in the back of my head. I’ve given Dylan a couple of those musical bits. One day he’ll come back having done something with them, which will impress me and I will be happy. Quite what happens to them after that, God only knows.

Excuse me, you’re still tinkering with material from 1985?

Oh, yeah. I’m still working on the title track which is now called Left On Venom And Revenge. The riff’s not changed and what it’s about hasn’t changed. I’ve got all the guitar parts worked out. And the drums, to be honest. It wouldn’t have belonged on Floodland because it’s got a cowboy bassline – it’s like a demented country song. 

There’s a rumour that a track in the same musical vein as Some Kind Of Stranger – but even more epic – was excluded from Floodland and would have been one of the best songs on it.

There’s a guitar thing I wrote that would fit that description – the demo version was a rough 10-minute slapstick version I did with a fellow in Croydon, a guitar player with an 8-track that I tootled along to one day, just to put it on tape. I thought his playing was so mechanical and not as good as mine that nothing came of it. And anyway I haven’t finished the words to it. 

The material closest to becoming a record was the Adam Pearson/Mike Varjak/Eldritch songs from 1997/98?

Well, I wouldn’t say close! You’re talking degrees of obsidian here.

Adam (Pearson, guitar 1993-2005) was always in two minds about whether he wanted that stuff published or not – he had certain stipulations on the legal front, and then he didn’t and then he did again – and I thought, “Well, this is getting complicated, I’m going to stop discussing that with him.” He was within his rights to do that, by the way. Songwriters can do that – I’m not having a go at him. The songs were put to one side accordingly.

The ‘Heartland’ forum for Sisters fans has a thread called “Eldritch Was Wrong”.

You know when I wrote that song (I Was Wrong), it was about not being wrong.

Is there anything you think Eldritch has been wrong about? I’ll go first: your spectacularly rude views on France and French-speaking Belgium expressed in the 1980s. They were very, very wrong. 

It’s a national sport that I occasionally indulged in but in these dark times post-Brexit, I agree that it does not seem so funny. People mustn’t overlook the fact that I spent thirteen years of my life learning French professionally. I can be allowed – on occasion – to be a bit grumpy about them. I can afford to be sardonic about the French because, with a little bit of a brush-up, I’m perfectly fluent and very well-versed in French literature. 

Most cover versions of Sisters songs are awful. Have you ever heard any you liked?

There’s Fear Of The Dark by Iron Maiden. [Maiden’s Fear Of The Dark – released May 1992 – has a very similar riff to Temple Of Love, first released in 1983 and re-recorded with Ofra Haza in 1992.]

There’s a 30-minute version of This Corrosion by Andrew Liles, which is a remix/sound collage rather than a cover; most of it is just the choir.

Damn. I should have done that.

You once described the young Eldritch, the denizen of the F Club, Leeds’ punk dive as ‘the representative of camp.” 

I was not afraid to indulge in a bit of androgeny but not the Dick Emery camp end of things.

In relation to the punk thing, I was happy to be the person who wasn’t wearing studded wrist bands all the time and gobbing on everything and I didn’t need to have GBH painted on the back of my leather jacket. I was happy to wear Claire’s [Shearsby, F Club DJ and Eldritch’s then girlfriend] red leather jacket, with my red trousers, with Claire’s red boots with my long red hair, if that’s what I felt like doing.

There’s no photographic evidence of this. This was like Bowie’s hair… 

More like if Deep Purple had gone to town with some henna. I must have had it for about a year. 

This campness of the Sisters seems to have devolved to Ben and Dylan: hair, shades, matching white Firebird guitars…

I haven’t managed to get them to do synchronised dancing, but I do run it by them.

Dylan joined in 2019. What are the entry requirements to join The Sisters? There’s a threshold of musical competence obviously, but once that’s been reached…

It never used to matter! We figured you could learn it. All the stuff I wrote was pretty simple. It’s a bit more complicated now, certainly to play it the way I want to hear it, you’ve got to be pretty good, but in the early days [early 1980s] it didn’t matter, it was more about a bunch of mates being a bunch of mates and having a shared taste in stuff they listened to, even if they couldn’t play it.

But why pick Dylan? He’s a proper musician but there must be other factors relating to demeanour, whether you can exist with someone on the submarine is key?

Yes it is. Once you’re at the level we’re at, you can pick and choose between people who can play, so you do want somebody in the submarine who’s going to behave – or misbehave – in the right way.

Looking like a Viking Lita Ford was an asset? 

Funnily enough, I thought it wouldn’t be but we got together with him anyway.

There are many possible counter-factual scenarios in which The Sisters never even started. In Leeds in the late 70s and very early 80s, The Sisters were just one of several bits and bobs you were dabbling in… 

Yes, there are a lot of moments in the band’s early – I hate to say career – where a butterfly could have fluttered its wings and things been different. 

In those days everybody was sleeping with everybody else, playing with everybody else, nobody was trying to build anything solid; we were just amusing ourselves really.

It corrects any false impression that I planned to build a thing – and this is it. Because I really didn’t. 

For example, you were the drummer in a kind of skinhead group before The Sisters.

This fella lived down the road, he was a fashion designer and completely in love with the skinhead look and he was quite astonishingly gay. He wanted to put a band together. I don’t know why because it wasn’t a skinhead band, if anything it sounded like a proto-Public Image Limited. Obviously, no skinheads wanted to work with someone who was so astonishingly gay, but I was quite happy to, so I did – with a couple of kids from Wakefield, one of them played bass, one of them played guitar.

We rehearsed in his attic. Never got as far as recording or playing live. 

Around the same time you played guitar in a little-known group called Children on Stun – not to be confused with the 90s Goth band of the same name?

Yes, I did.

My understanding is that music was recorded for a hair-dressing show/extravanganza called ‘Far Beyond The Fringe’ in the Leeds Warehouse, at which Kevin Lycett of the Mekons mixed the tapes.

That’s possible. I was mates with Kevin at the time. I only remember one song we did, but we must have had three or four. We rehearsed in the cellar of, I think, the singer in Headingley.

And there was a bit of graphic design for the cover of a Leeds fanzine called Box of Rain.

