Music Reviews

The first time I became aware of the word synchronicity was when I saw it being used as the title of The Police’s fifth and final studio album released on A&M in June 1983. My then-bookwormish self was not yet up to speed on Carl Jung’s hypotheses about meaningful yet seemingly random intersectivity, nor the parapsychology principles laid out in Arthur Koestler’s 1972 book The Roots of Coincidence—but The Police’s ever-erudite bassist, vocalist, chief songwriter, and former schoolteacher Sting hipped me to Jung and Koestler’s philosophies right quick. It was quite akin to exploring the origins of his Vladimir Nabokov reference in “Don’t Stand So Close to Me,” the lead track on October 1980’s Zenyatta Mondatta (A&M), and how philosopher George Gurdjieff inspired the lyrical content of my favorite Police song, “Secret Journey,” on October 1981’s Ghost in the Machine (also on A&M).

As commercially successful and artistically creative as its predecessor Ghost was, Synchronicity is the album that vaulted the blended British/American trio into the megaplatinum global-phenomenon stratosphere, itself a 10-track master class of envelope-pushing pop songwriting, clever and sometimes challenging song arrangements, and truly elite musicianship. To properly fete The Police’s studio swan song, A&M/Polydor/Universal Music Recordings recently issued several expanded multiformat editions.

The linchpin is the 84-track 6CD Synchronicity box set (SRP: $124.99; available on Music Direct as well as other online outlets, if MD happens to be out of stock) with the original 10-song album plus the top-tier bonus track “Murder by Numbers” on CD1, all remastered directly from the original source tapes. CD2 boasts 18 tracks containing all 7 original 7-inch and 12-inch B-sides plus 11 exclusive non-album tracks making their on-CD debuts. CD3 and CD4 house 36 tracks comprised of previously unreleased alternate takes of each Synchronicity song alongside early demos, other outtakes, and covers. Finally, CD5 and CD6 host 19 previously unreleased live recordings from the band’s September 10, 1983, show at the Oakland-Alameda Coliseum in California.

The 4LP vinyl edition trims those tracks practically in half from 84 to 43 mainly by scotching the bulk of the live material for an albeit higher SRP of $174.99 (also available on Music Direct, and elsewhere)—but it’s a wholly worthwhile obtainment for the analog-inclined amongst us.

Additionally, a limited-edition 1LP picture disc subtitled Alternate Sequence reinstates the album’s original running order—one I very much prefer, truth be told, just as I do with the reordered and expanded Ghost in the Machine picture disc sequencing. (If you want to experience that more instinctual flow of the core Synchronicity album as initially intended, the SRP is $35.99, and it too can be found on, you guessed it, Music Direct.)

Interestingly, both the 6CD and 4LP box sets are full-album size. These days, CD boxes tend to come in clamshell form, but I have no problem with this decision. The CD box’s dimensions are 12⅞ x 12⅞ x 1 inches (w/h/d), essentially mirrored by that of the slightly chunkier 4LP set whose physical difference is its 1⅛-inch depth. The 4LPs are all toploaders, yet it’s not easily discernable which one is which since the type on each LP back cover is so bleepin’ minuscule—plus, the backside of each box fails to include any tracklisting details whatsoever. Even so, both boxes will look fairly, well, synchronous next to each other on any LP-size shelving unit.

The CDs reside in half-pockets within the included 60-page hardbound book—the first troika on the left inside cover, the second grouping triangled out back on the inner right—and all are easily removable. The book also contains a deeply informative essay with no-holds-barred observations from Sting, guitarist Andy Summers, and drummer Stewart Copeland, plus page after page filled with copious shots of memorabilia, myriad cover artwork options, tape boxes, tour shirts, backstage passes, and more (much more).

The genius of Synchronicity may be blunted by its inherent four-decade familiarity, but it’s fascinating to glean how the mixes of monster hit songs like “Every Breath You Take” feel more AM-compressed, while broader strokes like “Walking in Your Footsteps” are more FM-wide. The key bonus track at the end of CD1, the jazz-tinged mangled-riff instruction manual that is “Murder by Numbers,” is as easily A-B-C seductive as ever—much like the artistic quality of five other non-album studio cuts on CD2 that could have easily filled out an abbreviated, A-level of-era companion release dubbed SynchrnocitEP. The funkier alternate take on “O My God” (CD3), the extended-version roar through “Synchronicity II” (CD3), the instrumental wash of “Loch” (CD4), and Sting’s mostly falsetto run on “Three Steps to Heaven” (CD4) evince the trio’s endless, boundless creativity.

Of the two live CDs—culled from an early fall 1983 show that found The Police at their stadium-filling peak—song readings like the unrelenting show-opening bookends of “Synchronicity I” and “Synchronicity II” (CD5), the sinister take on “Wrapped Around Your Finger” (CD5), the reggae-propelled “One World (Not Three)” (CD6), and the female vocal counters on “King of Pain” (CD6) strike all the right, large-venue-pleasing notes.

The connecting principle is simple—you need to sync your rhythms with either/both expanded editions of Synchronicity to best enjoy the lasting output of an equal-axis trio that always had a special knack for wrapping listeners the world over around their aural fingers.

THE POLICE
SYNCHRONICITY: SUPER DELUXE EDITION BOX SET
6CD & 4LP (A&M/Polydor/Universal Music Recordings)

Ratings
Performances: 5 stars
Sound: 4½ stars

Technical Stats
Audio Format: 16-bit/44.1kHz PCM stereo (CD)
Number of Tracks: 84 on 6CDs (43 on 4LPs)
Length: 6:01:54 on 6CDs (3:14:57 on 4LPs)
Producers: Craig Betts (compilation and audio research, box set); Jason Repantis (tape archive research, box set); Hugh Padgham, The Police (original album, B-sides, bonus tracks, unreleased tracks)
Engineers: Hugh Padgham (original album, B-sides, bonus tracks, unreleased tracks); Geoff Pesche (box set mastering); Paul McKenna (live material engineering and mixing); Robert Orton (live material mixing); Bob Ludwig (mastering, original album)