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 "Synchronicity" - 20 Years Later. July 27, 2003
The Groove (Boston, MA)
30 out of 41 found this review helpful
When a band releases its biggest selling record, it usually capitalizes on that success by rehashing the same formula on its next several albums. This didn't happen with the Police. In 1983, the trio released "Synchronicity," a record that not only sold millions but it spent more weeks at Number One than any other album in that year, including Michael Jackson's "Thriller." Fans, myself included, clamored for a followup album, but the Police decided to call it quits while they were still on top. How many groups today would do such a thing? Anyway, "Synchronicity" is a fine album that shows a more confident and self-assured band delivering its most accessible work at the time. "Every Breath You Take" will probably go down as the most misunderstood and misinterpreted pop song of the 1980s, especially considering that it's still being played at senior proms and weddings. Thanks to Sting's passionate lyrics, it's often been mistaken for a love ballad when it's actually a song told from the mind of an obsessive stalker (Every breath you take/ every move you make/. . . I'll be watching you). Other strong points include the tribal rhythms of "Walking in Your Footsteps," the subtle jazz-rock touches of "Oh My God," and the absolutely nutty "Mother," in which guitarist Andy Summers sings vocals. But "Synchronicity" gets its money's worth for the lovely "Tea in the Sahara." This song was the closing track of the original LP version, but on the CD/cassette versions it's followed by the jazzy "Murder By Numbers." In my mind, it hurts the sequencing a bit, and it was better off as a b-side as was originally intended. "Synchronicity" is one of the best albums of the 1980s, but I hesitate to give it 5 stars because it lacks some of the raw edge of the group's finer recordings like "Zenyatta Mondatta" and "Ghost in the Machine." Still, it's one of the essential records to own and has lost none of its luster after 20 years.
 A Trip Through Your Psyche. February 23, 2000
Jason Stein (Chula Vista, CA United States)
16 out of 18 found this review helpful
How do I rate Synchronicity? I'd have to put it in perspective with the other 1,999 cds I've collected over the years. I have all 5 Police cds as combined on their Message in a Box set. I have all 6 Sting solo cds. It's Synchronicity that I keep coming back to. It's 17 years old now and I was just 10 1/2 when it came out. At the time I hated "Every Breath You Take" and "King of Pain", but what does a ten year old know! As I matured, I began to understand what Sting was saying. This is one of those rare albums where music and lyric combine and compliment each other. Psychologically this album never becomes dated or out of touch. It's as tough a disc as Peter Gabriel's 1992 cd "Us" or Jane Siberry's 1993 cd "When I Was a Boy." All 11 tracks on Synchronicity deal with the theme of love and relationships. The metaphorical take on nuclear war in "Walking in Your Footsteps", the mother-son emotional damage playing itself out in future relationships in "Mother", the stress of working and having a family leading to emtional turmoil on "Synchronicity II", the obsessiveness of stalking a loved one on "Every Breath You Take", the isolation and pain of being in a relationship on "King of Pain" and the psychological/emotional damage of the games we play in relationships on "Wrapped Around Your Finger." Few popular albums have ever achieved such depth in lyric and richness in sound as the Police did on Synchronicity. It's digitally remastered too to bring forth all the best elements of this disc. To be fair, all Police albums are at least good. Synchronicity avoids the repetitiveness of their first 3 discs and takes a step further than Ghost in the Machine. Sting as a solo artist hasn't been this lyrically provoking. The closest he's come is on 1991's Soul Cages disc in which the music kind of fell short. Synchronicity is a disc that our grandchildren will know about like Led Zeppelin's IV or Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon. Definitely worth having in your cd collection.
The Police's freshest and boldest album January 8, 2003
A. Ryan (Westminster, CA USA)
14 out of 18 found this review helpful
Synchronicity -- the Police.This is arguably the best album by the Police; it is certainly the one that fixed them into immortality on the charts in the `80's. Despite several Top 40 hits to its credit (Synchronicity II, Wrapped Around Your Finger, Every Breath You Take, King of Pain), Synchronicity is nevertheless one of the more original sounds from that era, or even since. The Police are distinguished by a heavily Reggae-influenced style in a decade when Reggae was all but unknown in the U.S.A. Sting is magnificent as the lead singer, his voice spiraling out of his natural range in a weirdly perfect complement to the music. Sting also has the credit for most of the music and lyrics, which tend toward the politically- and environmentally-conscious : "Another industrial, ugly morning Grandmother screaming at the wall
We have to shout above the din of our rice crispies, We can't hear anything at all
Mother chants her litany of boredom and frustration, but we know all her suicides are fake...
Another working day has ended, Only the rush hour hell to face
Packed like lemmings into shining metal boxes, Contestants in a suicidal race."
--Synchronicity II . His thoughtful, poetic style, which later matures in his solo albums, is in evidence: There's a little black spot on the sun today, that's my soul up there...
...There's a flag pole rag and the wind won't stop, that's my soul up there...
There's a king on a throne with his eyes torn out There's a blind man looking for a shadow of doubt,
There's a rich man sleeping on a golden bed, There's a skeleton choking on a crust of bread."
--King of Pain. Yet in keeping with the upbeat style of music, there is no trace of melancholy in Synchronicity, whatever the subject. The lines are delivered with ironic flair, as if the Police are daring the doomsayers of the 20th century to take heart and find energy and hope in themselves anywhere they can. Synchronicity is not only a standout in any `80's collection: I would especially recommend it for anybody who would appreciate unusual, smart pop music with Reggae and Jazz overtones. -Andrea, aka Merribelle.
 2 channel SACD? why even bother???? March 2, 2006
M. Mann
14 out of 24 found this review helpful
If I had known that this SACD was only a 2 channel SACD, I would not have even bothered.
Playing the original CD in all channel mode sounds better than this pile.
Man, after listening to (my only other SACDs, so far) Joe Satriani's Strange Beautiful Music, and the 30 year anniversary hybrid SACD of Dark Side of the Moon, (both amazing in 6 channel SACD) this was a huge letdown.
I like the album a lot, and am a big fan of The Police, but if you already have the original CD, THERE IS NO REASON to buy this thing, the better sampling rate doesn't help it a bit (get it?... hehehe).
Call The Police, I've been ripped-off.
!!!!!SAVE YOUR MONEY!!!!!
Quite simply, the best album ever recorded August 6, 1998
W. Bredice (Seattle)
13 out of 19 found this review helpful
Synchronicity is The Police at their peak, weaving a complex tale of topics together that are not entirely related to each other. Of course, the classic Every Breath You Take is on the CD, but the real high point of the CD comes later. Wrapped Around Your Finger is perhaps the finest song ever written to get a lonely college student through his four years of shear torture. Two songs from the CD, Synchronicity I and Synchronicity II are fun to listen to. You'll wish Mother wasn't on this CD, but that's half the fun of it...if the CD were perfect, you might eventually tire of it. Tea in the Sahara will make you want to run out and buy the book that it is based upon (The Sheltering Sky). For many years, King of Pain was my all-time favorite song. This is the CD that brought it all together for The Police, and surely their crowning achievement of their 5 albums. I have listened to it hundreds and hundreds of times, yet I learn something new about me or our species e! very time I listen to it. An absolute must-have for every living, breathing human on this planet.
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