It was Rotring pen on yellow paper with a lot of indented diamonds in the background.

For most young people finding their way like that, nothing sticks and becomes a lasting thing of note. Something like The Sisters is a freak occurance.

It very much is.

As with your last interview for Louder in 2021, we will finish with a True or False round. This features snippets I came across while researching my book on early Sisters (opens in new tab). You once built an Fireball X15 – the spacecraft in the Gerry and Sylvia Anderson series of the same name – in Minecraft?

Correct.

You were once offered $1,000,000 (or €1,000,000) for a new album, but turned it down because you were looking for £1,000,000? 

False.

You offered Rockstar Games a new Sisters of Mercy album for free, to be hidden in a Grand Theft Auto game?

True. They didn’t even say, “Can we hear it first?” They just said, ‘No. Can’t be bothered.”

Rising by Rainbow was a favourite record of yours as a teenager? 

False. 

But you did very much like the Bon Scott-era AC/DC?

True.

The “96 below the wave” lyric in Temple of Love is a reference to the submarine U-96 in Das Boot. 

No, it’s a reference to Question Mark and the Mysterians’ 96 Tears.

You became so blasé and uninterested in Top of the Pops, that you had to be woken up from a nap in the BBC carpark to perform Under The Gun in 1993, your final appearance on the show?

I might have been asleep in the dressing room or smoking in the car park but not a mix of the two. But blasé and disinterested? I don’t think so, but I do take a nap whenever I can. It’s a handy skill to have in my line of work. I can do it anywhere. I can even sleep in discos.

Before The Sisters, you DJ’ed a Psychedelic Night in Leeds and played loads of Doors? 

That’s possible. I used to take over from Claire [Shearsby] once in a while [in the F Club]. Some nights it was Gary Glitter, some nights it would have been The Doors. And quite often it would have been the Stooges.

When you met Werner Herzog in 1986, it became clear you shared an interest in the Malvern Hills: you because of your love of Elgar. Herzog because of ley lines. Herzog suggested you and he go camping there?

No, he didn’t and I happen to know you can’t camp on the Malvern Hills because I used to live on them.

The closest you’ve come to being shot was by an East German border guard while crossing from West Berlin on the Trans-Europe Excess tour of 1983. 

No. One time I was in a public square in Berlin with the tour manager, a very large man and I was standing behind him because I’m not stupid – but I was being shot at. Well, somebody was shooting in the vague direction of where I was – I don’t think they were shooting at me.

My story was from an entirely different tour manager. Apparently, there was a complete mismatch between you and your passport photo and you refused to take your shades off, so the East German shouldered his rifle and pointed it at you.

That might be true but that’s not actually being shot at.

It’s the only story I’ve got with someone pulling a gun on you.

Ah, well…  [laughs and doesn’t continue]

Backstage at Wembley Arena shows in 1990, it all got a bit Whitehall Farce: due to a scheduling mishap, two of your girlfriends were backstage, neither of them aware of the other’s existence?

My record is six. 

The Sisters of Mercy are now on tour in the USA. For dates check The Sisters of Mercy website (opens in new tab).

Keanu Reeves’ grunge rock band Dogstar are to play their first show in over two decades.

The LA-based trio – comprised of bassist Reeves, vocalist/guitarist Bret Domrose and drummer Rob Mailhouse – are scheduled to perform at BottleRock festival in Napa Valley, California on May 27, where they’ll debut new material from their forthcoming album.

Also performing on the festival bill will be Red Hot Chili Peppers, Duran Duran, The Smashing Pumpkins and Lizzo, amongst others.

The last time Dogstar officially performed live was in October 2002, however back in December, they declared that they were “back on stage” for a private show in honour of “the incredible people who made our new album possible”.

Since last summer, the band have been sharing studio shots of their recording process, and uploaded an update onto Instagram earlier this month. 

Underneath a black and white promo shot, they wrote: “Thank you everyone for the kind comments. We are overjoyed to see such a response. Honestly, didn’t expect this. It makes us want to play out even more.

“We will be rolling out some new music this summer, followed by some gigs. As soon as it’s all figured out we will let everyone know immediately. So much to do, but rest assured, we are on it and have assembled a fantastic team that are helping us.

“We are also going to make a music video to support our first tune. That’s all I can say now. Can’t wait to share our new music with everyone. It’s the most satisfying and meaningful batch of songs we’ve ever done. Thanks again for being so patient with us. We truly have the best, most loyal fans!”.

During their short tenure, Dogstar recorded two albums – 1996’s Our Little Visionary and 2000’s Happy Ending – and played shows with David Bowie and Bon Jovi, as well as performing at the 1994 Glastonbury festival.

In 2019, the John Wick actor revisited the time his band played Milwaukee Metal Fest, and “got killed” by an audience who hated them.

Sign up below to get the latest from Louder, plus exclusive special offers, direct to your inbox!

The Police should never have worked. On paper, none of the musicians who made up the world-conquering rock trio read like they would be anywhere near each other – not in late ‘70s Europe anyway.

Drummer Stewart Copeland was the loudmouth son of an American diplomat who’d absorbed the rhythms of every country he’d lived in. Singer/bassist Gordon Sumner, who dared to turn a nickname over a silly outfit into the mysterious cool-guy mononym Sting, was a small-town hyper-literate with big dreams and a penchant for capturing affairs of the heart and mind in stunningly catchy songs. Andy Summers became their second guitarist, after original axeman Henry Padovani didn’t know enough chords for Sting’s liking. Summers was 10 years their senior, coming up on the back of the British Invasion with a gift for sonic texture in a way that most of his contemporaries didn’t.

They tried to co-opt the burgeoning punk scene in England but were rightly seen as pretenders. “The truth is, we liked the energy of punk, but we couldn’t really be a part of it,” Sting told Revolver in 2000. “One of our problems was we were quite good at playing our instruments. That was definitely a handicap.” So they hit the pavement, somehow making it work, song by song. Gradually, listeners in country after country started to take notice, and in six years, they were the world’s biggest band.

