Andy Summers
XYZ

Years ago in Berlin, while browsing in a used vinyl store, I came across this LP. Considering the ridiculous price and the fact that it was still sealed, I bought it.

The album was released immediately after the disbandment of the main group. Years earlier, I had purchased an album solely by Summers, but it was a completely instrumental collaboration with Robert Fripp.

Here, however, it is a pop album, entirely sung by Summers. Sung, so to speak, as his vocal qualities are really limited, to the point of being accompanied by a backup singer in every track.

The modest vocal performance along with the heavy use of the drum machine represent the album's weak points. Two tracks in particular, "Love ist The Strangest Way" (the video is on YouTube) and "Eyes of The Stranger," if supported by Sting's voice and Stewart Copeland's drums, could easily have found a place in a Police record.

This would be his only venture into pop, abandoned in favor of purely instrumental albums. As for technical expertise, there's nothing to say; his guitar work is excellent as always, unfortunately in the service of melodies that are not always exceptional.