Day 0529 - Synchronicity

The Police "Synchronicity" (1983) - got it

 The Police were more or less sick of each other by this point, recording their parts in separate rooms of the studio, and even being symbolically 'separated' on the album cover.

The music seemed to be separating and stretching to the four corners too, with less of their reggae sounds, increased synthesizer presence, and touches of world music.   Sting's songs were sounding more and more like the de-clawed pop that he'd perfect later on.  He and drummer Stewart Copeland nearly fought aggressively because Sting wanted some simple, straight-ahead drumming on "Every breath you take" and Copeland wanted to do his thing (which he would go on to do to great effect in the band Oysterhead with members of Primus and Phish).

Andy Summers' two tracks are possibly among the more interesting: "mother" is a demented ode to the most important woman in his life, and 'Murder by numbers' is my favourite track on the album and (to my mind) the best mesh of the pop and experimental sides of the band's sound.

The band split after one last tour and, though they reunited for a series of shows, never rekindled their spark enough to want to record together again.

Day 0524 - Hearts and Bones

Paul Simon "Hearts and Bones" (1983)

Following a decline in his popularity as a solo artist, Simon reunited with Garfunkel for some successful shows.  The two of them started working on a new S&G album, but all the old arguments flared up and they broke up again.  Paul chucked Art's songs and worked some of his into a new solo album.

At the time of its release, this album didn't fare much better commercially than his recent releases, though it seems to have been reassessed with hindsight.  To me it shows hints of his next (much more successful) solo album Graceland, in that it has a good bit of groove to it and the quite '80s' sounding production.  In places, the synth laden grooves even sound a bit like that good 70s era Stevie Wonder.

It's a bit of a mixed bag, and I'd argue that the more straight-ahead mellow tracks are still his strength, such as the sombre "the late great Johnny Ace", his tribute to John Lennon.  That being said, the peppy "Cars are cars" is a fun little song, regardless of its slightly so-so lyrics.