ESSENTIAL ALBUMS (#40): The Police - "Synchronicity" (1983)

    1983 began with the Police at AIR Studios in Montserrat working on what would be their fifth and final studio album, Synchronicity. An interesting set-up saw each member stationed in individual rooms, with Stewart Copeland and his drums in the dining room, Andy Summers in the studio itself and Sting in the control room with them all connected via video link. Even though co-producer Hugh Padgham claimed this was for social reasons, this approach didn't help dispel rumours that the trio were increasingly sick of each other. Sting argued that it made things easier for him to hear how the instruments would sound on the finished record, which was no doubt a boost in confidence for a studio with the reputation of AIR.

    After knocking up multiple takes, the three of them - presumably together - would compile their favourite bits to edit together into one master track. This wasn't always the ideal method, however, when Copeland and Sting almost belted the hell out of each other disagreeing over the remix of Every Breath You Take, to the extent that Padgham nearly walked out on the project. An occasional disagreement is one thing, but you can only surmise at what point Padgham had felt was enough to walk out. Asked about the atmosphere, Padgham reflected that, "We'd been in the studio for a couple of weeks and we literally had nothing playable at all". In the end, Every Breath You Take was put together with overdubs. 

    Critics were kind to Synchronicity. Mostly after the fact, and acknowledging that it's the sound of a band coming together while falling apart. It went on to sell millions and become the most successful album of their career.
    Bewilderingly for such a successful album, it has the duality of being both too big to be critically acclaimed, yet posthumously praised enough to be deemed overlooked. It sits neither here nor there. Something that The Police had long come to terms with throughout their career - not new wave or punk enough to be taken credibly, yet chasing credibility anyway via the medium of being massively popular. It's almost as though they simply existed to cash in on their position. It's very easy to accuse musicians of being calculated, but despite Synchronicity's troubled creation and bid to have something to sell during a worldwide tour, it could not, and would not, fail.

    Synchronicity would go on to have its work cut out competing against one of the biggest-selling albums of all time at the Grammy Awards, missing out on the main prize to Michael Jackson's Thriller. However, while Jackson had the album categories nailed, Every Breath You Take did beat Billie Jean in the Song Of The Year category.
    Just a reminder that while Billie Jean was enormous, Every Breath You Take was colossal in general and went on to be one of the most played songs on radio of all time, their sole American chart-topper, spending eight weeks at the summit and going on to be the biggest single of the year over there. It also managed four weeks atop the UK charts in June, ending up as the 16th biggest-seller of 1983 in Britain.

    In 2019, it was named the Most Performed Song at the BMI Pop Awards with 15 million radio plays. Last year, the song was also added to Spotify's Billions Club, having amassed over one billion streams on the platform. It won Sting two Ivor Novello Awards, too, which may have caused a bone of contention with Andy, who'd actually written the guitar part, yet the song was credited solely to Sting. Sting had famously written Every Breath You Take at Ian Fleming's Goldeneye estate in Oracabessa, Jamaica after a period of turmoil post-split with his wife, of which he said, "Every Breath You Take is a very sad song and it makes me sad, but it's a wonderful sadness. It was written at a time of awful personal anguish, and it was a great catharsis for me to write that song".

    The Synchronicity Tour kicked off in Chicago in July 1983, and concluded in March 1984 in Melbourne. During the US stage of the jaunt, the trio were based in a mansion in Bridgehampton, New York, and were flown out to shows around the States as and when. The British leg of the 105-date tour saw them play four nights at Wembley Arena that December. Among the array of support bands there were Madness, an early R.E.M., Talking Heads, James Brown and Joan Jett & The Blackhearts accompanying the line-up on what would become one of the biggest- grossing tours of the decade.
    But as for the future of the band? Well, it wasn't rosy. Sure, the cash from the most successful tour of the year was nice, and Sting earning on average $2,000 a day from airplay and royalties of just one song was a comfort, but the end result of becoming the biggest band on the planet saw them sick of the sight of each other.