Artist: The Police
Release Date: June 1, 1983
Synchronicity I (Sting)
Walking in Your Footsteps (Sting)
O My God (Sting)
Mother (Andy Summers)
Miss Gradenko (Stewart Copeland)
Synchronicity II (Sting)
Every Breath You Take (Sting)
King of Pain (Sting)
Wrapped Around Your Finger (Sting)
Tea in the Sahara (Sting)
Murder by Numbers (Words: Sting, Music: Andy Summers)
The Police released five albums in their brief career, all of them solid efforts overall. Arguably the best of them is the last one, Synchronicity, though some might pick Zenyatta Mondatta (perhaps their most consistent album, without any really weak tracks) or Ghost in the Machine (which has several of their best songs). Synchronicity, which was released 29 years ago this month, was certainly the band’s most commercial successful work; it also contained many of their very best tracks. The Police had diversified their sound on Ghost in the Machine, and this welcome development continued on Synchronicity, which has the greatest variety of material on any of their albums. Sting wrote some of the best songs of his career for this album, and while Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland didn’t contribute a great deal in terms of songwriting, their playing is excellent, and their contributions to the arrangement of the songs were also important. Producer Hugh Padgham likewise played a key role in holding everything together, especially given the conflicts in the band. While a few of the tracks on the album are fairly weak, the others – particularly those on the second half of the album – more than make up for them, resulting in probably the best original Police album you can buy (though for a single disc of Police songs, I’d recommend one of the better compilation albums).
Synchronicity Song by Song
Synchronicity I: The album gets off to a strong start with this song, which musically is a upbeat, driving tune based around a synthesizer line that repeats throughout the song. Lyrically it was inspired by Carl Jung and Arthur Koestler’s writings on the philosophical concept of synchronicity.
Walking in Your Footsteps: Musically this is another solid offering, and I like the lyrical concept, which compares the reign of the dinosaurs as the dominant animals on Earth to that of humans in the present time. I don’t think the concept is executed as well as it could have been, as some of the actual lyrics seem a bit weak.
O My God: This jazzy tune references several of Sting’s earlier compositions, such as “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic”, as well as the Biblical exhortation to “turn the other cheek”. Like the one before it, it isn’t a great song, but it’s enjoyable enough.
Mother: This song evokes a decidedly mixed reaction from listeners, with many considering it the worst song on the album (All Music Guide calls it “almost unlistenable”). The song certainly shows that Andy Summers was no threat to Sting’s position as the band’s chief songwriter and lead vocalist. Still, its quirkiness is kind of fascinating, so I don’t mind it so much.
Miss Gradenko: Stewart Copeland’s one song on the album is lyrically and melodically much better than “Mother”, though the lyrics are a tad repetitive. Another okay song, though again it is obvious why Sting ended up doing most of the writing (Copeland’s song on Ghost in the Machine, “Darkness”, is better than this one).
Synchronicity II: If you were just going by the first half of the album, Synchronicity wouldn’t seem to be anything special, but that changes with this track. This is one of my favorite Police songs, with great, driving music and excellent lyrics. This song has some of the best lines Sting ever wrote, and the band turns in a great performance.
Every Breath You Take: This, of course, is Sting’s best known composition and the Police’s best known song. It has a great melody and an excellent arrangement (for which Andy Summers deserves a substantial share of the credit). Thought of as romantic by some people who obviously weren’t listening closely, it’s actually sung from the viewpoint of an obsessed stalker. It’s another of my favorite Police songs, though it would have to compete for the top spot with a number of others, like “Message in a Bottle”, “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic”, “Synchronicity II” and “King of Pain”.
King of Pain: This is another of my favorite Police songs. I’ve always loved the dynamic leap (if that’s correct term) in the song, and the series of images in the lyrics is also great. Like a lot of Police songs, it’s fairly simple musically, but there is a lot of power in its simplicity.
Wrapped Around Your Finger: This is yet another great song, and probably the only hit pop song ever to mention the mythological monsters Scylla and Charybdis in the lyrics. Of course this is the sort of thing that makes some people call Sting pretentious, but I don’t see any reason pop songs should always be dumbed down to an elementary school level (or lower).
Tea in the Sahara: This is another song with a literary inspiration. It may not be quite the equal of the songs before it, but it is still a very good song. Sting has revisited it frequently, performing it on his first solo tour and also with jazz legend Gil Evans.
Murder by Numbers: This song was not on the original LP release, but was on the cassette and CD versions. It features music by Andy Summers (considerably more straightforward than “Mother”, needless to say) and lyrics by Sting. The lyrics in particular stand out, using a humorous approach to make a semi-serious comparison between serial killers and national leaders. It’s no “Every Breath You Take” or “Synchronicity II”, but it’s a good ending to a great album.
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