What does it sound like?:
In 1983, Synchronicity and its big single, Every Breathe You Take, put The Police on top of the world, right up there with David Bowie’s Let’s Dance and Michael Jackson’s Thriller. The numbers are mind boggling: 15.8 million sales of the original nine track LP, 3.8 million for the seven inch. Every Breathe You Take is the best selling single of 1983 in the USA and became the most played song on the radio ever in 1999, a position it holds today. Puff Diddy sampled it, without permission, for I’ll Be Missing You, a record that enjoyed an even longer stint at number one in 1997. All its royalties go to Sting as well. This one song accounts for an estimated third of all Sting’s royalties income, earning him £2000 a day for a prolonged period. The creator of the distinctive guitar figure, Andy Summers, gets no credit at all. The subsequent tour was one of the highest grossing of a money-spinning eighties, and like most of the album, the music was stripped down to just the three musicians. They were officially the biggest band in the world, crowned by a triumphant performance at Shea Stadium, at which point, at the top of the mountain, Sting decided to quit.
Its recording, in George Martin’s AIR Studios in Montserrat, was completed in just six weeks, plenty of time for Sting and Stewart Copeland to come to blows, the band clinging on after an intervention by their manager, Miles Copeland, brother of Stewart. They ended up recording their parts in different rooms. Hugh Padgam, the producer, said this was done to get the best sound for each instrument and for “social reasons”. Fortunately, they had a lot of songs ready to go, many following on from The Ghost In The Machine’s lyrical inspiration of Arthur Koestler, and moving on to Carl Jung. This was a band a long way from the cutesy new wave reggae act singing about a prostitute. Musically, having previously indulged in multiple overdubs, they tried to revert to just bass, drum and guitar, but found themselves drawn to the polyrhythms of Africa and the atmospherics of synthesised keyboards. Side One is experimental, featuring a snoring roadie playing the role of the Loch Ness Monster and a deranged, oedipal Mother, screeched by Andy Summers. It’s an interesting idea to ask your devoted fans to wade through the worst tracks first. Side Two is a masterclass of sleek, polished pop, perfectly disguising the psychopathology of a stalker, a major depressive, a coercive controller, delusional behaviour in a baking sun, and, if you include the track added to the end of the CD and cassette, a cold-blooded murderer. Indeed, if you take Sting’s lyrics across the album at face value, you will fear for his mental health and the risk he might pose to others. To be fair, at the time, he was enduring a messy divorce and major stress at work with an unruly band.
The Police are notorious for failing to reach agreement among its members, so this, the first super deluxe box set of any of their albums, has been in the pipeline for three years. CD1 is the album itself. CD2 B sides to all the singles, each of which had bespoke studio songs and various live tracks, with a number recorded 3rd November 1983 at The Omni, Atlanta. CDs 3 and 4 follow the development of each song from demo, through instrumental and outtake to remix. Synchronicity II enjoys five tracks in a row, but, thankfully, Mother has just two. CD 4 concludes with songs recorded at the time that didn’t make the album. CDs 5 and 6 consist of the previously unreleased live recording of a concert at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, California on 10th September 1983. Jason Draper describes the album’s eventful creation in a 60 page hardback book. The inner sleeves are are all variations of the art work, bearing in mind there were thirty-six different versions of the original cover in 1983. There is a 4 vinyl version, absent the gig and some of the alternative versions. CDs 1 and 2 are available as a smaller edition and there is a picture disc LP with a different, more sensible, track sequencing, Every Breathe You Take and Wrapped Around Your Finger switching to side one. There is no Blu-ray, no Atmos, no 5.1 Surroundsound. Perhaps, Paul Sinclair of superdeluxeedition will persuade them to release a stand alone Blu-ray in time for Christmas.
What does it all *mean*?
There is plenty here for the dedicated Police enthusiast to revel in and the trimmed down physical products should appeal more widely. It’s a very satisfactory box set, apart from the lack of a Blu-ray, that may well open the floodgates for the other four Police albums.
Goes well with…
A CD player.
Release Date:
26/07/2024
Might suit people who like…
A band reaching their zenith and staring down the precipice at the same time.
King Of Pain (demo)
Wow you are busy!
Personally I don’t think The Police ever made a completely satisfactory album. Good singles band. Maybe this is the best one.
Agree, just didn’t hang together over a whole album. For me the best is a straight fight between this one and Ghost In The Machine. And that was where band relationships started to decline, and decline even further on this one.
