Hey there mighty Brontosaurus
Don’t you have a message for us.
They reach across to us, from primitive times long past when humanity was barely formed out of the primordial ooze, bearing wisdom beyond all mortal ken – ladies and Gentlemen I give you The Brontosauruses !! Ah, no, sorry scrap that I meant The Police Synchronicity; it was 1983 so some of that sentence was right. I have a slight bias against the Police caused entirely by Sting’s total ubiquity, it was possible for a man in the mid 80’s who had reached the age where shaving was a necessity, to see Sting’s face more often than he saw his own in any given day. Brilliant singles though.
I was given Synchronicity in 2010 and until today had listened to it twice maybe, being a bit disappointed both times, a bit samey, too much treble, not enough bass. After spinning it twice today already, I’m a little more favourable, but not vastly so. Brilliant singles though.
Fifty million years ago
They walked upon the planet so
They live in a museum
It’s the only place you’ll see ’em
Having said all that opener ‘Synchronicity I’ takes off like a rocket and has the best bass sound on the album. It hits the track like a greyhound on the final curve, propelled by a very fast sequencer riff and some great rhythmic playing, Sting’s vocals ghosting over the top. It sounds invigorating now, it must have seemed like The Future* 31 years ago, this ode to meaningful correlations and happenstance – based on Arthur Koestler’s The Roots of Coincidence, his parapsychological riff on Jung’s ideas of (ta-da!) synchronicity. All that and not a single either.
‘Synchronicity II’ was a single and I think, a really pants song – great bass line aside**. It’s all very spritely with clumsily profound lyrics, which basically stumble across a Great Truth Of The Age*, that working for a living is a bit demeaning and uncool, thanks guys! I’m sorry to unhip the place up, I’ll just sink back under the waters of that ‘dark Scottish lake’ you keep banging on about’.
Hey Mr. Dinosaur
You really couldn’t ask for more
You were God’s favorite creature
But you didn’t have a future
There’s nothing too essentially wrong with the likes of ‘O My God’, or ‘Miss Gradenko’, or even ‘Tea In The Sahara’ with its’ tasteful really well-played white reggaeisms, but nothing that grabs, or compels either. It’s all lightweight, emotionally and musically for me and rather unforgivably 80’s sounding in places too. We’re not a million miles away from Bryan Ferry’s patented wine-barisms on Boys and Girls; again, brilliant singles. I am perfectly prepared to accept that I am totally wrong and that my views on Synchronicity are merely the product of my teenage arrested development which I should have grown out of long ago; after all I am a Faster Pussycat fan, so what do I know.
But the real payload on Synchronicity is, as I skilfully alluded to earlier, the singles. ‘Every Breath You Take’ is almost as good as music gets, period. A perfect marriage of music and lyrics, it took me years and years to realize just how menacing a song it is, I always thought of it as a love song and it is, but twisted and taut. Perfect song for a first dance at a divorce. Second best and only just, is ‘King of Pain’ which I always thought was a bit of a kinky S&M number, as it’s about a failing relationship, that says far more about me and my peccadilloes than it does about the Police! Oops. Regardless, it is another fine track with a plaintive vocal and sparse music.
Hey there mighty Brontosaurus
Don’t you have a message for us.
You thought your rule would always last
There were no lessons in your past.
You were built three stories high
They say you would not hurt a fly
Oh and ‘Walking In Your Footsteps’ is a good song about heeding Brontosaurus lessons, possibly.
Apart from ‘Synchronicity I’, I’ll still take the Police as one of the best singles bands of the late 70’s/early 80’s, rather than a band to assiduously collect on LP.
475 Down.
P.S – Not entirely sure if it is brontosauruses, or Brontosaurii – you know following the Elvis route to English plural ‘I have one Elvis, whereas you have two Elvii’.
*capital letters intentional there.
**am I the only one who can hear Billy Idol in that bass line? if you just listen to the first 17 seconds or so, it sounds like every track he did/does/will ever do.