1st half experimentally 2nd half Hits

That's 1983 album Synchronicity is probably the The Police album which is (apart from Sting's song) the least typical of the band's sound. Already on the previous Ghost In The Machine were increasingly keyboards and wind instruments in use. The barren hectic sound of the first 3 albums there was almost completely gone. On Synchronicity, the band then eliminated even reggae influences. Maybe that was how it should be, because in the years 81-83, some had copied the Police sound. One need only recall Men At Work whose hit albums Business As Usual and Cargo had some Police references.
1983 Synchronicity was pretty much the only album could make Michael Jackson's Thriller permanently in the charts competition. It had 3 top ten hits. In the US, Every Breath You Take was also the best-selling single of the year 1983. A few Grammys were on top. More actually stopped going. It should be the last album of the band.

When songwriting Sting was responsible for all of the songs except the oblique Mother (Summers) and the short catchy Miss Gradenko (Copeland). In the slightly jazzy B-side and the CD Bonus Track Murder By Numbers Summers came in the music to help.

Synchronicity has been very experimental on page 1 of that LP (Songs 1-6), page 2 (7-10 songs), however, provides the pleasing songs and big hits.
Whoever listens to the first 5 songs for the first time, could be a little upset. The album opens with fast Synchronicity I explained in the Sting Synchronicity principle, he finally read about psychoanalyst CG Jung and had to share with the world.
Walking In Your Footsteps is then a song like from another world. Musically almost unclassifiable, somehow a kind of dub and very minimalist and percussive with jungle noises and panpipes. Lyrically also a masterpiece, as it combines since the extinction of the dinosaurs with the arms race and the possible annihilation of mankind.
With O My God then comes the first weak point of the album. The piece sounds with its spherical keyboards and saxophone, as it would have been the last album Ghost in the Machine left. From the Groove song goes towards Soul and is slightly jazzy. Just to rest it does not fit.
Mother of guitarist Andy Summers "composed" and also sang, believed to be one of the most discussed items in the Police catalog. A song between genius and madness, but well reflects the hysteria of the song protagonists in relation to his mother. Musically partly with an oriental touch. Extremely used to. The second and last song of the album, the one does not necessarily need.
The short Miss Gradenko of drummer Copeland is then compared Mother of pure pop.
So you've made the most difficult songs behind and the first half of the album.
Page 1 of LP concluded with Synchronicity II, one of the hardest rockers in the career of The Police and the least successful single from the album.

Page 2 begins with Every Breath You Take, a Popwunderwerk and one of the most misunderstood songs in rock history, the one could easily hold for a love tearjerker. But this play is about a desperate one-sided love, jealousy, and the Nichtloslassenwollen the song protagonists. This grieves after his exes and pursued them. Today we would call such a thing as pathological stalking. The largely peaceful and pleasing music is deceptive because about the disturbing text away. From romance far and wide no track. From song structure Every Breath You Take is also quite unusual because the song really works without chorus. The four-line stanzas short that rhyme well, to twice a Bridge (Oh Can not You See ...) and the middle part (Since You've Gone ...) implores the highlight in the Sting his ex. Some verses are Finally then repeated mantra-like and in between always the line I'll Be Watching You. Perfect. Besides making mainly still Andy Summers guitar lick with the slight unclean ambient noise from the song, which has unfortunately earned him no songwriter credits with respect to the music. This is all the more annoying because Puff Daddy hit I'll Be Missing You on Every Breath You Take and builds its guitar melody and Andy Summers had none of it.
In the rockier King Of Pain Sting suffer then. It was also the time in which was his divorce.
Wrapped Around Your Finger is a very groovy ballad with lots of keyboards very untypical of the band.
Finally, Sting told with Tea In The Sahara still a rather surreal story. The song is also very quiet and minimalistic. He lives mainly from bass groove and Andy Summers' spherical sound effects. The live version from Synchronicity Concert (CD or DVD) as well as tops in Walking In Your Footsteps the album version by far. The vinyl edition splashed with Tea In The Sahara of wonderfully quiet and gave the album a perfect ending.
The CD bonus track and the B-side Murder By Numbers I've never seen as a real part of Synchronicity, but as a nice addition. The music is by Summers and the text of Sting. A very macabre text via the Morden and musically slightly jazzy does not fit the song really the rest of the album.

On vinyl album in his A & M / CBS Squeeze from 1983 is highly recommended. Even when remastering in 2003 not too much has been compressed in the dynamics. Mastering by David Collins in the Message In A Box Set (1993) was somewhat more dynamic compared to the 2003 remaster. The now very expensive traded SACD Remaster in digipack offers the same as the CD of 2003, and can be played both as a CD and a high resolution (with appropriate equipment) as SACD. But it offers only a stereo mix.

Conclusion:
If you like the typical sound of the first 3 or 4 albums of The Police, is in this respect less Synchronicity find. Synchronicity has a unique sound. Still a very interesting album with some experiments. Especially the second half impressed with the hits. Overall, only 2 outs, with the debut of my favorite band.