455 - The Police - Synchronicity

How do I analyze this album? When I'm listening to these Top 500 albums, I will sometimes read others' reviews of the album. Most of the time it's purely for my enjoyment, but I occasionally read something that absolutely clicks with what I'm thinking (I'm looking mostly at you Stephen Thomas Erlewine at AllMusic). Nearly everyone I read included commentary about this being The Police's last album and how it was actually a Sting album with some token credits/creativity allowed to the other two members. I gotta say that is an inescapable judgment on the album.

I really enjoyed Stewart Copeland's documentary of The Police - Everyone Stares. In it he complains that by the time of the recording of Synchronicity, Sting was bringing nearly completed songs to the studio so there was little or nothing for Stewart and Andy to do. Alas, while I don't doubt that Sting may have been bringing more complete songs to the studio, what I hear on the first half of this album are incomplete songs that needed additional input and polish.

Everyone seems to have already given up on The Police being a band. While the songs contributed by Stewart and Andy are some of the least enjoyable songs (I can't express how much I HATE "Mother"), they really should have contributed more to "Walking in Your Footsteps" and "O My God." I like "Walking in Your Footsteps," but it sounds like a song searching for an ending. "O My God" sounds more like a well-developed demo that doesn't seem to go anywhere. I would love to hear what they could have done with "Miss Gradenko" after killing the chorus (which now makes me instantly start singing the chorus to the McCartney soundtrack single - "Spies Like Us").

But when the second half arrives, the half-baked songs and experimentation segues to a beautiful polish. I question the sanity of people that would make more than tiny tweaks to "Every Breath You Take," "King of Pain," and "Wrapped Around Your Finger." I'll even go so far as to say that "Murder By Numbers" (Copeland, Sting) is either my 4th or 5th favorite song on the album.

Songs I knew I liked: "Synchronicity I & II," "Every Breath You Take," "King of Pain," "Wrapped Around Your Finger," and "Murder by Numbers"

Songs I didn't know but now like: Honestly...I've owned the Police box set, Message in a Box, for a decade, so I was familiar with all of the tracks but typically hear them together with the Ghost in the Machine tracks or in shuffle mode.

Songs I can go the rest of my life without hearing again: "Mother"

454 - Stan Getz - Getz/Gilberto

Listening to this album, that is the foundation of bossa nova, I alter between two places in my mind. Either I'm listening to the album in my high-rise apartment in mid-town Manhattan waiting for my Pan Am stewardess date to show up or I'm enjoying the breeze while lying next to the pool-side cabana in the Caribbean. This music is able to encapsulate both relaxation and sophistication.

There is "The Girl From Ipanema" which is truly beautiful. Beyond the mood, there are some interesting musical choices. I kept paying attention to how the mic picked up his breath and reed vibration on "Para Machuchar Meu Coracao." There are songs where there is an give and take between the rhythm being shuffled along by the guitar and drums and the piano taking up that duty. I do wonder how much I may have enjoyed there being more songs in English. While I'm grateful to be free from having to pay attention to the lyrics and focus on how the the voice sounds during the singing. However, I do think that with the only English track ("Corcovado" has an English first verse, but everything else is Portuguese) being the first one makes it too easy for listeners to turn the album into background music as it progresses. The 33 minute runtime does help in this regard.

Songs I knew I liked: "The Girl From Ipanema"

Songs I didn't know but now like: "Para Machuchar Meu Coracao," "Corcovado (Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars)," "So Danco Samba," and "Vivo Sonhando (Dreamer)"

Songs I can go the rest of my life without hearing again: None I would avoid.