Then, at the height of that success – with a Grammy-winning, chart-topping pop song that remains one of the most played on the planet – they packed it in. Outside of one abortive attempt at making an old song new and a victorious reunion tour in the 21st century, the Police stayed apart, helping the mystique around their five live-wire studio albums stand tall. Their image, outlook and sound influenced acts of every shape and size, from Nirvana and Incubus to Phish, Primus and even Bruno Mars.

Between five albums and a scattering of non-album singles, B-sides and soundtrack appearances, there are a lot of thrilling highs and lows for such a small but potent body of work. (We’re of course not including live recordings – just play the songs faster to get a sense of what the Police are like in concert – or rerecordings of “The Bed’s Too Big Without You” or “Truth Hits Everybody” that aren’t particularly transformative.) Wrap your drumming hands in duct tape and get ready to count ‘em off.

70. “A Kind of Loving”
From: Brimstone & Treacle Soundtrack (1982)

One of a few instrumentals featured in a British drama that starred Sting, this dreadful offering mixes noisy band dissonance with the sound of a woman shrieking. Fun!

69. “Born in the 50’s”
From: Outlandos d’Amour (1978)

Any last gasps at appealing to punks went out the window with this cringe-y “I’m not like you, Dad” screed about recent British history. “They screeeeeeamed when the Beatles sang”? So will you, when this one comes on.

68. “Flexible Strategies”
From: “Every Little Thing She Does is Magic” single (1981)

Despite their musical prowess, the handful of instrumental jams that backed a few Police singles – evidently not good enough for the albums – is pretty boring.

67. “How Stupid Mr. Bates”
From: Brimstone & Treacle Soundtrack (1982)

Here’s another boring instrumental, spiced up in the beginning by a neat little synthesizer part but quickly forgotten.

66. “Shambelle”
From: “Invisible Sun” single (1981)

Sting already made the “Shambles” joke about this instrumental in the liner notes to Message in a Box: The Complete Recordings. Who are we to repeat it?

65. “Murder by Numbers”
From: “Every Breath You Take” single (1983)

This facile ode to the ways of committing the perfect crime closed Synchronicity on CD – and threw off the rhythm of their final studio album in the process.

64. “Mother”
From: Synchronicity (1983

Considered to be among the worst of the band’s tracks, this sonic heart attack (written and scream-sung by Andy Summers) is an ironic rewrite of John Lennon’s track of the same name.

63. “Hungry for You (j’aurais tojours faim de toi)”
From: Ghost in the Machine (1981)

Sting was a proven musical multi-linguist ever since Spanish and Japanese versions of “De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da” found their way onto an international single. But this hammy lust song in French is not one of his better demonstrations of a foreign tongue, no matter how infectious the ska-lite groove is.

62. “Nothing Achieving”
From: “Fall Out” single (1977)

The problems with the Police’s debut single were twofold: original guitarist Henry Padovani knew a minimal amount of chords (making him technically the most “punk” member of the group), and Stewart Copeland handled the songwriting. The results were a fairly embryonic version of what they’d later achieve with Summers on guitar and Sting in the songwriter’s spotlight.

61. “Bombs Away”
From: Zenyatta Mondatta (1980)

Copeland’s fascination with global political intrigue (his father was a charter member in what became the CIA) may have given him a leg (and an arm) up when dishing out killer drum licks. But it didn’t translate into the Police’s best songwriting.

60. “Canary in a Coalmine”
From: Zenyatta Mondatta (1980)

Sometimes it felt like Sting would do anything for a rhyme at the peak of his powers. Matching “Firenze” with “influenza” is one of the Police’s most astonishing “did he sing that?” moments.

59. “Landlord”
From: “Message in a Bottle” single (1979)

It’s humbling, in the 21st century, to hear the current owner of an Italian villa spit out an angry tune about the predatory renter’s market since it hasn’t changed in the decades since this was written. But that doesn’t necessarily make it good.

58. “Be My Girl/Sally”
From: Outlandos d’Amour (1978)

Sting writes an archetypal rock riff (many were heard on Outlandos d’Amour) and then the whole thing comes crashing to a halt with Summers’ ridiculous poem about the titular heroine, who is … a sex doll.

57. “The Other Way of Stopping”
From: Zenyatta Mondatta (1980

The instrumentals that did make Police LPs at least have some cool moments within them. Here, credit goes to some great building guitar chimes from Summers, whose guitar tone was rarely uninteresting.

56. “Don’t Stand So Close to Me ‘86”
From: Every Breath You Take: The Singles (1986)

The Police’s effective epitaph was the synthetic and moody “Don’t Stand ‘86,” one of two re-recordings attempted for a greatest hits project. (The other, a turgid take on “De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da,” was released by accident nearly 20 years later.) Copeland could only program a drum machine due to a polo injury, but it at least feels like his handiwork – and Summers’ guitar theatrics lend a special new shade to an already well-loved song.

55. “O My God”
From: Synchronicity (1983)

Outtakes indicate Sting was sitting on these lyrics for a while; too bad they ended up on a ska tune that sounded like it was too weak for Ghost in the Machine.

54. “Miss Gradenko”
From: Synchronicity (1983)

Synchronicity’s sole songwriting concession to Copeland was this quirky cut about some sort of forbidden love among authoritarian rule, or something.

53. “Peanuts”
From: Outlandos d’Amour (1978)

Another half-hearted attempt at punk from the first album, “Peanuts” addresses one of the biggest concerns of punk rock: sniping at celebs in tabloids.

52. “Contact”
From: Reggatta de Blanc (1979)

Summers’ circular guitar riff and Sting’s low, foreboding verses don’t exactly jell with the strong-voiced but weak-willed chorus of this Reggatta de Blanc album cut.

51. “Masoko Tanga”
From: Outlandos d’Amour (1978)

One of the better Police instrumentals, thanks to Sting’s arresting dubby bass tone and some vocal hiccups that are only a little dampened by the nonsense patois he’s singing in.

50. “Walking in Your Footsteps”
From: Synchronicity (1983)

If the opening title track didn’t indicate how different Synchronicity was going to be from the preceding Police projects, this song made it clear. Sting compares growing fears over nuclear proliferation to the downfall of the dinosaurs while Copeland and Summers wind themselves tight into a minimal groove.

