Synchronicity

by

The Police

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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.