THE POLICE
Their final studio album gets the deluxe, demo-revealing treatment.
Synchronicity UMR/POLYDOR
P
robably the world’s biggest band at the time, The Police were able to be both creatively risky and commercially bulletproof in 1983. A huge-selling Grammywinner,
Synchronicity
had a first side that took plentiful blind leaps, from the jaggedness of the two title tracks to Andy Summers’ berserk misfire
Mother.
Side two, though, reassured pop fans with the triple triumph of
Every Breath You Take, King Of Pain
and
Wrapped Around Your Finger,
evidence that Sting in his pomp was a slyly subversive master of writing dark-hearted, disquieting songs which yet brought joy. The album proved that three men can grate on each other’s last nerves but still retain unique chemistry and deliver diamonds (as long as they record in separate rooms, as was now the case).