Andy Summers' Top Solo Albums Ranked

In the midst of Andy Summers' successful multimedia tour and the summer streaming release and the fall CD release of his latest album, Vertiginous Canyons, I decided to reassess the Police guitarist's body of solo work and share what I consider are his best and most noteworthy recordings.

My main criteria for these rankings are a primary focus on Summers' guitar playing, the tightness of the compositions, and the consistency of style within each album.

The result is a nice range of artistic output that showcases the depth, breadth, and timelessness of Summers' unique talents and signature sounds over the course of nearly 40 years, from his 40s to his 80s. 

Top Andy Summers Solo Album

Mysterious Barricades (1988)

Top Three Andy Summers Solo Albums

Mysterious Barricades (1988)

Synaesthesia (1995)

Harmonics of the Night (2021)

Top Five Andy Summers Solo Albums

Mysterious Barricades (1988)

The Golden Wire (1989)

Synaesthesia (1995)

Harmonics of the Night (2021)

Vertiginous Canyons (2024)

--Raj Manoharan

CD Version of Andy Summers' Latest Album, Vertiginous Canyons, Due November 1, 2024

Following the June 21, 2024, digital download and streaming release of Andy Summers' latest album, Vertiginous Canyons, the CD version of the recording is scheduled to be available beginning November 1, 2024.

So far it appears that the compact disc will contain the same number of tracks as the digital release, eight tunes at a running time of 23 minutes.

It is expected that the CD will contain the actual photographs from Summers' 2023 book, A Series of Glances, that were the inspiration for the music on Vertiginous Canyons.

--Raj Manoharan

Vertiginous Canyons (2024), by Andy Summers

Released in the midst of his popular multimedia theater tour, The Cracked Lens + A Missing String: A Fantastic Evening With a Brilliant Practitioner of the Guitar, Camera, and Written Word, Andy Summers’ first album as an octogenarian proves that the 81-year-old Police and guitar icon is still very much in his prime and isn’t slowing down anytime soon.

Vertiginous Canyons comprises eight luminous tunes inspired by Summers’ 2023 photography book, A Series of Glances. Although Summers was tapped by the publisher to create soundtracks to accompany select photographs in the volume, each of the tracks creates images of its own in the mind of the listener, an effect that Summers usually manages to conjure with his music.

 

This is Summers’ most pared down and elemental album since his 1988 guitar-and-keyboard masterpiece, Mysterious Barricades. But while that album is tightly structured and composed, this album is free-flowing and improvisational.

 

Although Vertiginous Canyons is Summers’ fourteenth original solo studio album, it is actually his third truly solo album in which he is the sole performer on the record. And it is also his first truly solo guitar album, as the electric guitar is the only instrument on hand here. It's also his first release in which the title of the album is not the exact title of one of the tracks.

 

While an album consisting solely of electric guitar music without any other instruments may sound completely boring, Vertiginous Canyons is anything but. All of the exotic sounds on the album are generated entirely by Summers’ ethereal guitar tones channeled through various devices and signal processors. There may be no bass, drums, and keyboards here, but there are numerous rhythms, layers, and leads, as well as quite a bit of sonic heft.

 

The album is a flawless, seamless, and compact 23-minute listen. That may sound like a short running time, but it makes it all the more possible to enjoy the tight collection much more often. All of the tracks are compelling, intriguing, and unique, although I particularly like “Out of the Shadows,” “Translucent,” and “Into the Blue.” The real surprise for me, though, is “Village.” The way it starts out, you don’t expect it to take you where it does, ultimately making for a wondrous musical journey.

 

Incidentally, in my review of Summers’ previous release, Harmonics of the Night, I mentioned that Summers uses “his guitars to create quiet serenity out of the shadows.” One of the tracks on Vertiginous Canyons is called “Out of the Shadows.” Make of that what you will.

 

Vertiginous Canyons is another exciting and worthy addition to Andy Summers’ eclectic body of work. Like Mysterious Barricades, it is soothing, refreshing, and therapeutic. It is acupuncture for the mind.

 

--Raj Manoharan

 

 

Andy Summers’ Latest Solo Album, Vertiginous Canyons, Due June 21, 2024

While Andy Summers is currently on tour with his theater show, The Cracked Lens + A Missing String: A Fantastic Evening With a Brilliant Practitioner of the Guitar, Camera, and Written Word, the veteran guitarist and member of The Police is also releasing his latest solo album, Vertiginous Canyons, on June 21, 2024.

The album track “Into the Blue” is currently streaming on Amazon and Spotify and is also available on YouTube.

Samples of all of the tracks can be heard on prestomusic.com.

The album consists of ambient solo guitar influenced by Summers’ photographs and sounds very similar to his classic 1988 guitar-and-keyboard album, Mysterious Barricades, as well as his albums with Robert Fripp, I Advance Masked (1982) and Bewitched (1984).

--Raj Manoharan

The Cracked Lens + A Missing String: A Fantastic Evening With a Brilliant Practitioner of the Guitar, Camera, and Written Word (2024), by Andy Summers

Andy Summers, best known as the guitarist of the world-famous rock band The Police, is currently on the second leg of his Cracked Lens + A Missing String theater tour, which began in the fall and winter of 2023.

