Amazon.com essential recording
Synchronicity is the last full-length studio recording from the Police, the final evolution of their sound, and the album that yielded their greatest success. It is a brilliant pop record, but it's something more, as well. The singles, particularly "Every Breath You Take," "King of Pain," and "Wrapped Around Your Finger," while pure gems by themselves, are an integral part of the album's musical and lyrical texture. As the title indicates, the album's intellectual content is inspired by C.G. Jung's psychosocial connecting principle and it manifests lyrically in some of the most evocative imagery Sting has ever created. Musically, the band defines a sonic space with arrangements that are often spare to the point of transparency. The songs are constructed from delicate arpeggios and eerie washes of guitar, sinuous keyboard lines, solid, repetitive bass figures, and the signature Stewart Copeland drum sound, all topped by Sting's voice moving through a wide range of pitch and sentiment.
Synchronicity is a collection that creates and sustains a mood in the sensitive listener, a feeling that remains after the last note has died away. A benchmark album from a tremendously influential band, it will stand the test of time as a genuine classic.
--Al Massa
From Amazon.com
With the release of 1983's
Synchronicity, their fifth and final studio album, the Police were briefly the biggest rock band in the world. As such, it's a suitably overblown representation of their stature. Gone are previous albums' love ditties set to danceable Caribbean pop and new wave; in their place are the pretentious conceptualism of the title, the grand strokes of chart-friendly drama, and rock-star brooding found in the record's three top-ten hits, "Wrapped Around Your Finger," "King of Pain," and the undeniable classic, "Every Breath You Take." The newfound seriousness spurred multiplatinum sales, convincing Sting it was time to go solo.
--Roni Sarig