49. “Deathwish”
From: Reggatta de Blanc (1979)

Even if the between-verse riffs shamelessly ape what the Police did on “Can’t Stand Losing You,” this number is one of the hidden gems of the group’s breakout sophomore album.

48. “A Sermon”
From: “De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da” single (1980)

With three U.K. No. 1 singles under their belts (“Message in a Bottle,” “Walking on the Moon” and “Don’t Stand So Close to Me”), the Police used the flip side to “De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da” to wax rhapsodic on what it’s like to claw your way to the top of the pops — no matter what the cost.

47. “Ωmegaman”
From: Ghost in the Machine (1981)

A Summers-penned ripper inspired by the 1971 film of the same name (later remade slightly closer to its source material, Richard Matheson’s novel I Am Legend). While Ghost in the Machine brimmed with some of Sting’s poppiest writing, A&M Records wanted this to be its lead single!

46. “It’s Alright for You”
From: Reggatta de Blanc (1979)

Co-written by Copeland, “It’s Alright for You” feels very much in line with his underrated, pseudonymous side project Klark Kent (which broke into the Top 40 before the Police did) – only not quite as strong as what Kent issued.

45. “Rehumanize Yourself”
From: Ghost in the Machine (1981)

The middle of Ghost in the Machine finds the trio, slowly fracturing under the sun at AIR Studios on the island of Montserrat, saying “fuck it” and going full New Wave/ska as if they were trying to beat The (English) Beat. The cop-siren saxes of “Rehumanize Yourself” unsettle the listener ahead of rapid-fire condemnations of violence, committed by ordinary citizens and cops alike.

44. “Too Much Information”
From: Ghost in the Machine (1981)

More effective in the Ghost in the Machine reggae rave-up is this slow pogo of an album cut, where Sting and Copeland slam on the beat while a whole wall of saxes chugs along.

43. “No Time This Time”
From: “So Lonely” single (1978)/Reggatta de Blanc (1979)

As prolific as Sting was, the Police were short on material when starting, to the point they closed their second album with a previously released B-side. Copeland’s manic drumming and a harried chorus add some pep to the proceedings.

42. “Hole in My Life”
From: Outlandos d’Amour (1978)

The Police’s punk aspirations would be sloughed off well before the needle drops on “Hole in My Life,” a sad man’s lament that audaciously matches “vulnerable” with “incurable” in the bridge. Johnny Rotten would never.

41. “One World (Not Three)”
From: Ghost in the Machine (1981)

Already lending his talents to charitable causes like Amnesty International’s Secret Policeman’s Other Ball (one of his first appearances as a soloist), “One World” combined Sting’s class-conscious lyrics with a catchy, ska-inspired horn hook.

40. “Someone to Talk To”
From: “Wrapped Around Your Finger” single (1983)

Written and sung by Andy Summers to channel the pain of his recent divorce from his second wife Kate a year earlier. Vocally, he’s no Sting, but he channels the hurt ably – and things ended up working out: the pair remarried four years later and remain together to this day.

39. “Fall Out”
From: non-album single (1977)

An embryonic look into what Sting and company would be selling in stadiums in just a few short years. His urgent yowl and Copeland’s un-fussy backing (he’d play drums and guitar after original axeman Henry Padovani got cold feet) made the Police’s debut acquitting if not arresting. Mick Jagger agreed in a review for Sounds, deeming it “competently played rock, with nasal annihilated vocals.”

39. “Dead End Job”
From: “Can’t Stand Losing You” single (1978)

Sting could speak from experience about the economic crunches that British punks reacted to; while eking out work as a musician, he’d toiled as a bus conductor, a tax collector and a teacher. Summers’ ongoing narration – taken from a classified ads page – makes the affair a bit more blue-collar.

37. “Does Everyone Stare”
From: Reggatta de Blanc (1979)

Reggatta de Blanc’s penultimate track is a woozy groove propelled by Copeland’s pen (and piano) before Sting assumes the role of a hard-luck lover. It doesn’t go further than around in circles, but it’s hard to fault them when they sound this good.

36. “Friends”
From: “Don’t Stand So Close to Me” single (1980)

Sinister and silly combine on this Zenyatta Mondatta-era B-side, inspired by the sci-fi classic Stranger in a Strange Land and cheekily described by writer-singer Summers as “a touch of Long John Silver on acid.” Sting puts that immediately recognizable voice to good use on the chorus with a cascade of vocal parts.

35. “Darkness”
From: Ghost in the Machine (1981)

If you’d survived the sonic changes of Ghost in the Machine — ringing keyboards and clattering saxophones among them — you’d hear them put to good use on the album’s final track, a Copeland-penned poem that wearily if accurately posits that “life was easy when it was boring.”

34. “Synchronicity I”
From: Synchronicity (1983)

The sequencer-heavy opener to the final Police album — and one of its two title tracks — explicitly laid down the Jungian theory of psychology that Sting claimed fueled most of the project. (We think the fuel was the trio’s solid interplay, despite not getting along personally.)

33. “Behind My Camel”
From: Zenyatta Mondatta (1980)

One of the more accomplished Police instrumentals, thanks to Summers’ Eastern-influenced guitar work. Sting hated the track so much that he refused to play on it and buried the final tape in the ground outside the studio. But he had no issue picking up a Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance alongside his bandmates!

32. “Low Life”
From: “Spirits in the Material World” single (1981)

Neither Summers nor Copeland could agree on this catchy B-side about the same sort of red-light districts that would inspire breakthrough “Roxanne.” The drummer maintains he “always liked the song,” while the guitarist says they both hate it. One thing’s for sure, though: that sax solo is intense.

31. “Once Upon a Daydream”
From: “Synchronicity II” single (1983)

Sting’s hypnotic delivery of this B-side about a forbidden love that ends in tragedy is one of the most affecting non-album tracks of the Police’s career. Summers’ arresting, almost backward-sounding chordal groove puts this track on another level.

