3b. The Police, 'Synchronicity'

a/k/a the one where they became the boys with the most cake. Sting, Andy and Stewart had forged a fine career for themselves already, but once this atom bomb detonated in '83, everything changed, many would argue for the worse (Sting's last decade of albums, anyone?). Synchronicity is the sound of the Police firing on all cylinders, pulling every possible weapon out of their arsenal - and some they didn't know they had. From the jazzy aridness of "Tea In the Sahara" to the pounding rock of "Synchronicity II," from the pop-cloaked brutality of "Every Breath You Take" to the freak-out of "Mother," this is where everything great about the Police is distilled to 40 minutes (and, thank God, they finally ditch much of their overwrought reggae-lite). I hated to see them go, but you can't deny that they went out on top. A