Synchronicity (album)
Encyclopedia
Synchronicity is the fifth and final studio album
Studio album
A studio album is an album made up of tracks recorded in the controlled environment of a recording studio. A studio album contains newly written and recorded or previously unreleased or remixed material, distinguishing itself from a compilation or reissue album of previously recorded material, or...

 by The Police
The Police
The Police were an English rock band formed in London in 1977. For the vast majority of their history, the band consisted of Sting , Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland...

, released in 1983. The band's most popular release, Synchronicity includes the hit songs "Every Breath You Take
Every Breath You Take
"Every Breath You Take" is a song by The Police on the band's 1983 album Synchronicity, written by Sting and Andy Summers . The single was one of the biggest hits of 1983, topping the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart for eight weeks and the UK Singles Chart for four weeks. It also topped the...

", "King of Pain
King of Pain
"King of Pain" is a song by The Police, originally released on their 1983 album Synchronicity.It was released as a worldwide single by A&M Records...

", "Wrapped Around Your Finger
Wrapped Around Your Finger
"Wrapped Around Your Finger" is the second UK single from The Police's 1983 album Synchronicity. It was released worldwide by A&M Records and featured non-album track "Someone To Talk To" as a b-side....

", and "Synchronicity II
Synchronicity II
"Synchronicity II" is a song by The Police, described by People Weekly as "aggressive" and "steely." It was recorded in 1983 and was included on the album Synchronicity. It was released as a single in the UK and the U.S. by A&M Records. The third single from the album, it reached number 17 in the...

".

History

The album's title was inspired by Arthur Koestler
Arthur Koestler
Arthur Koestler CBE was a Hungarian author and journalist. Koestler was born in Budapest and, apart from his early school years, was educated in Austria...

's The Roots of Coincidence
The Roots of Coincidence
The Roots of Coincidence, written by Arthur Koestler, is an accessible introduction to theories of parapsychology, including extra-sensory perception and psychokinesis. It postulates links between elements of quantum mechanics, such as the behaviour of neutrinos and their interaction with time, and...

, which mentions Carl Jung
Carl Jung
Carl Gustav Jung was a Swiss psychiatrist and the founder of Analytical Psychology. Jung is considered the first modern psychiatrist to view the human psyche as "by nature religious" and make it the focus of exploration. Jung is one of the best known researchers in the field of dream analysis and...

's theory of synchronicity
Synchronicity
Synchronicity is the experience of two or more events that are apparently causally unrelated or unlikely to occur together by chance and that are observed to occur together in a meaningful manner...

. Sting was an avid reader of Koestler, and also named Ghost in the Machine after one of his works.

The album marked a significant reduction in the reggae
Reggae
Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...

 influences that were a part of the band's first four records, instead featuring production-heavy textures and liberal use of synthesizers that, at times, drove entire songs ("Synchronicity I", "Wrapped Around Your Finger"). The influence of World music
World music
World music is a term with widely varying definitions, often encompassing music which is primarily identified as another genre. This is evidenced by world music definitions such as "all of the music in the world" or "somebody else's local music"...

 can also be heard in songs such as "Tea in the Sahara" and "Walking in Your Footsteps".

As with their prior album, the basic tracks for Synchronicity were recorded at AIR Studios, Montserrat
Montserrat
Montserrat is a British overseas territory located in the Leeward Islands, part of the chain of islands called the Lesser Antilles in the West Indies. This island measures approximately long and wide, giving of coastline...

. For sound engineering reasons, the three band members recorded their parts in separate rooms: Copeland with his drums in the dining room, Sting in the control room, and Summers in the actual studio. According to co-producer Hugh Padgham, subsequent overdubs were done with only one member in the studio at a time.

During the recording of "Every Breath You Take
Every Breath You Take
"Every Breath You Take" is a song by The Police on the band's 1983 album Synchronicity, written by Sting and Andy Summers . The single was one of the biggest hits of 1983, topping the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart for eight weeks and the UK Singles Chart for four weeks. It also topped the...

", Sting and Copeland came to blows with each other, and Padgham nearly quit the project.

The album was published in the UK and USA on both LP and CD in 1983, and on super audio CD
Super Audio CD
Super Audio CD is a high-resolution, read-only optical disc for audio storage. Sony and Philips Electronics jointly developed the technology, and publicized it in 1999. It is designated as the Scarlet Book standard. Sony and Philips previously collaborated to define the Compact Disc standard...

 in 2003. In 1989 it was published as a remastered gold CD
Gold CD
A gold CD is one in which gold is used in place of the super purity aluminiumcommonly used as the reflective coating on ordinary CDs or silver on ordinary CD-RsThe gold coats more evenly and reacts with oxygen more slowly, thus...

