Former
Police guitarist
Andy Summers is no stranger to collaborations, and has paired himself with a bevy of intriguing artists (
Robert Fripp,
Bill Evans,
Fernanda Takai) over the course of his 12 studio albums. Jazz, fusion, avant-garde, and tropicalia have all been explored by this prolific guitar hero, but the one thing he hasn't done since
the Police's 1986 breakup is form a legitimate rock band. Working with
Rob Giles of L.A. super-songwriter combo
the Rescues in what turned out to be a full-on band project,
Summers revisits the punchy pop/rock style that made
the Police one of the biggest and most influential acts of the 1980s. Perhaps inspired by
the Police's 2007 reunion tour, he recruited
Giles after hearing him at a 2013
Rescues gig and the two began writing songs together in
Summers' Venice, California studio. The result is a punchy, tight, and melodic rock album with strong vocals from
Giles (who also handled the bass and drums) containing some of
Summers' most memorable and straightforwardly hooky guitar playing in years. That
Circa Zero slightly resemble
the Police at times is no surprise. In interviews they haven't shied away from that influence and even
Giles' vocal style and timbre echo that of
Sting's on a few of the album's 13 songs. But it's nice to hear this kind of articulate and progressive power pop being played in a musical landscape otherwise littered with large chamber folk ensembles and over-processed electro-pop acts. Songs like "Levitation" and "The Story Ends Here" are finely crafted pop tunes with big soaring choruses and nice lean arrangements. "Gamma Ray" and "Summer Lies" lean a little too hard on mid-'80s power trio pseudo-balladry, and some of the album's later cuts like "No Highway" and "Light the Fuse & Run," for all their rock muscle, sound a bit like well-meant but slightly uninspired prog pop. Still, taken as a whole,
Circa Zero do the trick of pairing
Andy Summers with an able singer/songwriter partner in a rock trio setting he hasn't visited in quite a while. The results are encouraging and ultimately listenable. ~ Timothy Monger