 | This article needs additional citations for verification .(March 2018) |
| XYZ | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 1987 | |||
| Recorded | Summer 1986 | |||
| Studio | Devo Studios, Los Angeles | |||
| Genre | Pop, new wave | |||
| Length | 42:22 | |||
| Label | MCA | |||
| Producer | David Hentschel, Andy Summers | |||
| Andy Summers chronology | ||||
| ||||
XYZ is the first solo album by Andy Summers. Released in 1987, it is to date his only album to feature him on lead vocals, though he performs a wordless vocal on his 1991 album World Gone Strange .
During his tenure with The Police, Summers had worked on a number of outside projects, including two albums of instrumental music with fellow guitarist Robert Fripp and music for films such Down and Out in Beverly Hills and 2010: The Year We Make Contact . Following the official break-up of The Police in 1986, Summers, like his bandmates Sting and Stewart Copeland, embarked on a more ambitious solo career. Summers partnered with producer and musician David Hentschel, known for his work with Genesis. Summers was the first Police member to leave A&M Records, choosing instead to work with MCA. The album was recorded in 1986 at Devo's studio in Los Angeles, California. Many of the songs had been demoed in the Police years and put forward for consideration for Sting to sing on a Police album. Summers took lead vocals himself, and played bass as well as his usual array of guitars. Drum programming was favoured over the use of real drums, a production choice popular in the mid-1980s. The title "XYZ" comes from the middle names of Summers's three children. His daughter Layla (born 1978) has the middle name 'Z', and his twin sons, Maurice and Anton, (born 1987) have the middle names 'X' and 'Y' respectively. The cover portrait is by Anton Corbijn.
"Love is the Strangest Way" was released as a single. The promotional video was inspired by the work of Maya Deren and shot as a short black and white film, with Summers and his love interest desperately trying to meet in a room full of people. Summers commented: "I didn't like any of [The Police] videos. We were always made to look bright, inoffensive and appealing. As videos progressed, they started to move away from that: they got hipper, people started using Super 8 and handheld techniques, and everything got darker and more interesting." [1]
Another track, "Carry Me Back Home" (5:04), was recorded during the XYZ sessions for the soundtrack of the film Band of the Hand and released on the B-side of the 12-inch version of the "Love is the Strangest Way" single. Charlotte Caffey, from the new-wave band the Go-Gos, did not play in the album but she co-authored the title track with Summers and Hentschel and is acknowledged for her support in the credits.
Summers put together a six-piece band and toured extensively to promote the album, augmenting the set list with Police material such as "Tea in the Sahara" and "Omega Man", the latter of which had never been played live by The Police. Both the single and the album failed to chart, prompting Summers to return to the kind of instrumental music he had explored on the two albums he had recorded with Robert Fripp for most of his future career.
All tracks are written by Andy Summers except where noted
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Love is the Strangest Way" | 4:20 | |
| 2. | "How Many Days" | lyrics: Summers; music: Summers, David Hentschel | 5:21 |
| 3. | "Almost There" | 4:30 | |
| 4. | "Eyes of a Stranger" | 4:47 | |
| 5. | "The Change" | 2:53 | |
| 6. | "Scary Voices" | 4:37 | |
| 7. | "Nowhere" | lyrics: Summers; music: Summers, Hentschel | 4:35 |
| 8. | "XYZ" | lyrics: Summers; music: Summers, Hentschel, Charlotte Caffey | 2:46 |
| 9. | "The Only Road" | 3:40 | |
| 10. | "Hold Me" | lyrics: Summers; music: Summers, Hentschel | 4:48 |
Technical
The Police were an English rock band formed in London in 1977. Within a few months of their first gig, the line-up settled as Sting, Andy Summers (guitar) and Stewart Copeland, and remained unchanged for the rest of the band's history. The Police became globally popular in the late 1970s and early to mid 1980s. Emerging in the British new wave scene, they played a style of rock influenced by punk, reggae, and jazz.
Zenyatta Mondatta is the third studio album by British rock band the Police, released on 3 October 1980 by A&M Records. It was co-produced by the band and Nigel Gray.
Every Breath You Take: The Singles is the first compilation album by the Police, released in 1986. In 1990, the album was repackaged in New Zealand, Australia and Spain as Their Greatest Hits with a different cover.
Andrew James Summers is an English guitarist who was a founding member of the rock band the Police. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a band member in 2003. Summers has recorded solo albums, collaborated with other musicians, composed film scores, written fiction, and exhibited his photography in galleries.
Fine Young Cannibals is the debut studio album released in 1985 by the band of the same name. The album features the UK #8 debut hit single "Johnny Come Home".
The Hole is the eighteenth studio album by the Dutch hard rock band Golden Earring, released in 1986. The band gave a free promotion concert in support of the album on the beach of Scheveningen for an audience of 185,000. Anton Corbijn made a video clip for the single "Quiet Eyes". It was made in the same black and white style as the photographs he made for the inner sleeve of the album.
