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The Police — Synchronicity II
Album: Synchronicity
Avg rating:
7.6

Your rating:
Total ratings: 1590









Released: 1983
Length: 4:54
Plays (last 30 days): 2
Another suburban morning
Grandmother screaming at the wall
We have to shout above the din of our Rice Crispies
We can't hear anything at all
Mother chants her litany of boredom and frustration
But we know all the suicides are fake
Daddy only stares into the distance
There's only so much more that he can take
Many miles away something crawls from the slime
At the bottom of a dark Scottish lake

Another industrial ugly morning
The factory belches filth into the sky
He walks unhindered through the picket lines today
He doesn't think to wonder why
The secretaries pout and preen like cheap tarts on a red light street
But all he ever thinks to do is watch
And every single meeting with his so called superior
Is a humiliating kick in the crotch
Many miles away something crawls to the surface
Of a dark Scottish Loch

Another working day has ended
Only the rush-hour hell to face
Packed like lemmings into shiny metal boxes
Contestants in a suicidal race
Daddy grips the wheel and stares alone into the distance
He knows that something somewhere has to break
He sees the family home now looming in his headlight
The pain upstairs that makes his eyeballs ache
Many miles away there's a shadow on a door
Of a cottage by the shore
Of a dark Scottish lake
Comments (38)add comment
Discovering Sting in the 90s before the Police and then getting into vintage Police live performances ...killer teenage years for me in the 90s. Wonderful throwback for me! 
Lyrically malevolent.  It has always been one of my favorite Police songs.
 kcar wrote:


I always thought that at the end, Daddy had morphed into the monster and was approaching the family home's front door...


i like this take much better. 
I am no expert or Jung psychologist, but I love how the lyrics of a man going slowly mad due to middle age pressures is juxtaposed against the Loch Ness Monster slowly emerging from the lake and approaching a door.  It seems that the song ends with the beast at the door, meaning that the door is about to open revealing the man going full crazy. Or at least that what it seems to me. 
 lily34 wrote:


agreed. i always took it as he drove off the road and the police are coming to the door to tell the family he died in a crash...but, that's just me.


I always thought that at the end, Daddy had morphed into the monster and was approaching the family home's front door...
Man, o man ... it's 1984, I'm driving to work down the Baltimore-Washington Parkway in my ol' VW camper, this is blasting away on the stereo ... many miles away.
 coloradojohn wrote:

This is a killer song...the lyrics, the delivery, the energy, the feeling that it's all the same as ever...and the mysteries are never solved...



agreed. i always took it as he drove off the road and the police are coming to the door to tell the family he died in a crash...but, that's just me.
 Wisconsinrob wrote:


this song totally rocks.  you nailed it John.


The video is sadly pretty damned goofy. The drumming is astonishing. 
 coloradojohn wrote:

This is a killer song...the lyrics, the delivery, the energy, the feeling that it's all the same as ever...and the mysteries are never solved...



this song totally rocks.  you nailed it John.
Did he ever explore that Scottish loch?

Greate sense of modern alienation in this one.
I've never properly listened to this song before.  My loss.
Probably my first comment on RP: After being a dedicated Police fan through their previous albums, Synchronicity first sounded a bit strange to me, but thanks RP for reminding me of this one: I like those songs best that "grow on me", and this one certainly did. The lyrics were of a quality I had not heard with Police before. A lot of dark depth here ...
I give it a 9, not least in honour of one of my best Summers (sic!) ever 
 BCarn wrote:

Always liked this tune even though Feyd Rautha, I mean Sting, kinda bothers me.



Yes the music Harkonnens back to the golden era.
Hey is Sting there? If. What does he think about the musichians who prevent the world actually. MUST BE. Everywhere, 
When I interviewed Stewart Copeland he refered to his time in The Police as "Ah yes, the rock and roll years". I consider this their best song... 
The best of the Sting Being Sting material
Hands down favourite Police track.
Yeah. 
the end of an era
 kingart wrote:

My favorite Police song.  Great lyrics and Copeland's drumming is the hook.  Unlike most other Cop tracks, the roboplay wasteland of FM didn't murder this one for me. 




I AGREE!  Even better in FLAC  w/ great studio phones, amp & DAC!
This is a killer song...the lyrics, the delivery, the energy, the feeling that it's all the same as ever...and the mysteries are never solved...
GREAT TUNE!!!
 kingart wrote:

My favorite Police song.  Great lyrics and Copeland's drumming is the hook.  Unlike most other Cop tracks, the roboplay wasteland of FM didn't murder this one for me. 


well said, agree 100%
Ambitious concept, lyrics, vocal performance, arrangement.  I guess nobody cares cause it was a radio song.
The first cassette tape I ever bought . . .
My favorite Police song.  Great lyrics and Copeland's drumming is the hook.  Unlike most other Cop tracks, the roboplay wasteland of FM didn't murder this one for me. 
...”above the din of our rice crispies...”. Fantastic line. Has stuck with me since I was a teenager when I heard this.
 jkamm14 wrote:

Correct. The album opens up with "Synchronicity I" and side 1 (back when there was such a thing) closed with this. I still have my vinyl copy somewhere! 
 
I just bought a two channel analog amp so I could listen to all my vinyls again. 
 Coronal wrote:
The song is called "Synchronicity II".
 
Correct. The album opens up with "Synchronicity I" and side 1 (back when there was such a thing) closed with this. I still have my vinyl copy somewhere! 
 kingart wrote:
No lyrics? For one of the Cops' far and away best songs?

 
 

Fixed
The song is called "Synchronicity II".
 ziggytrix wrote:
God, Sting used to be such a badass!
 
Indeed. I miss The Police. When this album came out, it was overplayed so much, I began to hate it. Later, I added it to my collection. Ah, the 80's...so much good stuff back then.
 drwhy wrote:

How could THIS song be a 5!!!!  I seriously do not get it.

  
Seriously, I feel like my "8" was being stingy. (Looks like the average is up to 7 now though.)

God, Sting used to be such a badass!
Nobody does it like the Po Po
 
Man, I miss this band
Aaah yes - takes me back! There was a time when this album was on loop.
Always liked this tune even though Feyd Rautha, I mean Sting, kinda bothers me.

How could THIS song be a 5!!!!  I seriously do not get it.

How can this be the first play for this song? Well, better late than never.