The band had come off the successful “Ghost in the Machine” album, especially with the popularity of the singles “Every Little Thing She Does is Magic” and “Spirits in the Material World” which had done great business around the world. The recording of that album had involved a lot of ‘building up’ of songs, using multiple overlays in instruments and vocals, something the band had enjoyed at the time. But coming into the new album, the trio had decided that they wanted to go back to sounding like the band sounded on stage, with less overlaying and dubbing and more of just the three of them. This didn’t stop them from recording many takes of each song, and then choosing the pieces from these takes that they felt worked best, and piecing them together to form the song itself. The band also used a variety of instruments and equipment, including a sequencer for the first time. All of this meant that most of the reggae influences that had proliferated their other albums were almost completely missing from this album, with the style of songs here a mix of influences throughout. All of this made for a unique release for The Police, one that had the potential to either put their long time fans offside, or take the band to another level.
Just about everyone knows the main three singles that were released from this album, and that's great, because they are all great songs. "Every Breath You Take" is probably The Police's most well known and most popular song apart from their first ever single "Roxanne", and everyone who grew up in the 1980's can sing it to you. "Wrapped Around Your Finger" and "King of Pain" are also classic radio singles, in that their music is quiet and unobtrusive, able to be played in a multitude of settings without upsetting people, while having lyrics that are intensely interesting, and again are known by most of those people who came through the 1980’s listening to the radio. And they are the perfect tracks for radio, as they could be played them at any time of the day. And they are great songs, don't get me wrong. But the instrumentation in "Every Breath You Take" is just fairly basic, and despite the great moo swings thrugh the middle section, it is a song that you can take or leave if it gets overplayed. Famously, the story goes that Sting wanted the very basic of basic backing on this track, and would force Stewart Copeland to re-do his drums if he even plugged in a simple roll out of the character that Sting wanted. Blows were even apparently traded during the recording process. Anyway, as brilliant musicians as Stewart and Andy Summers are, they were hamstrung during the recording of this song. Of course it sounds great, but it is strange that they were not allowed to put their own stamp on the song. But that of course is what led to the events that came after the world tour to promote this album.
On the other side of the coin, there is the brilliant synth-into-guitar-drums intro to the opening track "Synchronicity I" that sets the album off on the perfect footing. The first time I put this album on, turned it up, and heard this coming out of my speakers, I was hooked. It's the perfect combination of the old and the new, and a superb chorus lyrically:
"A connecting principle, Linked to the invisible, Almost imperceptible, Something inexpressible., Science insusceptible, Logic so inflexible, Causally connectible, Nothing is invincible"
It is fantastic, and even today when I put the album on and let the needle hit the vinyl, this opening is just magic to the ears.
From here the remainder of the first half of the album expresses so much variety that it would be easy to dismiss it as a joke or poor creative musicianship. But that is what makes it so brilliant. The wonderful "Walking in Your Footsteps" mixes everything up, on the surface only concentrating on Sting's vocals, but a deeper look shows the excellent percussion and bongos from Stewart and the simple but effective guitar of Andy. "O My God" is a jazzy piece, that even incorporates lyrics from the band's previous hit single "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic", something that had friends and members of my family spending months trying to work out where they had heard those lyrics before.
Then comes the piece de resistance, Andy Summers' "Mother", a freaked out, frantic guitar and drum piece with Andy himself crying out the vocals of the song. Let's face it, the music here perfectly portrays the mind of a man who would be saying these lines - "Telephone is ringing, is that my mother on the phone - telephone is screaming, won't she leave me alone!" and "Every girl I go out with, becomes my mother in the end". Terrific stuff that may not be appreciated by certain members of the audience but to my mind is excellent. This is followed by the straight forward "Miss Gradenko", which features dual vocals from Sting and Stewart throughout.
Above all the excellence that can be found here, "Synchronicity II" is perhaps the highlight. Through the brilliant rumbling bass line, Andy's ripping guitar riff, Stewart's amazing drums and lyrics that hit home in the best way possible, this song to me is the crowning glory to The Police's legacy. It also perfectly closes out side one of the album. Sensational.
Following the three singles previously mentioned that are the mainstay of side two of the album, the final two songs are the quiet and thoughtful "Tea in the Sahara" which closed out the original album, while "Murder By Numbers" is the additional track from the cassette (that I first owned) and the CD (which I now own), that close out the album in a quieter frame than I would normally appreciate. And I don’t doubt in the slightest that because this album came out before I began to look for heavier material in my music, that I love this more than I may have if it had come even a couple of years later than it did.
“Synchronicity” was the first album by a band that I ever bought. I had been gifted compilation cassettes at birthdays and Christmas, had even bought a couple of singles, but I had never bought an album by a band before this one. And it is fair to say that it encouraged me to start doing it more often. Because from the very opening of the title track, this album had me. The energy, the relentless drive of the songs, the superb drumming and the remarkable technical guitaring, and Sting’s bass and vocals that could croon and soar at either spectrum. And it was the differing style of songs that come on the album that perhaps was my introduction as to how an album works, that not all songs by a band are the same, and that the ability to create such strange concepts like “Walking in Your Footsteps” and “Mother” and place them on an album with “King of Pain” and “Wrapped Around Your Finger” is how you establish how a band works. And all of that is in effect here.
I initially bought this on cassette, and used to play it on my portable tape deck in my room from the time I got home from school until it was time for bed. It went around and around so many times that eventually it pretty much disintegrated from overuse. I then went out and bought it on vinyl, to help that from occurring again, and then also on CD a few years after that. From being the first album I ever bought, it still comes out as regular as clockwork to be listened to, and marvelled over each and every time. Some might say that of all first time albums that you would purchase, but as I said, I bought it on the strength of two singles heard on the radio. The album still had to sell itself to me after I purchased it. And it did that to the millionth degree.
This proved to be the final album released by The Police, and in many ways it is fitting that it was. There is little doubt that the members of the band were diverging in their musical tastes, and the fact that they were unable to do anything further together is not a surprise, no matter how disappointing it was at the time. Instead, we have this monument that stands as the finale of their career, and while it again has differences from each of their previous albums, it is the one that marks their genius and greatness forever.
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