Packed like lemmings into shiny metal boxes

Continuing my trip back in time through the album charts

24/07/83 : Synchronicity - The Police

I remember liking this but haven't listened to it in yonks, so am looking forward to it - but I am wondering whether it will feel a bit dated?

Oh.  That wasn't at all what I remembered - it's very much a game of two halves. Regarding the first side, apart from the book-ending "Synchronicity I/II" it's really not very good at all and "Mother" is really, really not a good track (I was expecting Stuart Copeland to be responsible for this, but instead it's Andy Summers).  And then you get to the second side which starts with "Every Step You Take", "King Of Pain" and "Wrapped Around Your Finger" - all of which are very fine tracks.  I even like "Tea In The Sahara" but I can appreciate it won't be for everyone.  So I can only imagine that the first half of the home taped version I had at some time (taking us to 9/23) wasn't played very often and I just concentrated on the bits I liked, which is why I remember liking it because I really can't say I liked it as a whole package.

We're at #3 in the charts this week on their sixth week out of a 44 week run, having spent the first two weeks at #1 (this was their fourth #1 album in a row).  It popped up in the outer reaches of the chart on three more occasions, but was last seen in June '84.  Above it in the charts this week were Yazoo and Michael Jackson and, for a change, we had some new entries in the top 10 - The Beach Boys (#5), Paul Young (#6) and Shalamar (#7) - so we won't see the first two again (until we get to 1984) and it's a shame we didn't get to listen to the latter (they're another group who had faded from the public's thoughts).  And those are the only new entries in the top 100, but for some weird reason there were 10 re-entries this week including Felicity Kendal's Shape Up And Dance Vol 1 at #98.  The mind boggles.

Wikipedia has quite a lot on the album (148 milliPeppers) but it does make the point that there was a good argument that The Police were the biggest band in the world at the time - it's odd how they've just kinda drifted out of people's minds over time.  As I'm sure you know, the album's title relates to Arthur Koestler's The Roots Of Coincidence - as was the case for their previous album, The Ghost In The Machine (which I don't think I've ever listened to).  It was recorded using a somewhat odd manner - the band played the tracks live, but in different rooms.  Various technical reasons were given for this, but the fact that they all hated each other at the time might have played a part.  Critical reception was (and remains) positive - although one of them did mention the difference in quality between the halves.  Commercial reception was just nuts - it sold 8 million copies in the US alone and was the third best selling album of 1983 and the eighth best selling album of 1984.

"Customers also listened to" Toto, A-ha, U2, Cyndi Lauper and Alphaville - a somewhat eclectic mix, but very 80s.  I found this an interesting revisit because, with the exception of the singles, I was really very unimpressed with it all - which surprised me.

17/07/83 - A very enjoyable 80s album
31/07/83 - Very happy to be reminded this existed