Classic Rock Bottom

ALBUM OF THE WEEK # 349 THE POLICE - ZENYATTA MONDATTA (1980)

Disclaimer: All info that does not reside in my brain is gathered from wikipedia.com (mostly because Jon can't stand it) unless otherwise noted.

Can you believe it?  We've already gotten through the 70's on our year long journey.  This week we find ourselves in 1980, a truly magical time (The Dawgs won the National Championship that season, so it must have been magical). The Police released a very good album with a funny name: Zenyatta Mondatta.  If you've been following along on the Facebook CRB page, you know that I gave two clues as to what this week's album would be.  The first one was vague, so I augmented it, saying that this album sold modestly when compared to the band's biggest seller (Synchronicity).  I didn't say it sold poorly.  The album has been certified Double Platinum by the RIAA.  But their final album mentioned above sold over 8 million copies in the US.   That's a four fold difference.  

Clue number two had to do with the subject matter of one of the songs often raising it's head in today's news.  That would be the single, Don't Stand So Close To Me (#10 U.S.).  One current headline involves a 15 year old student either being kidnapped by her teacher or leaving with him.  I'm not sure it's clear.  But we see almost every week or so another story about a teacher becoming involved with a student (seems to be female teachers and male students more often than not these days).  

So congratulations are in order for Chuck Bunch.  He correctly guessed Zenyatta Mondatta.  

As far as this album goes, De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da was also a pretty big hit, also topping out at number 10.  A couple of the album tracks are still played often on classic rock radio (Driven To Tears and When The World Is Running Down, You Make The Best of What's Still Around).  The group won two Grammy Awards.  Behind My Camel won for Best Rock Instrumental Performance while the aforementioned Don't Stand So Close To Me won for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group With Vocal.  You may even remember that Don't Stand So Close To Me was re-recorded in 1986 for the greatest hits disc.  It cracked the Top 50 in the U.S. again then.

What do you think of this album from 1980?

Side One:

1. Don't Stand So Close To Me

2. Driven To Tears

3. When The World Is Running Down, You Make the Best of What's Still Around

4. Canary In A Coalmine

5. Voices In My Head

6. Bombs Away

Side Two:

7.  De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da

8. Behind My Camel

9. Man In A Suitcase

10. Shadows In The Rain

11. The Other Way of Stopping

 

Views: 47

Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Heard it. Love it.

They say the trait of a good song is to stay fresh over the years.

The analogy for the 'Don't Stand So Close To Me' is OK (except, where were those teachers in my days?), but 'Behind my Camel' does bring up some time appropriate jokes.

The only song I don't like is the 'Shadows In The Rain'.

This is the first Police album I bought and I still like to this day, but it's not my favorite Police album. That would go to the one that follows this but this one is my second favorite so that's pretty good but not great since they only put out five albums, if you really, really want to get technical. Not even tired off that leadoff track track even though I've heard it a lot o' times. Really like track #6, just sticks in my head after I listen to this album  and track #5 is killer as well. Nice solid album.

Still think you were going for Chipmunk Punk and changed at the last moment. 

Admittedly I am relatively new to the music of the Police, at least to the songs that don’t get radio airtime.  Though I never took them seriously early on, I did take notice when my favorite band Rush cited them as an influence in their change of direction after Moving Pictures.  Though it did spark a purchase of Synchronicity, I still couldn’t get any further, until this site and a 5 dollar Best Buy bin.  In that bin was Regatta De Blanc, so I took yet another shot and voila!  I got it a bit more.  Had the prices of the albums been more than the 5 dollar bin I likely would have left it there as well, but I found Outlandos D’Amour, Zenyatta Mondatta, and Ghost In The Machine as well, so my total investment into the band was 20 bucks and mid-eighties vinyl purchase.

 

Gotta side with Jon here, GITM is their best, I like that album a good bit now.  Zenyatta Mondatta feels whimsical in comparison to the rest, the songs are very repetitive (as do other songs on other albums) but this one feels rushed maybe because of the earlier success of Message In a Bottle and Roxanne…  Also, I feel like Sting and Copeland are held back by the guitarist, some of these tracks could have really benefitted from some more guitar work versus the synthesized reggae riffs and simple solo bits.  And one final rip on this one… Da Do Do Do Do Da Da Da Dabba Dabba Do still doesn’t work for me, just have never felt that song.

 

The good? Every other song plays out really well, I love the drum work, the bass lines are always fresh and interesting and the songs, though whimsical, do hold my interest.  Still I found myself switching over to GITM to really get my fill of the Police.  Nice post though!

RSS

Question Of The Week

CRB Features (Click photo to visit)

Birthdays

There are no birthdays today

CRB Staff Members

 

In Memory Of

Norma Jean Fox
(11/30/1945-9/7/2010)

Photos

  • Add Photos
  • View All

Videos

  • Add Videos
  • View All

Badge

Loading…

© 2024   Created by RJhog (Admin).   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service