If they’d hung on – maybe recording on different continents- the next one could’ve been even better
Summers and Copeland lifted Sting’s songs in a way that few ‘junior partners’ ever did in a band. Compare that demo above with the finished product and you appreciate what extraordinary musicians they are. Unfortunately, they couldn’t actually write songs and the band agreement that they get a song each on every album made the LPs uneven and, ultimately, less than stellar.
I think Summers has reached some financial arrangement for Every Breath You Take. One e in breath, btw.
I think the kindle spellchecker is the worst ever. 😉
I know Andy Summers has spoken out about the royalties re Every Breath, but surely he would still at least earn the going rate for performing on the song – as would Stuart Copeland and Sting. Given its success and still-frequent plays on radio and online, that should mean that he’s probably keeping the wolf from a very nice door. OK, he might not be in Sting’s league cash-wise, but I’m sure there’s many a guitarist that would kill for his sort of income.
Re this release, 6 CDs is more than enough Police for me, but I’m looking forward to hearing the 2CD version. For me it is easily their best album (despite Mother). The more they moved away from reggae, the more interesting they sounded. EBYT, Wrapped Around Your Finger, and Synchronicity II are all terrific songs.
There was an illuminating interview with the three members for the reunion tour where Sting mentions how united they all are, and Stewart Copeland immediately tears into him about Andy not getting EBYT royalties. Copeland seems to delight in antagonising Sting, or ‘Stingo’ as he loves to say. You can see why they split up again.
I recall Copeland presenting a couple of series about music and musicians, where he came across as quite knowledgeable and passionate, but his use of “Stingo” to wind up Sting does seem a bit childish.
I think Sting, great songwriter as he is, fully deserves his tendency to pomposity being punctured.
If Sting didn’t so obviously fume about it, Copeland probably wouldn’t do it so much. And maybe they’d even get along better.
Copeland came from a rich family, didn’t he? I reckon if he’d been a pauper, he may have been a little less scathing of Stingo!
All three members of the Police have been interviewed separately over the past few years by Rick Beato on his YouTube channel. They all seem to get on now – both Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland had high praise for Sting’s songwriting abilities and musicianship, and Andy Summers when asked about royalties from Puff Daddy’s sampling of Every Breath said that a very satisfactory arrangement had been reached. Andy Summers – very well preserved for a man pushing 80 – was very interesting as one of that generation who were in at the start of rock in the UK, and how he went from jazz into r and b, early prog with Dantalian’s Chariot and so on. And also on how Bournemouth, of all places, had a lively scene – Robert Fripp, Greg Lake, Al Stewart, Zoot Money and others.
There is an Andy Summers doc – Can’t Stand Losing You – on Amazon Prime. Tis worth a watch
John Wetton was another?Some of them – I think – went to Lansdowne Art College in Bournemouth. Part of what was the Dorset Institute of H.E, with sites in Bournemouth and Weymouth.
I would have seen the early Police if I’d only worked out how to get to Paris for a Strontium 90 gig.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strontium_90:_Police_Academy
and a Gong reunion.
Huzzah!
Greatest group from A.F.C. Bournemouth?
Tricky business.
I gest, obvs… Giles, Giles & Fripp, by a significant distance.
Don’t forget Tony Blackburn too!,,
I’ve done my best to.
The interview he did on the Gary Kemp / Guy Pratt podcast a few years ago is well worth a listen. He talks about the songwriting process and the tensions in the band. Came across that now their is a great respect / friendship between them all.
As an aside, Summers’ autobiog, ‘One Train Later’ is worth attention.
He seemed happy with life, the universe and everything at the time he wrote it. The title deriving from his chance meeting with Copeland on a Piccadilly Line tube. They already knew each other but this bumping into each other resulted in Summers entering Stingo’s orbit.
If he’d taken one train later, etc…
6 CDs of The Police.. my cup truly runneth over. Just give me a minute to place my todger in this here mincer and I’ll be with you.
Tiggs: Fleetwood Mac followed by The Police? However much he’s paying, it’s not enough!
You obviously have overlooked The Beastie Boys.
Not sure I can comment anymore, there seems to be a lot of blood here..
I think the best Police songs might be Walking On The Moon, Invisible Sun and King Of Pain. I didn’t note any particular liking for this album in this review. Hepworth likes to Hep on about Every Breath You Take and how The Police are all about that one song. Like the rest of their back cat doesn’t matter. He has a point. EBYT is a tiresome dirge that wouldn’t shut up in the 80s.
Always found their stuff strangely unarresting
It’s a fair cop.
Stewart Copeland was one of the most inventive drummers of the era & on EBYT he’s reduced to just marking time.
