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The Police: Synchronicity | Extended Play Lounge Episode 109 (Patreon)

Published:
2026-03-04 04:28:45
Edited:
2026-04-17 04:10:08
Imported:
2026-03
Tags:

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Content

I was just young enough and just sheltered enough to miss this album as it came upon the scene. I've come to know the big singles in the intervening years, but many of these songs were first time listens for me. There emotional and musical surprises around every corner! I hope you enjoy this first EPL that features The Police. :)

Files

The Police: Synchronicity | Extended Play Lounge: Episode 109

Comments

BRIAN MILLER

"Weird Al" Yankovic recorded a song called "King of Suede." It was released in 1984 on his album In 3-D. The song is a parody of "King of Pain" by The Police. You might want to include it in a future ZOOM session.

DonHaka

I really love 'Mother', I don't mind it's place on the album at all. It's one of my favorite Police tunes, it's sort of Crimson-esque in a way (Summers and Fripp are friends and have collaborated so not too strange), and I am generally into that kind of artsy, expressionist, experimental stuff. From what I've heard, they chose to have 'Mother' on the album precisely because it was so crazy and hysterical.

Bill Brinkmoeller

The line that struck you so: "I have to tell a story of a thousand rainy days since we first met..." you may recall is also a line from the song "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic". Sort of a call-back (or what Frank Zappa called Conceptual Continuity, but more on that later) to earlier material that fits the song eerily well. If you enjoy what Andy Summers was doing, then you should probably check out his collaborations with Robert Fripp: "I Advance Masked" and "Bewitched". On Franks Zappa's "Broadway the Hard Way" live album, Sting makes a guest appearance (Frank introduces him as "Mr. Sting"), and he does a reggae version of "Murder by Numbers" with FZ and the boys.

Ralph Darvill

Really intersting to hear your thoughts on this. I think the album papers over the cracks of the fractured relations between the bend members. Copeland famously disliked Sting (witness the fact that at some stage he had "fuck, off, you, c*nt" written on his drum skins! Which was aimed at the singer). Summers had been working with Robert Fripp, hence the influence you can hear from the KC guitarist, a bit math-rocky and the use of the guitar synthesiser. Hugh Padgham produced - famously having just done Genesis' "Abacab" - and I think he brought in the stripped down nature of the sound. I liked the record at the time, apart from the Summers tune on side 1. I fell out of love with the band after "Regatta de Blanc", feeling that the next two records were far too "poppy" for my ears! I think all the players came from a vaguely jazzy background, so they were stretching those musical muscles here. The singles are great, if a little over-familiar by now. "Tea In The Sahara" really presages the sort of songs Sting would produce on his first two solo records. And boy, Stewart's snare sound really cuts through doesn't it?!

Ross Pollack

I heard a lot of the songs from this album as it came out when I was 11, and the hits were all over the radio. And then in around 2003, I really got into the band's back catalog. My personal favorite is Reggatta de Blanc, their second album. I think that would make a great EPL - to me, it flows a bit better than this one. But the one thing about this band that has always fascinated me is that they knew when to call it quits as a band. The disagreements about the making of this album came to a head; they disbanded after the tour, and have reunited a few times for concerts and tours, but that's about it.

Sid Levy

I’m hoping someone does a fan favorite for Summers and Fripp’s, I Advance Masked (1982). This Police album sound comes through their collaboration together.

Jonathan Egrie

Great reaction Doug. I am sorry you didn't like the album as much as others you've listened too. As I said in comments before, this was the Police's swan song. It was during the tour of 1983-84 that Sting decided to stop playing with the band and go solo. He even stated a few years later that it was when the band played Shea Stadium that he realized it was time to move on. He said," We were playing at Shea and I realized this is where The Beatles played and they were the biggest band in the world at the time and so were we at the time of us playing Shea stadium and I realized it won't get better than this so let's stop." So when the tour ended in March of 84 in Australia that he decided to go solo. The next year his first solo album the Dream of the Blue Turtles came out and he performed along with Dire Straits at Live Aid by himself. He actually sang backing vocals on Dire Strait's new song "Money for Nothing". The song begins with Sting singing "I Want My MTV." Doug if you were going to do another Police album, you should listen to Ghosts In the Machine which was released in 1981.

