It's a little awkward posting about a Police song after just posting about a Police song. But why are they starting every song name with "Every"? Are you really so sure, Sting? That's arrogant.
"Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic" is my favorite Police song, and it's not close.
It's all Stewart Copeland's drumming here, sorry. It's not complex.
Actually, it is: Every little thing he does is complex. And it's simple to love.
Go back to my entry on "Every Breath You Take" for my gushing about his drum sound, the snare, the cymbals. It holds for here too. Playing the ride cymbal bell, it sounds like he's hitting a damn anvil. The verses are all the hi-hat work. The choruses consist of only three things: Cymbal (ride and crash), snare, and kick drum. With those three elements, Copeland just dynamites my mind...
No, it's not that simple. The drumming is amazing, but it lives off this ecosystem of such harmonic and rhythmic excellence. The verse guitar and piano double a complex line, mad suspensions pushing a line between major modality and edgier derivations. All that is wiped away with the choruses, about as brightly, unambiguously major as I can stand. Sting's bass playing is melodically great but also hits percussive grace notes essential to the groove. The vocals, so high-flying and unlike anything, creative harmonies everywhere adding to the effect. Not a line, not a voicing of a chord, not a harmony of any kind is something that says, "Yeah, it's business as usual; just relax; you're safe." Today, when groups on mainstream radio are religiously afraid to be strange with their chord construction and harmony (disappointing since they do seem to be embracing more tunefulness and fun, exotic production techniques), it's boggling to think that a group tried to push our ears this far and still rocked - not to mention sold.
Then we have the finale.... I'm listening to it right now, and I have to tell my fingers it is time for typing not drumming on the desk. The drumming is just euphoric, ecstatic, something you train hard to be able to play with discipline but abandon. The drum fill that brings on the peak of the finale is one of the things I'll consider at the end of my life as a reason for it all, all the failures and fascism stacked up against it. It is so sharp, so compact, so fleet. And my favorite part of the fill is how Copeland hits the muted hi-hat in the middle of it. So sharp you can cut your soul on it!
In the finale, the music again toys with modality, going through a beautiful progression, before resolving on a clear major chord, a release the way the choruses were. Sting is a fantastic bassist, and he is all over the place in this section, in an absolute zone. The piano hits its ascending punctuations. The peak vocal is not a word, it is just a sound: "Eo-o!" Sting probably beat himself up endlessly looking for a lyric to fit that line but gave up and went with the weird sound he sang on every demo to that point. How did he know that we needed that sound in our lives?
I used to hate this song when I was younger. The choruses were annoyingly giddy. The rest of the song sounded weird. "Eo-o" wasn't a word. I was dumb when I was younger. I'm smart now. This is one of The songs.