The Police: Synchronicity (2LP, deluxe edition, red & yellow vinyl) [A&M]

Why you'll love it

This deluxe 2LP set pairs the remastered album on yellow vinyl with a red LP of B-sides and bonus tracks, plus new liner notes. Synchronicity topped the charts in the UK and the U.S., sold over eight million copies in America and won three Grammys.

This edition

• 2LP set
• Red & yellow vinyl
• Deluxe edition
• Remastered
• B-sides and bonus tracks
• Printed inner sleeves
• New liner notes
• Lyrics included
• Stereo mix
• Pressed in the EU

About the album

Few bands quit while they're the biggest in the world, but The Police managed it, and they went out with this. Sting took the title and much of the inspiration from Carl Jung and Arthur Koestler's The Roots of Coincidence.

The reggae of the early records gives way to sleek, spacious production and synthesizers. "Every Breath You Take" is the smash, "King of Pain" and "Wrapped Around Your Finger" are moody and gorgeous, "Synchronicity II" roars, and "Tea in the Sahara" and "Walking in Your Footsteps" drift toward world music. Andy Summers' "Mother" and Stewart Copeland's "Miss Gradenko" add some mischief. The bonus LP brings "Murder by Numbers," "Someone to Talk To," "Once Upon a Daydream" and live takes from Atlanta in 1983.

It joined the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2009 and the U.S. National Recording Registry in 2023. Rolling Stone said every cut was a miniature soundtrack of its own, which makes this, by our count, a very reasonably priced box of films.

Also at Kops: more The Police on vinyl · browse Rock

Tracklist

Listen

On A&M (cat# 558 217 2), a reissue of the 1983 album.