Jonathan Egrie

Every Breath You Take at 1 time was the most played song on radio in history. I don't know if it still is.

Allen

Yes, a "DOUBLE-DOSE" of "Miss Gradenko" would have sufficed. I'm wondering if "Mother" was kind of a joke for Andy? It's heavily Freudian (however, there is a precedent: earlier songs such as "Be My Girl" seem dumbly included to break up the seriousness).

Jonathan Egrie

Hey Doug. 1 of the many reasons sting left the band was because he wanted to be able to write in whatever style he felt like and he was not going to get that with The Police. Sting loves Jazz and his first solo album "Dream of the Blue Turtles" he brought in many of the great jazz musicians at that time. People like Kenny Kirkland, Branford and Wynton Marsalus and others. He has done this through his entire career. He doesn't want to repeat himself in his music.

Rodney Griffin

Fabulous Album. The end of the end. Fabulous Album from a Wonderful Band!

Rodney Griffin

Check out the Albums by The Police. Don't sleep on that band. Another Phenomenal Trio.

Rodney Griffin

I like weird sh*uff?*"+# 👀xpzkboing!!!@#7pift, kazang a'gonna bees flyjn' the pscofided illusion mattress among the artificial almond artifice berries. Keep relaxed and pay your parking fines. For the more cosmic intelligenced people out there who have traveled light years to be with us at this moment, I say to you: !exjvkzdnqivilcqachvquibgfaaswyprdnhttobbxri. And I mean that most sincerely. Done without AI.🤣

Barry P

Those ending lyrics you mentioned on "Oh My God" (Do I have to tell the story, of a thousand rainy days since we first met...) are originally from their song "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic", which I have to say is a monumental achievement of songwriting and production IMHO. Here it sounds like he added them on the spur of the moment. Though I love "Synchronicity II", I think the previous albums are all superior, especially Zenyatta Mondatta. If you want to hear a great version of "Murder by Numbers", there's a live one by Zappa's band with Sting singing, in which he introduces the song with a funny bit about censorship.

Margaret Barnes

On “Wrapped Around Your Finger,” the names you were having trouble with, Scylla and Charybdis, are from Homer’s Odyssey. The former was a six-headed sea monster who was in the habit of snaffling up sailors from passing ships, and the latter was a powerful whirlpool that would swallow ships whole. They were the two things you did not want to have to navigate between - the original mythological “rock and a hard place.” 😎 Additionally, turning her face to alabaster was probably a reference to the Medusa. Oh, and the sax that goes nuts at the end of “O My God?” Also Sting.