30. “Shadows in the Rain”
From: Zenyatta Mondatta (1980)

That behind-the-beat vocal and the minimal, bombed-out take on an unfussy jazz/blues groove add up to one of the Police’s most interesting deep cuts. Sting thought highly enough of it to re-record it when he eventually went solo.

29. “The Bed’s Too Big Without You”
From: Reggatta de Blanc (1979)

Most of the Police’s more reggae-influenced songs had some sort of pop or alternative twist. “The Bed’s Too Big Without You” goes full island mode, right down to the drum-and-bass breakdown in the middle – a powerhouse for Copeland’s off-kilter backbeat.

28. “Man in a Suitcase”
From: Zenyatta Mondatta (1980)

The Police famously embarked on a world tour hours after wrapping sessions for Zenyatta Mondatta, and this jumpy confessional about life on the road summed up their feelings. “It was cutting it very fine,” Copeland would later muse.

27. “On Any Other Day”
From: Reggatta de Blanc (1979)

Arguably Copeland’s best song for the band, his droll delivery from the POV of an Everyman whose life is falling apart lulls you into a false sense of security before the excellent ironic twist at the end of the tune: the madness is unfolding on the singer’s birthday.

26. “Voices Inside My Head”
From: Zenyatta Mondatta (1980)

As rushed as the Police felt Zenyatta Mondatta was, parts of it were a master class in minimalism. Case in point: this focused single-chord dub with only two lyrics in the back half of the song.

25. “Truth Hits Everybody”
From: Outlandos d’Amour (1978)

Even if the Police’s fortunes as punks were doomed to failure, “Truth Hits Everybody” proved the viability of combining two intensely trained rockers with a singer who delivered dark musings on the nature of man that was as thrilling to listen to as they were astoundingly complex to read.

24. “Visions of the Night”
From: “Walking on the Moon” single (1979)

One of the group’s earliest songs was first laid down in a one-off project called Strontium 90 with bassist Mike Howlett – the first time Sting and Copeland joined forces with Summers in the studio. Easily one of the group’s best obscurities.

23. “So Lonely”
From: Outlandos d’Amour (1978)

The Police’s most unapologetically reggae-influenced single – Sting has since admitted he borrowed all the chords from Bob Marley’s “No Woman, No Cry” – still feels like they’re working their tone out as a band. But once the song crests over that hill into the pogoing chorus, you can’t help but wonder how and why no one’s knocked upon their doors for a thousand years or more.

22. “Spirits in the Material World”
From: Ghost in the Machine (1981)

The polished head-fake of Ghost in the Machine began from the first song. It sounded like your typical Police single (down to the off-kilter rhythm), but Summers’ guitar shared space with a synthesizer pushed up into the mix. Audiences were unfazed; the single reached the Top 20 worldwide.

21. “Next to You”
From: Outlandos d’Amour (1978)

The first song of the Police’s first album was a textbook example of the push-pull between band members. Sting repudiated Summers and Copeland when they suggested he rewrite the chorus as “all I want is to take a gun to you,” relegating them to permanent punk pretenders but promising something more in the process.

20. “Secret Journey”
From: Ghost in the Machine (1981)

A dark horse favorite of each member of the band, this Ghost in the Machine deep cut was released as a single in America. It just missed the Top 40, which means a stunning amount of folks were hearing that much guitar-synth wash over the airwaves in 1982.

19. “Reggatta de Blanc”
From: Reggatta de Blanc (1979)

A combination of too little material and too many chops resulted in this sublime instrumental, built from a live jam during the bridge of “Can’t Stand Losing You.” “Reggatta de Blanc” underlined the Police’s prowess as players, earning them their first of two back-to-back Grammy Awards in the nascent Best Rock Instrumental Performance category.

18. “Tea in the Sahara”
From: Synchronicity (1983)

Another literary adaptation (this time inspired by Paul Bowles’ existential novel The Sheltering Sky), the downbeat closer to Synchronicity spins a fable about broken promises – a fitting end to the fractious band’s final album.

17. “When the World Is Running Down, You Make the Best of What’s Still Around”
From: Zenyatta Mondatta (1980)

The frenetic minimalism of Zenyatta Mondatta is a blessing or a curse, depending on your viewpoint. On this delirious dance drone cut about a man going insane in a post-apocalyptic world, the pluses outweighed the minuses, thanks in no small part to that ass-shaking bassline.

16. “Driven to Tears”
From: Zenyatta Mondatta (1980)

Touring on continents most rock bands didn’t travel to help the Police go global – but it also helped alert Sting to the harsh truths of inequality in non-white nations. Five years before Live Aid, “Driven to Tears” accurately depicted the discomfort of privilege in the face of struggle; it also served as Sting’s first step toward becoming one of rock’s most visible humanitarians.

15. “Invisible Sun”
From: Ghost in the Machine (1981)

Arguably the most unusual of the Police’s mainstream singles, this haunting, synth-driven ode to the horrors of war ended up being banned by the BBC but still reached No. 2 on the U.K. charts. Sting wrote it about “The Troubles,” while Copeland empathized with it as bombs were going off around the same time in Beirut, where he’d grown up.

14. “Wrapped Around Your Finger”
From: Synchronicity (1983)

By the time “Wrapped Around Your Finger” was released, the Police already enjoyed a massive chart-topper in America. But reaching No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 with this single may have been an even greater coup for the band, now so powerful that Sting could stuff Greek myths and references to Faust in his acid-tongued songs and let the sales roll in.

13. “Walking on the Moon”
From: Reggatta de Blanc (1979)

Sting came up with this spacious bassline while drunk in a hotel room, strapping on his instrument and contentedly singing “walking ‘round the room” to himself. Summers’ ringing chords and the soaring vocal further established the group’s prowess after “Message in a Bottle” topped the British charts.

12. “I Burn for You”
From: Brimstone & Treacle Soundtrack (1982)

A brilliant love song buried on an unremarkable soundtrack album, “I Burn for You” is easily the Police’s best non-album track – full of the kind of fiery passion everyone thinks is a part of “Every Breath You Take.”

