I’ve long had a love-hate relationship with the final Police album, but upon a recent listening I finally decided I love it more than I hate it.
So what’s not to like? Quite simply one of the most overexposed songs of the 1980s, “Every Breath You Take”. And hey, I even like the song, but it was played so often that I can really only bear to hear it once a year or so. (That said, I’ll take “Every Breath” over anything the current crop of producer-packaged teenybopper acts can cough up, so my boredom with the song is a relative thing.)
What is there to like about Synchronicity? Possibly Sting’s best work ever, with some crisply literate lyrics and some excellent music to go behind them. Mixing mythological metaphors with literary references and interesting concepts, the songs are both memorable and thought-provoking. So much so, in fact, that I think it points out why I skip “Every Breath” most of the time – its somewhat repetitive and predictable lyrics are sharply out of place on Synchronocity.
Some of the better songs, including “King Of Pain” and “Wrapped Around Your Finger”, made a somewhat smaller splash as singles, while others – including the mesmerising “Tea In The Sahara” – can only be found on the album. Overall, even with the clichè-ridden “Every Breath”, Synchronicity is an outstanding album, engaging both musically and intellectually.
- Synchronicity I (3:23)
- Walking In Your Footsteps (3:35)
- O My God (4:00)
- Mother (3:03)
- Miss Gradenko (2:00)
- Synchronicity II (5:04)
- Every Breath You Take (4:13)
- King Of Pain (4:59)
- Wrapped Around Your Finger (5:12)
- Tea In The Sahara (4:11)
- Murder By Numbers (4:31)
Released by: A&M
Release date: 1983
Total running time: 44:30
