Synchronicity is the fifth and final studio album by the English rock band the Police, released on 17 June 1983 by A&M Records. The band's most successful release, the album includes the hit singles "Every Breath You Take", "King of Pain", "Wrapped Around Your Finger", and "Synchronicity II". The album's title and much of the material for the songs were inspired by Arthur Koestler's book The Roots of Coincidence (1972). At the 1984 Grammy Awards the album was nominated for a total of five awards, including Album of the Year, and won three. At the time of its release and following the Synchronicity Tour, the Police's popularity was at such a high that they were arguably, according to BBC and The Guardian, the "biggest band in the world".
Synchronicity reached number one on both the UK Albums Chart and the US Billboard 200, and sold over eight million copies in the US. The album was widely acclaimed by critics. Praise centered on its cohesive merging of disparate genres and sonic experimentation. Rolling Stone described "each cut on Synchronicity [as] not simply a song but a miniature, discrete soundtrack".</blockquote>As with Ghost in the Machine, the recording for Synchronicity took place over a period of six weeks, at AIR Studios in Montserrat with the Neve 8078 console beginning in December 1982. The three band members recorded the basic tracks live in separate rooms: Stewart Copeland with his drums in the dining room (connected to the control room via video link), Sting in the control room, and guitarist Andy Summers in the actual studio. According to co-producer and engineer Hugh Padgham, this was done for two reasons: to obtain the best sound for each instrument and "for social reasons."
During the recording of "Every Breath You Take", Sting and Copeland came to blows with each other, and Padgham nearly quit the project.</blockquote>As recalled in an interview with Studio Sound magazine, Padgham described the routine during the mixing sessions: in the mornings, he would do much of the mixing work while the band were off skiing, then they would return to the studio to help fine-tune the mix by suggesting a few changes and so on. Contrary to this, however, in later interviews he recalled that due to tensions within the group, at least one member of the band would be present at the studio while the other(s) would be skiing. In the most common version Sting is reading a copy of Carl Jung's Synchronicity (1960) on the front cover along with a superimposed negative 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.
Release
Synchronicity was released in the United Kingdom on 17 June 1983. The album was issued on LP, CD, and cassette. Synchronicity debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart and spent two weeks at the top position. In the United States, the album topped the Billboard 200 in late July and ultimately spent 17 nonconsecutive weeks at number one on the chart, interrupting the dominance of Michael Jackson's Thriller (1982). In Canada, the album went to number one for a record 24 (consecutive) weeks. Synchronicity's 24 weeks at number one surpassed the Saturday Night Fever Soundtrack (22 consecutive weeks) for most weeks at number one all-time on the Canadian album charts. It was itself surpassed in 2012 by Adele's album 21 (35 nonconsecutive weeks.) Synchronicity still holds the record for most consecutive weeks at number one in Canada with 24.
Original A&M vinyl pressings were made with a Quiex II process where the record appears black on the turntable but when held up to light turns an opaque purple.
The album was reissued as a remastered gold CD in 1989 by Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab, and on SACD in 2003.
On 29 May 2024, 41 years after the original release, it was announced that a deluxe 6-CD box set (plus a 4-LP box set, picture disc LP, 2-CD and 2-LP colour vinyl) would be released on 26 July to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Synchronicity. This would represent the first time that any material by the band had been given the deluxe treatment, with various editions featuring up to 55 previously unreleased tracks including all original 7” / 12” b-sides plus 11 exclusive non-album bonus tracks, 36 demos or early mixes plus a live show from the accompanying tour. The box set saw a release on 26 July 2024.
Critical reception
Professional music critics at the time of release and afterwards have been mostly positive towards the album. Richard Cook of NME called Synchronicity "a record of real passion that is impossible to truly decipher", and felt that "although [the album] magnifies the difference between Sting and Summers and Copeland it also evolves the group into a unique state: a mega-band playing off glittering experimentation against the sounding board of a giant audience. It's the sound of a group coming apart and coming together, a widescreen drama with a fascination at a molecular level. Some of the music fuses intuitive pop genius with willfully dense orchestration so powerfully it stuns. It is occasionally sensational."
Reviewing the 2003 reissue, Mojos David Buckley stated that "Synchronicity [...] was already, in the time-honoured words of rock journo cliché, 'the work of a disintegrating unit', yet 20 years on it hangs together well". Tom Doyle of Mojo deems it an unusual art rock album whose content contrasted with its major success, adding that although some songs suffer from "the thin, digital reverb-y aural trends of the era," Padgham was nonetheless an ideal choice for co-producer due to his engineering of Peter Gabriel's eponymous 1980 album, "whose echoes could be heard in the marimba-led atmosphere of 'King of Pain' or the sequenced polyrhythms of 'Walking In Your Footsteps'."