Randy Hammill

The main reason The Police split up is that Sting’s skill, combined with new technology, meant he could bring completed songs, fully arranged to the band. And that’s how he wanted them to be performed and recorded. Some of this goes back to the many disagreements between Sting and Stewart. Sting didn’t like how busy a player Stewart was (or his tendency to speed up). Nor did Sting like how Stewart wouldn’t play the same thing. Stewart primarily improvises his parts, so didn’t really know what he actually played on the recordings. By this album, Sting wanted to dictate what Stewart should play. It got to the point where Sting, at least once, erased Stewart’s recorded drum part so it couldn’t be used. Basically they didn’t want to be just a backing band, and Sting no longer needed them. One big addition was the Oberheim DSX sequencer Sting acquired, which formed the basis of Synchronicity I and Walking in Your Footsteps. While the others acknowledge Sting was, by far, the best songwriter, they were also further sidelined when Sting decided he wouldn’t sing certain songs he didn’t like. Mother was one of them, he refused to sing it (or play on it, I think). This isn’t the first Summers-written song Sting refused to sing and/or play on. The song is incredible in my opinion, but the vocals are definitely…challenging. But the music is fantastic. After hearing it so many times, the vocals don’t really intrude so much anymore. And yes, the vocals were intended to be primal scream type of song à la Lennon. Songs like this were more frequently used as a B-side, but I think this was included on the album proper so there was one song written by each of the other members. Also, i seem to recall part of the reason Andy and Stewart wanted it was because Sting hated it. Andy’s playing was very textural, and he had recently collaborated with Robert Fripp, who were both using the Roland Guitar synth. The majority of the non-sequences synths on this album are Andy with the guitar synth. What did I think when it came out? I knew a lot of The Police from the radio, this was the first one I bought. With my knowledge of Crimson, Floyd, and especially Peter Gabriel and Genesis of the same era, this wasn’t that out there. Also, Alex Lifeson of Rush from this era was very influenced by Andy’s playing in The Police and I had heard a lot of that first too. So I wasn’t as connected to the punk/reggae blend of their earlier songs. It remains my favorite album by The Police.

Adie

Although I voted for a different album, I do think this is a much better album than my choice (I had different reasons for supporting the other album which I expressed in the poll). I hear the excellence of musicianship in all three members, and also that is it a break up album, which allows the heights of the band as well as the depths. I've always thought Andy Summers was vastly underrated as a guitarist, and I think this album demonstrates well what level of musician he was/is. All the Police albums are excellent IMHO, so I look forward to the next EPL of any Police album. Oh, just to add - Nothing Like the Sun would be wonderful to have as an EPL.

Todd Howard

finally getting to spin this EPL!

panurge

When Mother started I immediately thought of King Crimson

Jeff Norman

I've never taken "Mother" seriously...considering the author's other contributions to the Police catalog include songs about cannibalism ("Friends") and a, uh, inflatable intimate companion ("Sally")... But yeah: "Mother" is nearly the defining case of a b-side...an off-the-beaten-track exploration of stuff the band normally would not do. And that's where it should have landed.

Jeff Norman

The comparison to Rush is interesting...because, even though overall you are of course correct that the two bands sound very little alike, it seems to me that, in the '80s when Rush started taking on more contemporary influences, Alex Lifeson's guitar playing struck me as VERY influenced by Andy Summers's work...both in terms of chord voicings and the reduced density of his playing, and even somewhat in the sounds he used in his playing in this period.

Tamás Polyák

And you were spot on with Money For Nothing, Sting actually sings this melody.

Prog Rock Piano Bar

I once had a friend say "Neil Peart makes the drum parts great, while Stew Copeland makes the songs great."

Toby Sanchez

EBYT is a perfect pop song the same way as Smells Like Teen Spirit (the dynamics)

Ruth James

Personally, Regatta de Blanc is my favourite from The Police, followed by Outlandos D'Amour (I would love to see Doug's reaction to 'Peanuts' and 'Be My Girl' from that album!!) 😆

Ford H. Cotton III

This came out when I was 11 years old. I bought it on cassette not long after & listened to it all the way through. Two notes: (1) Andy Summers always had a knack for writing very "out there" songs. "Mother" is one of his most disturbing ones. It shocked me the first time I heard it. Totally wild & untamed. When I find out that Sting at the time was dealing with mental illness and was reading the works of Carl Jung, from which the idea of Synchronicity came from, I started thinking of "Mother" following the same theme of mental illness, but more raw. It's still disturbing to me, but at one time I actually liked it because of my mental illness & failures with women. (2) The lyrics at the end of "O My God" are taken directly from the 2nd verse of "Every Little Things She Does Is Magic": "Do I have to tell the story Of a thousand rainy days since we first met It's a big enough umbrella But it's always me that ends up getting wet"

Brad L Duren

Synchronicity II is such a banger. I will never grow tired of cranking that one to 11!