My real, passionate blogging has been absent of late, and I truly regret this. I have a ton of entries all pent up that I'd like to share. It is just taking forever getting to them, in spite of having SO much time on my hands. This is one of those entries.
Now, I don't really know if it's cool to like The Police any more, or if it even ever was, or if it is incredibly uncool. Regardless, I love 'em, and this has always been my favorite song of theirs. I recently (as in several months ago) decided it is one of my favorite songs of all time.
"King of Pain," from 1983's Synchronicity, balances on the line of nice deep cut and obvious single material. The melody is not only catchy, it is simply a very high quality one. There are some cheesy elements, like the fake marimba sounds and the obvious, popular 80s production.
However, there are some nice, a-typical (for The Police) characteristics of the song that make it stand out to me. For one, Stewart Copeland doesn't wail, and his usual reggae beat doesn't really lurk its head around the song at all. I sort of like the way his snare drum sounds here, too. Andy Summer's guitar isn't really in your face at all, either. Also, the song is quite long and uncomplicated. It's a nice, moody, mid-tempo 80s pop song. There's nothing obnoxious at all, which I think sometimes is the band's downfall. So that is good.
The biggest reason "King of Pain" rules so hard though is that melody and the harmony that goes over it during the choruses. Whoo boy, gives me goosebumps. Is that weird? I don't care. Enjoy if you wish.
PS Please notice how awesome they look in that photograph.
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