11. “Bring on the Night”
From: Reggatta de Blanc (1979)

Summers’ learned pre-Police resume – including stints with Zoot Money’s Big Roll Band, the Animals, Soft Machine and a half-dozen others – became an asset to the Police on tracks like “Bring on the Night.” Its arpeggiated guitar riff (think Jimmy Page meets Heitor Villa-Lobos) is one of the band’s catchiest.

10. “Can’t Stand Losing You”
From: Outlandos d’Amour (1978)

It’s almost funny to think of the lengths the Police briefly went to convince audiences of their punk pedigrees. (When Outlandos d’Amour came out, the band had recently played a punk outfit in a never-aired chewing gum commercial that fatefully required the trio to bleach their hair blonde.) Sting and Copeland were a few years from 30 – and Summers was nearly 40 – when “Can’t Stand Losing You,” a woe-is-me rocker about lost love, came calling. And maybe it’s just musical beer goggles, but when they played it, you believed it … whatever “it” was.

9. “Synchronicity II”
From: Synchronicity (1983)

Looking at it one way, the story of Synchronicity is that of a guitarist and drummer elbowing for space as their increasingly moody frontman, writhing in the throes of divorce, flexes his songwriting muscles like a golden Mr. Universe of rock. Obsessed with the Jungian concept of seemingly unrelated circumstances taking on a meaningful parallel, Sting penned two tracks about the subject; “Synchronicity II” was a rocker so undeniable that it didn’t matter what was coming out of the bottom of the Scottish lake.

8. “Don’t Stand So Close to Me”
From: Zenyatta Mondatta (1980)

Let’s get it out of the way: Despite holding a teaching job before becoming a rock icon, Sting insists the illicit relationship of “Don’t Stand So Close to Me” has no basis in fact. “To be frank, it was right in our market. A lot of teenage girls were buying our records,” he told the Independent in 1993. “So the idea was, let’s write a Lolita story.” Anchored by a deep sense of foreboding and sharp pop sensibilities – plus Summers’ wild Echoplex guitar effects in the bridge that sound like an oncoming train – “Don’t Stand So Close to Me” finally solidified the Police in America, giving them their first Top 10 hit.

7. “Demolition Man”
From: Ghost in the Machine (1981)

However much vitriol flowed through the band’s veins when putting together their penultimate album, the Police had an uncanny knack for taking all those high emotions and making brilliant shapes from that heated clay. This six-minute bullet train of a song – first recorded by Grace Jones, of all people – is one of the Police’s most breathless workouts, with Copeland’s drum kit (the one he famously wrote “Fuck Off You Cunt” to Sting on his four rack toms) racing a bleating horn section to the finish line.

6. “De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da”
From: Zenyatta Mondatta (1980)

“In that song,” Sting confessed to NME in 1981, “I was trying to say something which was really quite difficult – that people like politicians, like myself even, use words to manipulate people, and that you should be very careful.” It remains to be seen if people were considering the deep meaning as they boogied to the rhythm and sang along to the intentionally facile chorus, but “De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da” is the Police at their most archetypal, and a prime example of their ability to grab audiences with the simplest concepts.

5. “King of Pain”
From: Synchronicity (1983)

Like some sort of hellish version of Roxy Music’s “More Than This,” “King of Pain” found Sting at perhaps his most melodramatic following his split from first wife Frances Tomelty. Gazing on a Jamaican beach with a new partner (and eventually second wife) Trudie Styler, he remarked about a little black spot in his sights: “That’s my soul up there.” (This is the tantric sex guy?) Thank God the other guys humored him: that singsong piano hook, the melodic bass and a simple, effective solo by Summers make what could have been a pity party into a sterling pop/rock offering that not even “Weird Al” Yankovic could improve upon.

4. “Every Little Thing She Does is Magic”
From: Ghost in the Machine (1981)

In a catalog littered with sad bastard songs, “Every Little Thing She Does is Magic” stands out as one of the Police’s most brilliant rays of sunshine. It’s also an example of their delicate, symbiotic tension: Sting cut a demo of the long-gestating tune with a cascade of keyboards by session player Jean Roussel. Unimpressed, Summers and Copeland tried valiantly to break the track out of its shell but ended up recording distinctive polyrhythmic drums and scratchy guitar under the demo in just one take. The result: a heart-pounding love song for the ages, and one that topped the U.K. charts and hit No. 3 in America.

3. “Every Breath You Take”
From: Synchronicity (1983)

In the time it took you to get this far into the list, this song has probably earned Sting a significant chunk of royalties. One of the most played singles of all time, “Every Breath You Take” stayed on top of the Billboard Hot 100 for eight weeks and won a Grammy Award for Song of the Year in 1984 – the year Michael Jackson won nearly every other major trophy. The deceptive lyrics that people think sound romantic, the plain-spoken guitar riff from Summers (rescued under a planned layer of Hammond B3 organ); hell, Puff Daddy sample … nothing takes away from the Police’s final act of world domination, and no attempt to match it since, from U2 to Coldplay, has come close.

2. “Roxanne”
From: Outlandos d’Amour (1978)

Adding reggae to straight-ahead rock ‘n’ roll – especially from two Brits and an American – is, in theory, a foolhardy gesture. So is adding elements of tango, writing a florid and fiery number fantasizing about a prostitute you couldn’t afford, and even mistakenly plopping on a piano as the tape for your vocal take is rolling. “Roxanne” did all of these things, and by God, it worked. (It’s famously the song that got Copeland’s brother Miles to take the band seriously, serving as their manager – and later, Sting’s.) Summers’ razor-sharp guitar chomps, Copeland’s whip-crack drumming, that tidal wave of a vocal: they were the first real heralds of a new kind of band about to take over the world in just a few tears of the calendar.

1. “Message in a Bottle”
From: Reggatta de Blanc (1979)

“Every Breath You Take” might have been the apex of the Police’s mountain voyage, and “Roxanne” the first piton dug into the side of the rock face. But “Message in a Bottle” was the boot landing confidently on those jagged stones as they made their way up to the summit. A foolishly simple guitar riff devised by Sting but played to perfection by Summers and a cacophony of percussive brilliance by Copeland makes the track impossibly rewarding. (“To watch some band in a Holiday Inn struggling to play all those overdubs still gives me great joy,” Copeland later quipped.) But it’s also Sting’s most plainspoken and razor-sharp lyric, depicting a castaway desperate for someone to hear his testimonial, only to discover untold messages washing up on his idyllic shores. There’s only so much time to suspend yourself in mid-air and marvel at the dramatic irony and universality of desired connection before the Police come roaring back through the speakers to remind you of their effortless musical gifts. “I hope that someone gets my …”? Mission accomplished.

