Henry loves his artists artistic. He often speaks about how he doesn’t follow a certain genre of music, but more enjoys listening to anyone who is excellent at their craft, irrelevant of popularity or relevance. Currently he has been going back to the “Synchronicity” LP by The Police (Sting’s old band in case you were unaware…)
“Back in early 2010s when I first moved to the Bay Area, and in between jobs, one of my favorite (and free) hobbies was to browse the “free” section on Craigslist. I bumped into a guy who was giving away a perfect condition West-German Grundig vinyl player and the only catch of this deal was to take in his entire vinyl collection as well.
Yes, some music aficionados would proudly argue how The Police’s earlier albums were much better and they are probably right. In this day and age when iPods are considered obsolete, libraries of songs are always few swipes away, and new songs only have 30 seconds to make an impression before we hit skip. Nostalgia still plays a huge part and I will always remember that joyful moment when I played that album (free) on the vinyl player (free!!) for the first time.”
Quite possibly The Police’s most sonically and subject matter-wise far-reaching record (see: “Mother”), “Synchronicity” saw the boys playing with youthful angst, bubbly bouncy numbers, deep, almost balad-like measures, and somehow still produced a few hits (the major, still spun to this day single “Every Breath You Take” comes to mind as well as “King of Pain”). 2 years after the release of this album, the final by the band, Sting launched his solo career. Henry is correct in that die-hard fans of The Police will say the earlier records by the new-wave band are better, but they are missing how experimental the band presented itself here, a sign of true artistry.