"Don't Stand So Close to Me" is a hit song by the British rock band the Police, released in September 1980 as the lead single from their third studio album Zenyatta Mondatta. It concerns a teacher who has a sexual relationship with a student, which in turn is discovered.
David Hentschel is an English recording engineer, film score composer and music producer who engineered on George Harrison's All Things Must Pass and Elton John's Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, as well as for such artists as Genesis, Tony Banks, Ringo Starr, Queen, Nazareth, Marti Webb, Andy Summers, Mike Oldfield, Renaissance, Peter Hammill and Ronnie Caryl.
Devotional – A Performance Filmed by Anton Corbijn is a video release by Depeche Mode, featuring almost an entire concert from their 1993 Devotional Tour, filmed in Barcelona, Spain, Liévin, France and Frankfurt, Germany (Festhalle). It was directed by Anton Corbijn, and released in 1993. It was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Long Form Music Video in 1995. The soundtrack was recorded in Liévin, Stade Couvert Régional, on 29 July 1993.
"Next to You" is a song written by Sting and recorded by The Police as the opening track on their debut album Outlandos d'Amour in 1978.
Strangers is the third studio album by British singer-songwriter Ed Harcourt.
The Devotional Tour was a 1993 concert tour by English electronic band Depeche Mode in support of the group's eighth studio album, Songs of Faith and Devotion, which was released in March 1993.
The Best of Depeche Mode Volume 1 is a greatest hits album by English electronic music band Depeche Mode, released on 8 November 2006 by Mute Records. The album consists of select Depeche Mode singles from their then-25-year career, as well as the previously unreleased track "Martyr"—recorded during the Playing the Angel sessions—which was released as a single in late October 2006.
Strontium 90: Police Academy is the only album by Strontium 90, released by Mike Howlett in 1997. This album consists of live tracks recorded at Gong's reunion concert in Paris on 28 May 1977, five studio tracks recorded in London just before the concert, and Sting's solo demo of "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic".
Greatest Hits is the second greatest hits album by the Police, released in September 1992 by A&M Records. It is the band's second compilation album following Every Breath You Take: The Singles. In contrast with its predecessor, it features all 14 original UK top 20 chart singles and five UK number-ones released by the band from 1978 to 1984, including the two missing singles from the previous 1986 compilation, "Synchronicity II" and the original version of "Don't Stand So Close to Me" which had been replaced with the 1986 re-recording. The album also includes two bonus album tracks, "The Bed's Too Big Without You" and "Tea in the Sahara". The cover photograph was by Duane Michals and it was taken at the time of the Synchronicity album. The inner sleeve featured a collage of pictures of the band shot by different photographers during their career, including Miles Copeland, Peter Baylis, Adrian Boot, Akihiro Takayama, Anton Corbijn, Danny Quatrochi, Gabor Scott, Janette Beckman, Kim Turner, Michael Ross, Watal Asanuma and Andy Summers.
"We'll Be Together" is a song written and recorded by English singer-songwriter Sting. It was released in 1987 as the lead single from his second solo studio album, ...Nothing Like the Sun.
I Advance Masked is a 1982 album by English guitarists Andy Summers and Robert Fripp. It is the pair's first of two album collaborations and it consists of 13 instrumental tracks.
Certifiable: Live in Buenos Aires is a live album and concert video by the Police. It was recorded in December 2007 during the band's reunion tour and was released in November 2008. The album was released in the US exclusively through Best Buy. The album has a number of releases including a four disc version containing two CDs and two DVDs. The two CDs contain the live album from River Plate Stadium in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The first DVD contains the 109-minute wide-screen concert presented in Dolby Surround and Stereo. The concert film was directed and produced by Jim Gable and Ann Kim, of Graying & Balding, Inc. The second DVD contains the 50-minute bonus feature, "Better Than Therapy," directed by Stewart Copeland's son Jordan Copeland, detailing The Police's reunion with behind-the-scenes interviews from the band and road crew, plus two photo galleries of The Police on tour: one shot by guitarist and photographer Andy Summers, and one by photographer Danny Clinch. The DVDs were also released on Blu-ray format. A triple vinyl format was also released that contained a digital download of the concert.
"Loose" is a song by Northern Irish rock band Therapy? and a single released on 17 July 1995 through A&M Records. The song is included on the band's fifth album, Infernal Love (1995). The single reached number 25 on the UK Singles Chart and number 23 on the Irish Singles Chart. The single was released on CD, CD digipak, green 7-inch vinyl, and cassette. A music video was made in two versions, for "Loose" and for "Loose ".
"Cover Me" is a song by Depeche Mode, released on October 6, 2017, via Columbia label. It is the third single from their fourteenth studio album, Spirit. The released single consists of several remixes of songs "Cover Me" and "So Much Love". It is the fourth single in the band's catalog that is co-written by lead singer Dave Gahan. It is the last single to feature Andy Fletcher before his death in 2022.