This clip from the reunion tour gives a better example of his abilities
It’s the restrained anger he brings to EBYT that gives it a sense of menace. I think Sting was right on that one.
Hmmm. Love the “Hep On” phrase. Will use. As often is the case, he takes a fragment of an idea, overlooks every other argument in order to keep screeching. I agree Moon, Sun and Pain are great songs. EBYT is not so much a song as a ‘track’ – a great track. It’s sonic landscape ( so sorry) is what the radio hears and why people have used it as a wedding song!
Biggest obstacle for me with the Police was humorless snob Sting. That and their Alarm-lite coiff. And the Jafakian (SWIDT) vocals. Now, in the slide towards senility, I like a lot of their stuff. Not everything, but enough. Ghost In The Machine (and it took me way too long to “get” that cover), Greatest Hits. And there’s a pretty good slew of solo Stingage, although his slatey-faced self importance still weighs against him. His music doesn’t apparently have the power to make him joyful, so it’s a spirit he can’t give to the world, but there’s something to be said for his cold, academic approach to pop, a genre he feels he was born above. It is, at the least, musical.
Around this time, Sting was enduring the ignominy of a separation and divorce. He did so in a beautiful, isolated mansion in one of the most scenic parts of the world, ensconced in the arms of a gorgeous young woman who shared his enthusiasm for tantric sex.
A Geordie stole my first girlfriend. I’m not bitter. 😐
By the by, I watched as your post go through several iterations. I thought the original one was best 😉
Apparently during one tantric-style sofa session, she asked him if he had an air fryer.
Tell ya truth HP, though I know where you are coming from in your brutal character assessment, I find his solo music often to be very joyful partly because the quality of the musicianship is so high. Not very rock, I know’ but I’m a Beatles not Stones guy.
Was going to post Thommo’s acerbic “Here comes Geordie”, but when a Jackie Leven alternative – however tenuous the connection – is available, he deserves the nod
“Mother” is such dross. Andy was stubbing out a fag end into a sophisticated plateful as a conscious wind-up. He should have known better. I take it that the provocation was done to shit on Sting’s doorstep. When I listened to cassettes, I had a copy of the album without this shite.
He was good in Dantalian’s Chariot, though.
I think U2 have an equal shares policy no-matter-who-wrote-what which must have helped keep them together. I also think I heard Elton say that he paid whatever income tax was due because he figured that the money spent on creative accountants would probably end up being more than the amounts he was trying to save – not to mention the possibility of jail time if he’s got a wrong ‘un doing the job. Also, he didn’t want to leave England for 6 months each year.
Whether they are completely true or not, I like these stories and think the people involved made the right call.
One suspects Larry Mullen was more than happy with the arrangement.
Coldplay do the shared credit thing too, with a 5th share (maybe not equal, but a lesser percentage) for the manager
De drummer is foine
Oi saw him last week at a pap cancert.
Didn’t Queen start doing the equal shares thing after Bo Rap went massive, and they realised that the writer of the B-side (was it Roger in this case?) earned just as much for each sale as whoever wrote the A-side/hit?
I recently read about Genesis doing the same thing, in order to avoid arguments about who contributed what.
On a royalty-related tangent, I always liked the (maybe apocryphal) story about Dave Gilmour making sure that Astronomy Domine was included on the Pulse live album so that Syd’s cut of the royalties would support him till the end of his days. A nice gesture for his old mate.
Queen had the odd thing from about 86 where the credit was “Queen” (presumably so all income went to Queen inc) but each writer was still listed separately.
Publishing? Bragging rights? Trying not to get Roger another country mansion?
REM adopted the same egalitarian songwriting policy, which I’m sure has contributed greatly to their lasting friendship.
What I find astonishing is the idea that the combination of up to Berry, Buck and Mills wrote all their songs as instrumentals, Stipe then writing and adding verses. Seems odd, unless they had their own work in progress temporary lyrics, even if doggerel or vocables.
Some might be unkind and say it sounds often like the words were an after thought, a gnomic hotpotch better left half-baked and mumbled on the earlier stuff, than for his words to suddenly become recognisable and remove all doubt.
Joy Division certainly worked that way. Barney, Hooky and Morris riffing away and then Ian says “I’ve got some words in my bag that might fit”.
U2 did also – the October album could’ve Ben stronger if Bonio’s briefcase had not been nicked.
Could have been worse too.
Half the population of Ireland were in some promising band or other dropped by their record label because they weren’t happy with their second album. That U2’s half assed god bothering opus didn’t sink them is, perhaps, the most remarkable thing about their career. And, yes, I am still bitter that someone saw fit to give it to me as a Christmas present..