Currently 81 years old, Summers is in his prime and shows no signs of slowing down!

As the title suggests, the show is a fabulous multimedia blend of music, art, and comedy. Summers demonstrates his virtuosic prowess on electric guitar, playing both self-contained pieces as well as unleashing unbridled leads over backing tracks of his solo music and Police hits, while decades of his photographic artwork unspool behind him on a big screen. In between, Summers pauses for hilarious interludes, recounting humorous anecdotes of his various globetrotting adventures as a member of The Police, as a solo artist, and as a curious itinerant explorer. Every now and then, Summers lounges on a sofa while watching some of his filmed escapades along with the audience.

I know this is a cliché, but it is absolutely true – at this advanced stage of his life and his career, Summers’ playing has never been better. The same goes for his energetic persona and his wit.

I had the good fortune of catching this show in October 2023 in Patchogue, Long Island, and just recently in Newton, New Jersey, in June 2024. I even had the pleasure of meeting and talking to his long-time right-hand man, Dennis Smith, for the first time in person about 40 minutes before the Newton show. As many of Summers’ fans who have had the similar pleasure will attest to, Smith is an extremely charming and delightful chap.

If you are a Police fan and especially an Andy Summers fan and Summers’ show comes to a theater near you, make every effort not to miss it! It is absolutely worth it!

--Raj Manoharan

Happy Birthday, Andy Summers!

On New Year's Eve, Sunday, December 31, 2023, Andy Summers – my favorite guitarist and musician of all time – turns 81 years old.

I first became acquainted with the music of Summers in 1983 at the age of 10 in a Catholic elementary school classroom when I heard a hypnotic and futuristic-sounding pop/rock song emanating from the radio of Candy, my substitute teacher. When I asked what the song was and who recorded it, I was promptly informed that it was “Spirits in the Material World” by The Police. I was instantly hooked, so much so that that Christmas, my parents got me a vinyl copy of Synchronicity, The Police’s fifth and final studio album and one of the biggest hits of the year. The Police have since remained my favorite rock band of all time.

Summers was the guitarist for the mega-popular group, who were active in the late 1970s and early 1980s and reunited for a 30th anniversary tour in 2007 and 2008. Being a good decade older than his bandmates Sting and Stewart Copeland, Summers began his professional recording career in the early 1960s, playing for Zoot Money’s Big Roll Band (which later became the psychedelic but short-lived Dantalian’s Chariot), Eric Burdon’s New Animals, and Soft Machine. After formally studying guitar at Northridge University in California from the late 1960s to the early 1970s, Summers returned to England and plied his trade as a session guitarist for Joan Armatrading, Neil Sedaka, Kevin Coyne, and Deep Purple’s Jon Lord before achieving monumental success and international stardom with The Police.

After the dissolution of The Police in the early 1980s, Summers scored some Hollywood films (Down and Out in Beverly Hills, Weekend at Bernie’s) and recorded one rock vocal album before establishing himself as an acclaimed and accomplished contemporary instrumental guitarist across a variety of styles, including jazz, fusion, new age, and world music.

I was privileged to interview Summers by telephone in Fall 2000 for the January 2001 issue of DirecTV: The Guide. I was pleasantly surprised when I discovered that Summers posted a notice of the interview in the news section of his Web site. Later, I met Summers in person during his book tour in Fall 2006, just a few months before The Police reunited for a 30th anniversary reunion tour, which I was fortunate to attend twice, first at Giants Stadium in August 2007 and then at PNC Bank Arts Center in August 2008.

For a good overview of Summers’ solo work, I highly recommend the following albums: Mysterious Barricades, A Windham Hill Retrospective, Synaesthesia, and The X Tracks. My personal favorite Summers albums are XYZ, Mysterious Barricades, The Golden Wire, Charming Snakes, World Gone Strange, Synaesthesia, Earth + Sky, Fundamental (with Fernanda Takai), Circus Hero (with his rock band Circa Zero), and Harmonics of the Night.

--Raj Manoharan

Michael Nesmith (December 30, 1942 - December 10, 2021)

Saturday, December 30, 2023, would have been Michael Nesmith's 81st birthday. The Texas-born Monkees singer and guitarist (the one with the green wool hat) passed away on December 10, 2021, in California at the age of 78 .

Of all of The Monkees, Nesmith had the most prolific and successful solo career. He pioneered the country-rock music format in the early to mid-1970s, founded the music and video label Pacific Arts, and basically created the concept of MTV. In addition to producing films and music videos, Nesmith also won the very first Grammy Award for Best Home Video for Elephant Parts, which later led to NBC’s short-lived Television Parts. Before Nesmith became famous, his mother invented liquid paper and sold it to Gillette for a substantial fortune, which Nesmith inherited.

For a good overview of Nesmith’s music, I recommend The Older Stuff, The Newer Stuff, Tropical Campfire’s, Live at the Britt Festival, Rays, Movies of the Mind, Infinite Tuesday: Autobiographical Riffs -- The Music, and Live at the Troubadour.

More information about Nesmith is available on his Web site at www.videoranch.com.

--Raj Manoharan