. It was reissued as a remastered digipack CD in 2003.

Songs

"Synchronicity I" starts the album off with a sequencer line that repeats throughout the song. Its lyrics include a term from "The Second Coming
The Second Coming (poem)
"The Second Coming" is a poem composed by Irish poet William Butler Yeats in 1919 and first printed in The Dial and afterwards included in his 1921 collection of verses titled Michael Robartes and the Dancer. The poem uses Christian imagery regarding the Apocalypse and second coming as allegory to...

", "Spiritus Mundi" (literally "spirit of the world"), which William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats was an Irish poet and playwright, and one of the foremost figures of 20th century literature. A pillar of both the Irish and British literary establishments, in his later years he served as an Irish Senator for two terms...

 used to refer to the collective unconscious
Collective unconscious
Collective unconscious is a term of analytical psychology, coined by Carl Jung. It is proposed to be a part of the unconscious mind, expressed in humanity and all life forms with nervous systems, and describes how the structure of the psyche autonomously organizes experience...

, another of Jung's theories. "Walking in Your Footsteps" features lyrics concerning the relation between extinct
Extinction
In biology and ecology, extinction is the end of an organism or of a group of organisms , normally a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and recover may have been lost before this point...

 dinosaur
Dinosaur
Dinosaurs are a diverse group of animals of the clade and superorder Dinosauria. They were the dominant terrestrial vertebrates for over 160 million years, from the late Triassic period until the end of the Cretaceous , when the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event led to the extinction of...

s and humans, and is followed by the jazzy "O My God." (The song recycles some lyrics from two earlier Police songs: "Three O'Clock Shit," which was never recorded on an album but was widely bootlegged from live performances, and the 1981 single "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic
Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic
"Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic" is a song by British rock group The Police from their album Ghost in the Machine. It was also a hit single that reached the top of the charts in the United Kingdom in November 1981 and hit number three on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart that same...

.") "Mother" features screamed vocals by Summers and a frantic guitar line reminiscent of Robert Fripp
Robert Fripp
Robert Fripp is an English guitarist, composer and record producer. He was ranked 42nd on Rolling Stone magazine's 2003 list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" and #47 on Gibson.com’s "Top 50 Guitarists of All Time". Among rock guitarists, Fripp is a master of crosspicking, a technique...

 (with whom Summers had previously recorded), and "Miss Gradenko" is a song about a romance in the middle of a communist
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...

 bureaucracy
Bureaucracy
A bureaucracy is an organization of non-elected officials of a governmental or organization who implement the rules, laws, and functions of their institution, and are occasionally characterized by officialism and red tape.-Weberian bureaucracy:...

. "Synchronicity II
Synchronicity II
"Synchronicity II" is a song by The Police, described by People Weekly as "aggressive" and "steely." It was recorded in 1983 and was included on the album Synchronicity. It was released as a single in the UK and the U.S. by A&M Records. The third single from the album, it reached number 17 in the...

" features extensive use of audio feedback
Audio feedback
Audio feedback is a special kind of positive feedback which occurs when a sound loop exists between an audio input and an audio output...

.

"Every Breath You Take", which begins side two of the record is possibly The Police's best-known song, with Sting's vocals on top of a steady rhythm featuring picked guitar, strong bass, and controlled drumming. Originally, the song was what Andy Summers called a "Hammond organ
Hammond organ
The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond in 1934 and manufactured by the Hammond Organ Company. While the Hammond organ was originally sold to churches as a lower-cost alternative to the wind-driven pipe organ, in the 1960s and 1970s it became a standard keyboard...

 thing that sounded like Billy Preston
Billy Preston
William Everett "Billy" Preston was a musician who gained notoriety and fame, first as a session musician for the likes of Sam Cooke, Ray Charles and The Beatles, and later finding fame as a solo artist with hits such as "Space Race", "Will It Go Round in Circles" and "Nothing from...

." The guitarist came up with a more interesting guitar riff which became distinctive part of the piece. The song, released before the album, went to #1 on both the U.S. and UK charts, aided by a black and white video directed by Godley & Creme
Godley & Creme
Godley & Creme were an English pop music duo composed of Kevin Godley and Lol Creme. The pair began releasing albums as a duo after splitting from the pop band 10cc. In 1979 they directed their first music video for their own single "An Englishman in New York"...

.

"King of Pain
King of Pain
"King of Pain" is a song by The Police, originally released on their 1983 album Synchronicity.It was released as a worldwide single by A&M Records...

" features a lyrical imagery and numerous effects and instruments, while "Wrapped Around Your Finger
Wrapped Around Your Finger
"Wrapped Around Your Finger" is the second UK single from The Police's 1983 album Synchronicity. It was released worldwide by A&M Records and featured non-album track "Someone To Talk To" as a b-side....

