It wasn’t a master plan to go out on top, as the band essentially had to call it quits because they couldn’t get along long enough to record anything more. Still, few bands leave them wanting more like The Police were able to do with their final studio album Synchronicity in 1983.
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The album’s reputation seems to grow with each passing year. Let’s take a fresh gander at it by ranking the five finest songs on the record.
5. “Synchronicity I”
Here’s the truth about Synchronicity: It’s a bit top-heavy. The songs written by Andy Summers (the avant-garde “Mother”) and Stewart Copeland (the rhythmic but short “Miss Gradenko”) don’t move the needle much, and even Sting’s album tracks aren’t quite as fine as they are on other Police LPs. That’s why the songs on this list are the ones people know the best. “Synchronicity I” is the only non-single to make the list. But it’s definitely a good one, as the frenetic keyboards and Sting’s breathless lyrics convey the urgency you like to hear at the start of a record.
4. “King of Pain”
Squinting up at a tiny blemish on the sun one day in the company of his future second wife Trudie Styler, Sting, still reeling a bit from a divorce, actually said That’s my soul up there. Mopey fellow, right? But we’re OK with that, since he turned the experience into entrancing pop music. Producer Hugh Padgham helped Sting to remove extra elements from the original arrangement of the track. What remains are a lot of open spaces in the verses—not unlike the hollowness eating at the narrator—before a whooshing chorus helps him clear the air.
3. “Every Breath You Take”
Admit it, you thought it would be No. 1, right? We consider the two songs above it on this list to be pretty spectacular, so it’s not like we’re dumping on “Every Breath You Take.” Sting would be the first to tell you it’s a pretty simple construct from a musical standpoint, with chord changes that, while effective, aren’t exactly novel. What makes the song stand out is how it’s managed to snow a lot of people over the years into thinking it’s a straightforward song of devotion. Well, the devotion in this case has slowly crossed the border into obsession, which Sting’s haunting, cold-blooded vocal and brooding bass conveys.
2. “Synchronicity II”
How many rock songs elucidate the human condition with the eloquence and ferocity this track manages to do. And it really does rock, as Summers’ serrated guitars pack a wallop. Sting’s writing is simply elite here. The poor sap at the heart of the song can’t wait to get out of his house in the morning, can’t get wait to get out of traffic, can’t wait to get out of work, and then can’t stand the thought of returning home at the end of it all. It’s so bad you half-wonder if the monster crawling about the edges of the song would be welcomed, if for nothing else than to provide him a fresh hell.
1. “Wrapped Around Your Finger”
The mesmerizing performance here is expertly measured by the trio. It’s almost like a power-pop approach, each instrument sort of going its own separate way but interlocking nonetheless in the midst of an after-hours jazz arrangement. When Copeland hits that snare shot heading into the final verse, it lets us know the fortunes for the narrator are about to drastically change. He has been biding his time, enduring his subjugation, and waiting for the moment to strike. Plus, you get a heaping helping of mythology and a few 10-cent words from Sting for some extra added value.
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