1981. A long time to be bitter.
He did manage to come up with stuff like this, he became a great lyric writer in my opinion (believe Mills mainly wrote the tune for this one)
“Hey now, little speedyhead
The read on the speedmeter says
You have to go to task in the city
Where people drown and people serve
Don’t be shy, you’re just dessert
Is only just light years to go
Me, my thoughts are flower strewn
With ocean storm, bayberry moon
I have got to leave to find my way
Watch the road and memorize
This life that pass before my eyes
And nothing is going my way
The ocean is the river’s goal
A need to leave the water knows
We’re closer now than light years to go
I have got to find the river
Bergamot and vetiver
Run through my head and fall away
Leave the road and memorize
This life that pass before my eyes
And nothing is going my way
There’s no one left to take the lead
But I tell you and you can see
We’re closer now than light years to go
Pick up here and chase the ride
The river empties to the tide
Fall into the ocean
The river to the ocean goes
A fortune for the undertow
None of this is going my way
There is nothing left to throw
Of ginger, lemon, indigo
Coriander stem and rose of hay
Strength and courage overrides
The privileged and weary eyes
Of river poet search naïveté
Pick up here and chase the ride
The river empties to the tide
All of this is coming your way”
One of their finest songs. Sometimes it’s not (just) the words, it’s the way they are presented.
I think it’s a very good arrangement: clear division of responsibilities and everyone has a stake in the band. Plus, they all seemed to get on well. Perfect model for a band. It also applies to acts like Rush and the Pet Shop Boys. A recipe for longevity.
My favourite anecdote about the band comes from their very early days. They were asked, “Where did you get the name The Police from?” One of them replied, “We saw it on the side of a car.”
I saw the band live several times, most memorably at the MK Bowl all day festival in 1980, it rained ALL day and was a quagmire by the end but it was a fun day with UB40 at their early peak and Squeeze, Tom Robinson playing entertaining pop hits. The best time I saw them it was the support who blew them away even though they were really tight and plugging the debut album at Aylesbury Friars. I was standing near the back of the hall watching a band called The Bobby Henry Band and noticed a tall guy standing next to me with peroxide hair, thinking he LOOKED to me like he might have been in The Police I asked him “are you Sting?” to which he replied “fuck off, I’m Stewart!” So I politely asked him to sign my Friars membership card and he asked me for a pen, which I didn’t have. So I told him to wait there while I scuttled off to reception and borrowed a Biro and Mr. C kindly scrawled COPELAND on the back of the card. What a gent.
The support that really were incredible that night and The Police could not have competed with in any of their era’s were The Cramps on their first UK tour. They were phenomenal, dirty, loud, rude, scary all the things the main band never were (much as I really liked The Police in those early years) I have never forgotten being blown away by Lux, Ivy, Bryan and Nick and in glorious front row full effect.
The Cramps were in their element live. Great act.
“Blown away by…Ivy…” – where *is* the Moochemeister?
I was a big fan at the time – their music just made me very happy (still makes me happy, but I seldom listen to old albums by anyone anymore), and no other drummer have made me notice and love the drums more than Steward Copeland.
In fact, I disagree with the opinion further up that only Sting could write good tracks in the band, Copeland had a bunch of gems as well – especially on Regatta de Blanc, but he also wrote my favourite track on Ghost in the Machine (Darkness), and later of course the solo album/OST masterpiece that is The Rhythmatist and indeed several brilliant film soundtracks.
I saw the band live twice, and the only memories of those gigs are of his drumming.
I followed Sting’s solo career too at first, but after the first few albums it became way too dull.
But although I don’t hate it, Synchronicity is my least favourite album by The Police and I really don’t feel any need for extra material. I can’t stand demo versions, by anyone. Remixes are hardly ever better than the original. Most live versions of songs (unless you’re there and high on the moment) sound a bit crap. Unreleased tracks tend to have been left off the album for a good reason. I think I can live without this one. For which my wallet is grateful!
@locust
Your comments on demos, remixes, unreleased and live tracks are exactly how I feel. I’m not sure I’ve deliberately bought a reissue.
I agree about demos but sometimes remixes can be better than the original or at least take the song into more interesting places. If they’re doof doof and 9 minutes long I usually can’t be bothered but a neat reinterpretation is often quite satisfying.
Less is more.
No, I’ll go further, Less is ‘always’ more.
No, as you were…
Less is more.
The Beatles Anthology has entered the chat.