" uses subdued keyboards. The record's closer, "Tea in the Sahara", is a quiet, eerie song about three women who are deceived by a prince and left in the desert, where they meet their death. The title of this song comes from a section of Paul Bowles
Paul Bowles
Paul Frederic Bowles was an American expatriate composer, author, and translator.Following a cultured middle-class upbringing in New York City, during which he displayed a talent for music and writing, Bowles pursued his education at the University of Virginia before making various trips to Paris...

' novel The Sheltering Sky
The Sheltering Sky
The Sheltering Sky is a 1949 novel by Paul Bowles. The story centers on Port and Kit Moresby, a married couple originally from New York who travel to the North African desert accompanied by their friend Tunner...

, which mentions the story. "Murder By Numbers", originally the B-side of "Every Breath You Take", was added to the CD and cassette versions of the album, and has lyrics comparing political power to the development of a serial killer
Serial killer
A serial killer, as typically defined, is an individual who has murdered three or more people over a period of more than a month, with down time between the murders, and whose motivation for killing is usually based on psychological gratification...

.

The album's original cover artwork was available in 36 variations, with different arrangements of the colour stripes and showing different photographs of the band members, which they took themselves. In the most common version Sting is reading a copy of Jung's Synchronicity on the front cover along with a negative/superimposed image of the actual text of the synchronicity hypothesis. A photo on the back cover also shows a close-up, but mirrored and upside-down, image of Jung's book.
The original vinyl release appears black like most records, but is actually purple when held up to the light.

Reception

Synchronicity topped the album charts in both the UK and USA (interrupting the dominance of Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...

's Thriller
Thriller (album)
Thriller is the sixth studio album by American recording artist Michael Jackson. It was released on November 30, 1982, by Epic Records as the follow-up to Jackson's critically and commercially successful 1979 album Off the Wall...

in the US). It won a Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal
Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal
The Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal was awarded between 1980 and 2011.The award was discontinued after the 2011 award season in a major overhaul of Grammy categories...

.

In 2001, the TV network VH1
VH1
VH1 or Vh1 is an American cable television network based in New York City. Launched on January 1, 1985 in the old space of Turner Broadcasting's short-lived Cable Music Channel, the original purpose of the channel was to build on the success of MTV by playing music videos, but targeting a slightly...

 named Synchronicity the 50th greatest album of all time. In 2003, the album was ranked number 455 on Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...

magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time
The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
"The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" is the title of a 2003 special issue of American magazine Rolling Stone, and a related book published in 2005.Related news articles:...

. Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media, usually known simply as Pitchfork or P4k, is a Chicago-based daily Internet publication established in 1995 that is devoted to music criticism and commentary, music news, and artist interviews. Its focus is on underground and independent music, especially indie rock...

 ranked it #55 in their list of The 100 Greatest Albums of the 1980s. In 2006, Q magazine placed the album at #25 in its list of "40 Best Albums of the '80s".

Track listing

All songs written by Sting except where noted.
  1. "Synchronicity I" – 3:23
  2. "Walking in Your Footsteps" – 3:36
  3. "O My God" – 4:02
  4. "Mother" (Andy Summers
    Andy Summers
    Andy Summers is an English guitarist born in Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire, England. Best known as the guitarist for rock band The Police, he has also recorded twelve solo albums, collaborated with many other artists, toured extensively under his own name, published several books, and composed...

    ) – 3:05
  5. "Miss Gradenko" (Stewart Copeland
    Stewart Copeland
    Stewart Armstrong Copeland is an American musician, best known as the drummer for the band The Police. During the group's extended hiatus from the mid-1980s to 2007, he played in other bands and composed soundtracks...

    ) – 2:00
  6. "Synchronicity II
    Synchronicity II
    "Synchronicity II" is a song by The Police, described by People Weekly as "aggressive" and "steely." It was recorded in 1983 and was included on the album Synchronicity. It was released as a single in the UK and the U.S. by A&M Records. The third single from the album, it reached number 17 in the...

    " – 5:02
  7. "Every Breath You Take
    Every Breath You Take
    "Every Breath You Take" is a song by The Police on the band's 1983 album Synchronicity, written by Sting and Andy Summers . The single was one of the biggest hits of 1983, topping the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart for eight weeks and the UK Singles Chart for four weeks. It also topped the...

    " – 4:13
  8. "King of Pain
    King of Pain
    "King of Pain" is a song by The Police, originally released on their 1983 album Synchronicity.It was released as a worldwide single by A&M Records...

