Acting Very Strange

History

Rutherford opted to do the lead vocals on the album himself, simply because, in his words, "It does feel odd when someone does... a solo album and they don't sing, because the voice is so much the character of a song. So I thought, 'What the hell? I'm gonna give it a shot.'" However, this proved to be easier said than done; he recounted that recording the backing tracks for the album was very easy and enjoyable, but that the vocals were "hard work".

Stewart Copeland became involved in the recording because he and Rutherford were on the same polo team. Copeland did session work very rarely during his time in The Police. Recording his drums at The Farm gave them a unique sound not found on any other recordings.

Looking back on Acting Very Strange in later years, Rutherford was not proud of the album, saying he felt that the songs were very good but poorly executed on the actual recordings. He singled out "Hideaway" as the only track which he felt worked. Dissatisfaction with his solo work in general, and with his vocals in particular, prompted Rutherford to form Mike + The Mechanics (However, Rutherford did sing lead on one more solo track -- performing stronger vocals than on Acting Very Strange -- titled "Making a Big Mistake", which appears on the soundtrack to "Against All Odds".)

Reception

In their retrospective review, Allmusic said that most of the songs were weak, and that even the few good ones would have been better had Rutherford not done the lead vocals himself: "There's no denying his sincerity, but he should let his fingers do the talking."

B Sides and non-album tracks

Personnel

Production

Charts

Album