Sting’s Spouse is One of Rock’s Hottest Wives

When we previously ranked every Rush song, we overlooked the heaviest moment in the band’s catalog: a slowed-down fan edit of “Working Man.” With its creeping tempo, colossal distortion and creepily detuned vocals, it sounds like a proto-stoner metal jam — a path left untaken for the revered prog trio.

Of course, Rush fans craving heaviness need not resort to studio trickery: The Canadian trio delivered the goods on every album. That fact makes this list more challenging to assemble than, say, our previous entries on Yes or Genesis. You could assemble 40 track candidates with minimal effort, but what do you cut?

Fittingly, our final tally spans the group’s entire lifespan, from the raw Led Zeppelin-y riffs of 1974’s Rush to the often-metallic attack of their 2012 swan song Clockwork Angels.

10. “Far Cry”

Even Neil Peart‘s lyrics are heavy on this Snakes & Arrows standout, with Geddy Lee yelping apocalyptic imagery of “Pariah dogs and wandering madmen / Barking at strangers and speaking in tongues.” But the riffs alone are enough to seal the deal on their own: Alex Lifeson piles on bone-crunching distortion and wah-washed leads — a bit ’90s, a bit ’70s, but also very modern.

9. “Bastille Day” 

“I don’t think it really stands up,” Peart told Classic Rock in 2004, noting a perceived failure of the band’s third LP, Caress of Steel. “It is all over the shop, and it is experimental, and its only real virtue is its sincerity, but at least that’s something.” There’s some truth in that assessment, but “Bastille Day” should have been excluded — it’s the most forceful moment on an album defined by charmingly naive long-form prog. Documenting the storming of the Bastille, part of the French Revolution, Lee roars about “bloodstained velvet” and “choirs of cacophony” over distorted power chords that drop like guillotines.

8. “Driven”

Is there such a thing as too much Geddy Lee? Of course not, as proved by this aggressive Test for Echo single. “I wrote that song with three tracks of bass,” Lee told Canadian Musician in 1996. “I brought it to Alex and said, ‘Here’s the song. I did three tracks of bass but I just did it to fill in for the guitar,’ and he said, ‘Let’s keep it with the three basses.’ So I said, ‘I love you.'” The chorus is admittedly a bit sweet and strummy for this list’s purposes, but the verses are next-level heavy — those harmonized bass lines could easily be mistaken for Tool.

7. “One Little Victory”

“We went back and forth on the running order [of 2002’s Vapor Trails] quite a few times, and the one thing that we never questioned was the opening of the album with ‘One Little Victory,'” Lee told CNN. “It always seemed natural to me to start [it] off with the most positive spirit on the album. And, especially, starting off with the drums, which featured [Peart] playing in such a furious way.” The drummer’s crushing kicks and snares power this tribute to “celebrat[ing] the moment,” and his bandmates match that mood with verses of slippery blues-rock riffs. Around 3:59, Lifeson even throws in a noisy solo full of bent-note leads.

6. “Cygnus X-1 Book One – The Voyage” 

It isn’t easy to head-bang in weird time signatures, but it’s impossible not to try during “Cygnus X-1 Book One – The Voyage,” the 10-minute closer to A Farewell to Kings. The sci-fi concept is intriguing, but everything here revolves around the stripped-down interplay among the holy trinity — the riffs arrive in rapid-fire succession, often just teasing ideas that could have spawned entire songs. The heaviest, though, could be the early hard-blues section that alternates between 6, 7 and 8.

5. “Carnies”

This Clockwork Angels deep cut opens with one of Lifeson’s gnarliest moments: a hard-psych guitar pattern that echoes the intensity of Soundgarden‘s “My Wave.” (The guitarist had other reference points in mind: “I love the opening riff with the cool harmonics,” he told Music Radar. ‘It’s got a little bit of Hendrix or Robin Trower.”) Lee steers toward cleaner waters on the chorus, but Rush continually returns to crunch.

4. “What You’re Doing”

For those first two top-string notes, you might think you’ve played Led Zeppelin’s “Heartbreaker” by mistake. Not exactly, but this early-days banger brings the kind of gusto you need to ape so shamelessly. No one should consider this an elite Rush song, but it’s certainly one of their heaviest — for more proof, consult the descending, chromatic riff at 1:07.

3. “Anthem”

“Alex and I had written this riff … back in the day when [drummer John] Rutsey was in the band, and Rutsey wasn’t into playing it,” Lee told Rolling Stone in 2013, reflecting on the initial 7/8 sprint of “Anthem.” He added: “Among the other things, we jammed with Neil the first day we met him on this opening riff. When he started playing, we looked at each other and were like, “Yeah, this is the guy. He can play. He’ll do.” Indeed. This song, like its parent album, showcased the band’s evolution from hard rock into hard prog — but even metal fans can appreciate Lee’s wordless, ascending shrieks and Lifeson’s spasms of shredding.

2. “Stick It Out”

Rush really leaned into the whole grunge thing with “Stick It Out,” so it’s fitting that their equally dark music video got roasted on Beavis and Butt-Head. “This guitar sounds kinda cool,” Beavis says. “Yeah,” adds Butt-Head, “if you happen to be a wuss.”) Peart, who noted to Modern Drummer that the song “verges on parody for [Rush],” sought to bring a “touch of elegance” through Latin and jazz-fusion accents. But the riffs are all brooding ’90s riff-rock: lots of feedback, gobs of dissonance, plenty of attitude.

1. “Working Man”

Lee was roughly 20 years old when Rush recorded “Working Man” — barely a grown man himself — so it’s kinda hilarious to picture him writing this tribute to working-class life, with its 9-5 schedule and evenings of “ice-cold beer.” Nonetheless, he delivered the song with a perfect swagger, and his instrumental communion with Lifeson had already crystallized at this early stage. As if the bruising main riff wasn’t enough, their bouncing, two-note chorus phrases elevate the song to classic status.