In his review of Synchronicity, Stephen Holden from Rolling Stone noted that "corrosively funny 'Mother' inverts John Lennon's romantic maternal attachment into a grim dadaist joke." PopMatters consider the song "awful". Doyle writes that the song was "boldly tracklisted midway through side one" and described Summers' lead vocal as "[involving] a manic, screaming performance that sounds as if he's auditioning to be Adrian Belew's replacement in (the similarly troubled) King Crimson." It was voted the fifth best album of 1983 in The Village Voices year-end Pazz & Jop critics' poll. At the 1984 Grammy Awards ceremony, Synchronicity won the award for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal, and was nominated for Album of the Year. "Every Breath You Take" won the awards for Song of the Year and Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals, Pitchfork ranked the record at No. 55 on its 2002 list of the decade's 100 best albums. In 2006, Q placed Synchronicity at No. 25 on its list of the 40 best 1980s albums. In 2016, Paste ranked Synchronicity sixth on its list of the 50 best new wave albums, and 17th on its list of the 50 best post-punk albums.
Synchronicity has appeared on numerous rankings of the greatest albums of all time. In 2000, it was listed at No. 91 in the Virgin All Time Top 1000 Albums book. In 2003, Synchronicity was ranked No. 455 on Rolling Stones list of the 500 greatest albums of all time; the album also placed on updates of the list in 2012 (at No. 448) and in 2020 (at No. 159). In 2010, Consequence listed it as the 37th best album of all time. Synchronicity was ranked 50th in VH1's 2001 countdown of the "100 Greatest Albums of Rock & Roll", and 65th in Channel 4's "100 Greatest Albums" in 2005. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame compiled a list of "The Definitive 200" albums in 2007, placing Synchronicity at No. 119. In 2009, Synchronicity was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. In 2013, it placed at No. 13 in BBC Radio 2's "Top 100 Favourite Albums", a poll voted in by over 100,000 people. Synchronicity was included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die (2005). Synchronicity was selected by the US Library of Congress for preservation in the National Recording Registry in 2023.
Track listing
All tracks are written and composed by Sting, except where noted.
Additional tracks
Additional songs recorded during the Synchronicity sessions can be found on other releases:
{|class="wikitable"
! Title
! Source
|-
| "Murder by Numbers"
| "Every Breath You Take"
|-
| "Truth Hits Everybody" (Remix)
| "Every Breath You Take" (UK) <br> "Synchronicity II" (Europe)
|-
| "Someone to Talk To"
| "Wrapped Around Your Finger" (UK) <br> "King of Pain" (US)
"Synchronicity I" (JP)
|-
| "Once Upon a Daydream"
| "Synchronicity II"
|}
Personnel
Adapted from the album's liner notes and Richard Buskin.
The Police
- Sting – lead vocals, backing vocals, bass guitar, synthesisers, piano, electric upright bass, pan flute ("Walking in Your Footsteps"), oboe ("Tea in the Sahara"), sequencer ("Synchronicity I" and "Walking in Your Footsteps")
- Robbie Whelan – assistant engineer (Le Studio, uncredited)
- Bob Ludwig – mastering
- Jeff Ayeroff – art direction, design
- Norman Moore – art direction, design
- Duane Michals – photography
Charts
Weekly charts
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center;"
|+1983–1984 weekly chart performance for Synchronicity
! scope="col"| Chart (1983–1984)
! scope="col"| Peak<br />position
|-
! scope="row"| Australian Albums (Kent Music Report)
| 1
|-
|-
|-
|-
|-
! scope="row"| Italian Albums (Musica e dischi)
| 1
|-
! scope="row"| Japanese Albums (Oricon)
|17
|-
|-
|-
!scope="row"|Spanish Albums (AFYVE)
|align="center"|1
|-
|-
|-
|-
|}
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center;"
|+2024 weekly chart performance for Synchronicity
! scope="col"| Chart (2024)
! scope="col"| Peak<br />position
|-
|-
|-
|-
|}
Year-end charts
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center;"
! scope="col"| Chart (1983)
! scope="col"| Position
|-
! scope="row"| Australian Albums (Kent Music Report)
|3
|-
! scope="row"| Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)
|23
|-
! scope="row" | New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)
| 8
|-
! scope="row"| UK Albums (Gallup)
|11
|-
! scope="row"| US Billboard 200
|3
|}
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center;"
! scope="col"| Chart (1984)
! scope="col"| Position
|-
! scope="row"| Australian Albums (Kent Music Report)
|26
|-
! scope="row" | New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)
| 43
|-
! scope="row"| US Billboard 200
|8
|}