On the covers of the Police\u2019s first two albums Outlandos D\u2019Amour<\/i> and Reggatta De Blanc<\/i>, Andy Summers, Stewart Copeland and Sting all face the camera. On the cover of Zenyatta Mondatta<\/i>, they are positioned within a triangle, all looking in different directions, Sting in profile looking firmly away from the other two. And if you think that\u2019s coincidence — well, you\u2019re probably right. <\/p>\n
But intentionally or not, the cover of ZM<\/i> deftly illustrates the band dynamics taking hold even as the Police were recording and releasing the album that would turn them from hit-making Brits into global superstars. When you look at the covers of their last two studio albums — Ghost In The Machine<\/i>, where they aren\u2019t pictured at all, and Synchronicity<\/i>, where each is pictured in a completely separate setting, isolated from the other two — the storyline of this band is complete.<\/p>\n
Zenyatta Mondatta<\/i> is the first Police album that Sting thoroughly dominates, writing eight of the eleven songs and not co-writing any of the tracks with either drummer Stewart Copeland or guitarist Andy Summers. At the same time, it\u2019s the album on which the band\u2019s emerging sound came into full flower, punk energy largely subsumed within jazzy sophistication and technical panache, songs more often full of serious purpose than inside jokes or reggae-themed vamping.<\/p>\n
None of the above should be taken to imply this is a bad album, though\u2026quite the opposite. However awkward the context, ZM<\/i> contains some of the band\u2019s very best material. Leadoff cut and single \u201cDon\u2019t Stand So Close To Me\u201d is one of those seemingly effortless hits that is greater than the sum of its parts, a deceptively simple student-teacher crush vignette over a repeating melody. But Summers\u2019 guitar is rich with echo and evocative effects and Sting\u2019s lyric is full of repressed tension and literary allusions, giving the song texture and depth.<\/p>\n
\u201cDriven To Tears\u201d follows and points the band in the new direction that would dominate their latter days \u2013 a serious, overtly political lyric addressing hunger and poverty laid over a skittering bed of jazzy rhythms and cascading guitar flourishes. Only Summer\u2019s concise, nearly atonal solo disrupts the smooth flow of the song, coming off in this context like an almost primal plea for attention.<\/p>\n
The middle section of the album is again dominated by Sting tunes that feature rich pop hooks over intricate rhythm patterns, with Summers\u2019 shimmering bursts of guitar painting the melodies. \u201cWhen The World Is Running Down, You Make The Best Of What\u2019s Still Around\u201d achieves a kind of hypnotic giddiness with its circular bass and vocal lines. \u201cCanary In A Coalmine\u201d has a punky doubletime beat, but its melody and arrangement is all poppy confection, with one of Sting\u2019s goofier lyrics suggesting he hasn\u2019t completely lost his sense of humor — yet. Veering off in the opposite tonal direction, \u201cVoices Inside My Head\u201d echoes the atmospheric tension of \u201cBring On The Night\u201d with spooky guitar over a jazzy, elastic rhythm pattern.<\/p>\n
The first non-Sting track shows up at #6 as Copeland delivers the biting political parody \u201cBombs Away,\u201d its shambling energy counterpointing the increasing muted elegance of Sting\u2019s compositions. Sting answers with \u201cDe Do Do Do, De Da Da Da Da,\u201d the last really funny song of his Police career, and a gem of a pop song at that.<\/p>\n
The last four tunes of the album serve to illustrate the growing divide between the individual band members. Summers and Copeland each contribute jazzy, experimental instrumental tracks (the Grammy-winning \u201cBehind My Camel\u201d and \u201cThe Other Way Of Stopping\u201d), while Sting delivers a zippy, stick-in-your-head pop tune with a lonely edge (\u201cMan In A Suitcase\u201d) and a spare, atmospheric track showcasing his own vocals (\u201cShadows In The Rain\u201d).<\/p>\n
The band has said many times since this album was released that they wished they\u2019d had more time to focus on production. The final mix is indeed very trebly and yet muddy in places, the songs emerging in spite of rather than because of their sonic treatment. Even remastering doesn\u2019t seem to have helped much.<\/p>\n
Despite the already-evident splintering of the band\u2019s musical interests and focus, the Police nonetheless found themselves catapulted to international stardom by the success of Zenyatta Mondatta<\/i> as it spun off single after single. It was yet another break-through-to-the-next-level moment for a group that managed to string together just enough of them to break up at the very zenith of its career.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":28824,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7080],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-40323","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-the-police","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40323\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=40323"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=40323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}