Odd Couples: Rush and Aimee Mann

Queens of the Stone Age will release a new album, In Times New Roman … , on June 16.

As described in a press release, In Times New Roman … is “raw, at times brutal and not recommended for the faint of heart.” It marks the band’s first LP in close to six years, with their most recent release, Villains. The album was self-produced by Queens of the Stone Age.

In Times New Roman … will be available across all digital platforms and in vinyl and CD formats. It can be preordered now. Ahead of the release, the album’s first single, “Emotion Sickness,” can be heard below. The LP’s track listing is also available below.

“There’s always stuff being kind of tossed around at all times with Queens,” guitarist Troy Van Leeuwen hinted back in 2022 [via Metal Injection]. “There are songs on the last record that [are] five or six years old, so there are songs that are still kicking around with that aesthetic that have been around for 10 years. Sometimes they take their own time to finish. You can’t force them.”

Queens of the Stone Age will appear at a few upcoming music festivals, including Sonic Temple on May 26 and Boston Calling on May 28.

Queens of the Stone Age, ‘In Times New Roman … ‘ Track Listing
1. “Obscenery”
2. “Paper Machete”
3. “Negative Space”
4. “Time & Place”
5. “Made to Parade”
6. “Carnavoyeur”
7. “What the Peephole Say”
8. “Sicily”
9. “Emotion Sickness”
10. “Straight Jacket Fitting”

22 Rock Albums We Might (or Might Not) Get in 2023

The Cure launched their North American tour with a performance in New Orleans on Wednesday night.

Robert Smith and the band delivered a 29-song set that included four songs from their long-anticipated upcoming album: “Alone,” “And Nothing Is Forever,” “A Fragile Thing” and “I Can Never Say Goodbye.” They also played deep cuts “A Thousand Hours” and “Six Different Ways,” both making their first live appearances since 1987.

The group previously debuted some unheard tracks during a European tour last year. “The new Cure stuff is very emotional,” Smith noted to The Sunday Times. “It’s 10 years of life distilled into a couple of hours of intense stuff. I can’t think we’ll ever do anything else.”

The band’s last performance on U.S. soil took place in 2019 at the Austin City Limits festival. You have to go back even further to 2016 to find the last time they embarked on a full North American tour.

Watch the Cure Perform ‘Alone’ at 2023 U.S. Tour Opener

Watch the Cure Perform ‘A Night Like This’ at 2023 U.S. Tour Opener

The Cure’s 2023 tour arrived with high anticipation but also controversy. The band made every effort to make tickets affordable and accessible to fans, utilizing Ticketmaster’s verified fan sale program to skirt scalpers and third-party ticket brokers. In a statement made during the tour’s announcement, the Cure noted that “apart from a few Hollywood Bowl charity seats, there will be no ‘platinum’ or ‘dynamically priced’ tickets on this tour.”

Watch the Cure Perform ‘And Nothing Is Forever,’ ‘The Last Day of Summer’ and ‘A Fragile Thing’ at 2023 U.S. Tour Opener 

Watch the Cure Perform ‘A Thousand Hours’ and ‘At Night’ at 2023 U.S. Tour Opener 

Despite these good intentions, the band’s fans were furious when Ticketmaster added a series of fees to the tickets, in some cases raising the total cost to double their face value. Smith soon announced he was “sickened” by the “unduly high” fees and convinced Ticketmaster to refund fans part of the cost.

The Cure, Smoothie King Center, New Orleans, 5/11/23
1. “Alone”
2. “Pictures of You”
3. “A Night Like This”
4. “Lovesong”
5. “And Nothing is Forever”
6. “The Last Day of Summer”
7. “A Fragile Thing”
8. “Cold”
9. “Burn”
10. “Fascination Street”
11. “Push”
12. “Play for Today”
13. “Shake Dog Shake”
14. “From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea”
15. “Endsong”

Encore:
16. “I Can Never Say Goodbye”
17. “Want”
18. “A Thousand Hours (first performance since 1987)
19. “At Night”
20. “A Forest”

Encore 2:
21. “Lullaby”
22. “Six Different Ways (first performance since 1987)
23. “The Walk”
24. “Friday I’m in Love”
25. “Doing the Unstuck”
26. “Close to Me”
27. “In Between Days”
28. “Just Like Heaven”
29. “Boys Don’t Cry”

The Cure Albums Ranked

Gloomy, gothy, punky, poppy – this multidimensional band’s albums are among the best of the era.

More From Ultimate Classic Rock

Pretenders have released “Let the Sun Come In,” the lead single from the upcoming album Relentless, which will arrive on Sept. 1.

The band’s 14th LP marks the second time Chrissie Hynde has co-written with guitarist James Walbourne, and it features a guest appearance from Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood as an orchestral composer.

The single and the track listing are available below. “I enjoy seeing the various meanings and origins of a word,” Hynde said of Relentless‘ title. “And I liked the definition: ‘Showing no abatement of intensity.’ It’s the life of the artist. You never retire. You become relentless.”

On the subject of writing, she noted, “We had developed this method of working remotely, and it seemed like we just kept on doing it for this album. This is something that we’ve honed down to an art in the last few years. [Walbourne] always comes up with something I wouldn’t have thought of myself, and I love surprises.”

Pretenders start a run of U.K. and Europe shows Friday that include a series of intimate performances in venues hand-picked by Hynde, followed by guest spots on Guns N’ Roses and Foo Fighters tours interspersed with more headline shows.

Pretenders, ‘Relentless’ Track Listing
1. ”Losing My Sense of Taste”
2. ”A Love”
3. ”Domestic Silence”
4. ”The Copa”
5. ”Promise Of Love”
6. ”Merry Widow”
7. ”Let the Sun Come In”
8. ”Look Away”
9. ”Your House is On Fire”
10. “Just Let It Go”
11. “Vainglorious”
12. “I Think About You Daily” (with orchestral arrangement by Jonny Greenwood)