Generally speaking, the only time a remixed/remastered version is better than the original is if the mix on the original was bad. Even then it’s not a given.
I agree regarding remixes, but I have a lot of time for live albums, especially where the band add something, even if it’s just a bit of oomph, compared to the original.
To pick a few such bands at random:
Marillion – quite often a live show has convinced me to give their weaker tracks another go, because they’ve been played faster or with extra grit.
Jethro Tull – Ian Anderson is a great frontman, and his stories and flute improvs can transform songs.
Hawkwind – live, they can really let loose. I’m not sure any of their studio albums truly captures the mighty Hawks in full flight.
Duran Duran – for whatever reason, their live sound often seems to emphasise John Taylor’s bass (at least to my ears), reminding you what a good player he is. Arena is a really punchy live album.
I may have been slightly harsh about live recordings (although I suspect I wouldn’t enjoy your personal selection of exemples, sorry!) because there are two or three live albums that I would put in my Top 25 Albums of All Time, but when live tracks appear as bonus material I seldom find them interesting enough to listen to beyond the first exploration.
The best live acts take the studio versions as a template and then do better and better versions of them. Personally I don’t know your choices that well (though have seen Duran Duran live twice!) but would put The Who, Springsteen and Wilco (amongst others) into those categories. I love seeing e.g. Paul McCartney live, but he tends to more or less do a facsimile of the studio version. Still great to witness, but different. Never saw The Police live, but wasn’t impressed by the live footage that I saw on TV. A friend saw the reunion tour and said they were terrible!
Oh you need the Yankee Hotel Foxtrot SDE @Locust 😉
Has it come down in price yet?
But even if it had, I can’t see myself listening to it more than once, because that’s what has happened to other similar ambitious projects which I do own.
Maybe I’ll have the time to make myself appreciate these sort of box sets when I’m finally able to retire!
(But not the DVDs. I never watch the DVDs, not even once. Life’s too short.)
Yes you can get it for a reasonable price in a number of places.
I think this one works well as the recording sessions were so convoluted together with problems within the band and the record company that they effectively made a number of different albums. The final version is, for me, definitive, but there is much gold in the earlier versions. Also some great unreleased songs.
In my experience there are very few music DVDs worth watching more than once or twice.
Stop Making Sense, half a dozen plays. A few others 3 or 4 times. Everything else once. It’s the law.
Roy Orbison Black & White Night
Stones Shine A Light
Grace Jones A One Man Show
Bowie Glastonbury 2000
Floyd At Pompeii
All get regular plays in my house. As would The Rooftop and Summer Of Love it I could get them.
Seen all of those except for the Stones and they’re all much better than the average, but having watched them a couple of times I’m not really motivated to do so again.
Stop Making Sense is an interesting one that I’ve seen several times. Yet again I have no great desire to see it again now.
In what I’ll refer to as run-of-the-mill live concert movies, you get to recognise exactly the same shots in all of them and it gets tedious quite quickly.
They are live albums with visuals. Can be enjoyed without switching the television on every time. Surely everyone here has decent sound setups in such cases. And it’s Blu-ray these days which gives awesome surround sound if you have that possibility. I do
DVD sound is not that great. Decent mp3 quality at best. If you can source the sound files recorded at the time, they can be revelatory.
Concerts that are recorded for Blu-ray will be a lot higher-fi.
But beware Blu-ray updates of DVDs where the sound is the same as the DVD but tweaked-up.
Documentary DVDs are re-watchable. Although I prefer the stand alone DVD versions cos they’re in the same room as the DVD player
I am talking more of the remixes that take the song to another place rather than a better recording technically.
Yebbut sometimes that “other place” is not so great.
Quite a few years back some bright spark at Universal had the notion of getting various “name” remixers to do their stuff on a load of well-regarded historic jazz performances.
That was the “Verve Remixed” series. Results were mostly (to my mind) pretty inferior stuff. But the CDs (and the eventual box set) sold OK.
I have been rationalising my records , a bit. In the collection was a full set of Police records that I didn’t buy. An ex I guess. So I gave them a proper disc wash and gave them an appraisal. They all went in the “ to sell” box but I kept Sting’s double live with Branford Marsalis et al and the Blue Turtle album.
You got rid of Every Breath You Take: The Singles?
That wasn’t there. Just the “proper” albums.
Phew!
It got the half speed master treatment a couple of years ago. I picked up the studio albums box cheap so didn’t bother. I think I got the collected b-sides LP cheap too. Probably enough Polis for me.
You picked it up for peanuts @fentonsteve?
Chapeau!