    " – 4:59
  9. "Wrapped Around Your Finger
    Wrapped Around Your Finger
    "Wrapped Around Your Finger" is the second UK single from The Police's 1983 album Synchronicity. It was released worldwide by A&M Records and featured non-album track "Someone To Talk To" as a b-side....

    " – 5:13
  10. "Tea in the Sahara" – 4:19
  11. "Murder by Numbers" (Words: Sting, Music: Andy Summers) – 4:36 (Not included on original LP release.)


Three other songs were recorded as B-sides.
  1. "Someone to Talk To" (Summers)
  2. "Once Upon a Daydream" (Sting, Summers)
  3. "Tea in the Sahara (Live)"

Personnel

  • Sting – bass
    Bass guitar
    The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....

    , keyboards
    Keyboard instrument
    A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...

    , lead vocals, backing vocals, oboe
    Oboe
    The oboe is a double reed musical instrument of the woodwind family. In English, prior to 1770, the instrument was called "hautbois" , "hoboy", or "French hoboy". The spelling "oboe" was adopted into English ca...

    , drum machine
    Drum machine
    A drum machine is an electronic musical instrument designed to imitate the sound of drums or other percussion instruments. They are used in a variety of musical genres, not just purely electronic music...

     on "Synchronicity I", saxophone
    Saxophone
    The saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...

     on "O My God"
  • Andy Summers
    Andy Summers
    Andy Summers is an English guitarist born in Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire, England. Best known as the guitarist for rock band The Police, he has also recorded twelve solo albums, collaborated with many other artists, toured extensively under his own name, published several books, and composed...

     – electric guitar
    Electric guitar
    An electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...

    , keyboards
    Keyboard instrument
    A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...

    , lead vocals on "Mother" and "Someone to Talk To", backing vocals on "Someone to Talk To"
  • Stewart Copeland
    Stewart Copeland
    Stewart Armstrong Copeland is an American musician, best known as the drummer for the band The Police. During the group's extended hiatus from the mid-1980s to 2007, he played in other bands and composed soundtracks...

     – drums
    Drum kit
    A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....

    , xylophone
    Xylophone
    The xylophone is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars struck by mallets...

    , miscellaneous percussion
    Percussion instrument
    A percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement or when it is shaken, rubbed, scraped, or otherwise acted upon in a way that sets the object into vibration...


Production

  • Hugh Padgham
    Hugh Padgham
    Hugh Padgham is a British record producer. He has won many awards, including four Grammys, with Producer of the Year and Engineer of the Year. A 1992 poll in Mix magazine voted him one of the world's Top Ten Most Influential Producers....

     – production, engineering
  • Dave Collins, Bob Ludwig
    Bob Ludwig
    Bob Ludwig is an American mastering engineer.He is a well known and respected figure within the music industry. His name is credited on the covers of albums released across the world, and he has won numerous awards....

     – mastering
  • Jeffrey Kent Ayeroff, Norman Moore, Vartan – art direction
  • Jeffrey Kent Ayeroff, Norman Moore – design
  • Duane Michals
    Duane Michals
    Duane Michals is an American photographer. Michals' work makes innovative use of photo-sequences, often incorporating text to examine emotion and philosophy.-Education and career:...

     – photography

Album

Year Chart Position
1983 UK Albums Chart
UK Albums Chart
The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart...

1
The Billboard 200
Australian Kent Music Report
Kent Music Report
The Kent Music Report was a weekly record chart of Australian music singles and albums which was compiled by music enthusiast David Kent from May 1974 through to 1998...

 Albums Chart

Singles

Year Single Chart Position
1983 "Every Breath You Take" UK Singles Chart
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...

1
Adult Contemporary 5
Club Play Singles 26
Mainstream Rock 1
The Billboard Hot 100 1
"King of Pain" Adult Contemporary 33
Mainstream Rock 1
The Billboard Hot 100 3
"Synchronicity II" UK Singles Chart 17
Mainstream Rock 9
The Billboard Hot 100 16
"Wrapped Around Your Finger" UK Singles Chart 7
Mainstream Rock 9
1984 Adult Contemporary 13
The Billboard Hot 100 8
"King of Pain" UK Singles Chart 17

Awards

Year Winner Award Category
1983 "Every Breath You Take" Grammy Awards Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal
Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal
The Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals was awarded between 1966 and 2011...

Song of the Year
Grammy Award for Song of the Year
The Song of the Year is one of the four most prestigious awards in the Grammy Awards ceremony, if not in all of the American music industry. It has been awarded since 1959 and unlike the Record of the Year award, which goes to the performer and production team of a single song, Song of the Year...

Synchronicity Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal
Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal
The Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal was awarded between 1980 and 2011.The award was discontinued after the 2011 award season in a major overhaul of Grammy categories...

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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