"Synchronicity II" by The Police

Ever since The Police broke up in 1984 Stewart Copeland* hasn't exactly been sitting by the phone waiting for Sting to call; in addition to solo work (as both himself and Klark Kent), forming other groups like Animal Logic and Oysterhead, and playing sessions for such artists as Peter Gabriel, he's also composed for films, beginning with Francis Ford Coppola's Rumble Fish in 1983.

To say the song Synchronicity II was a high point of The Police's 1983 album Synchronicity is like calling Mount Everest the high point of the Himalayan plateau; sure it's a high point, but it's sitting on some pretty tall shoulders as well. A paean to suburban angst brought on by the Industrial Revolution, the song's driving tone and dark lyrics contrast with the rest of the album, much of which is dreamy and ethereal.

The video for Synchronicity II was directed by the legendary pairing of Godley & Creme, whose garbage-strewn post-apocalyptic imagery both complements the darkness contained in the lyrics and pretty neatly sums up the kind of apathy that was then causing littered lots and weedy canal sides to flourish in the green and pleasant land called England.

* A founding member of the band, in addition to its drummer, who today turns 58.
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