Comments for Police, The, Zenyatta Mondatta

Reggae-tinged ska at its best.

The most charming, charismatic Police album. Groovy.

This album has some of the Police's very best efforts, particularly "Don't Stand So Close To Me" and "When The World Is Running Down You Make The Best Of What's Still Around." The bassline on "Driven To Tears" is dynamite, and no two musicians have ever complemented each other as well as Sting and Summers do during the verses and ending of "De Do Do Do De Da Da Da." It's consistantly great all the way through, with no "skippable" tracks, unless you don't care much for instrumentals.

This is the first Police LP I bought. Although I don't believe it's as good as Synchronicity, it IS very good. I really like "When the World..." (Gotta be the longest song title ever!) It's just fun to listen to. I also like the instrumentals towards the end.

While the group felt that Zenyatta lacked due to such a short time spent recording it, they played a tremendous tour in 80/81 with great renditions of songs. "Shadows In The Rain" was played very differently live with the band showing their individual creativity to make the tune far more powerful and errie. On the album "Driven To Tears" rocks.

I think that this Police album is especially cool. I could do without some of the tracks at the end, but songs like "Don't Stand", "When The World is Running Down", "Driven To Tears", "Bombs Away", and "De Do Do Do De Da Da Da" (my fave) illustrate great song writing and recording technique (the thick chorusing on Summers' guitar and Copeland's very tight drum sound). So sweet for 1980. I also like it because it's not as flashy as "Ghost In The Machine".

I played this album for 10 years in a row. At the time, this was most interesting, fresh, new sound. It hooked me. I ended going back and buying every album they ever had. Too bad they broke up. Even though Sting has clearly moved into more sophisticated stuff, there was some really amazing chemistry when the three of them worked together.

I don''t know what it was about the Police (Brit music in general), but their recording techniques/sound quality were amazing for that time, as good as the Talking Heads stuff at that time. It could destroy most recordings of the 80''s (ie:MEGA REVERB ON EVERYTHING=DUMB SHIT 80''S NEW WAVE FUCKER IDEA) and could hold up to most 90''s stuff in sound quality. This album was one of their best, along with Regatta De Blanc. I even learned some of the bass lines on this album, Sting was not that complex of a bass player then but the recordings made them sound excellent. A keeper on my list.