The Police
Zenyatta Mondatta (A&M 493 597)

My current musical phase seems to be a lot about reclaiming music I'd previously loved, then shunned, most of it from the "classic rock" category. For awhile it was really important to me to get away from the blind love of "classic" albums, caused mainly by critics insisting this or that album is "essential."

Anyone who witnessed my many CD pogroms of the early 90s will attest that my record collection has had more than its share of skeletons in the closet. So nowadays I'm going back and actually thinking about what albums I truly liked that I got rid of simply because their "classic-ness" was beaten over my head.

I have no lingering regrets about dumping the likes of Nothing's Shocking, Steel Wheels, or Trout Mask Replica, but I recently felt the need to re-experience Zenyatta Mondatta, one of the big albums of my youth.

For me, this is easily the Police's best album, Sting's finest hour as a songwriter, and ultimately the best example of why the Police ever became "classic" to begin with. Now that I think about it, I'm not sure I ever actually had this on CD, but I did have it on 8-track, LP, and cassette. In a few years I will undoubtedly purchase the Philips-Magnavox-Sony InnerEar™ Direct Broadcast Implant version as well, with lyric booklet downloaded directly into my subconscious.

Actually, I'm surprised at revisiting the album how much of it still remains in my subconscious. Radio staples "Don't Stand So Close to Me '80" and "De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da" are still somewhat hard to avoid on certain sections of the dial, but the album's other tracks are even better, and uniformly catchy and tight.

"Canary in a Coalmine" is probably my favorite Police track, almost Devo-esque in its aggressive poppiness, and then there's the likes of "When the World is Running Down, You Make the Best of What's Still Around," "Driven to Tears" and "Voices Inside My Head" – all good songs, showcasing Sting's insistently melodic songwriting and the band's reggae-fied take on white new wave funk.

Lesser known tracks like "Man in a Suitcase" and "Bombs Away" deliver a solid punch especially in relief to the more well known material on Zenyatta. Only "Behind My Camel" (which actually won the group a Grammy for best instrumental rock performance) and "Shadows in the Rain" could be called also-rans, with "Shadows" suffering only from having been outdone by Sting's jazzy solo version.

The album's closer, "The Other Way of Stopping," is another instrumental that sort of points toward the more prog-rock leanings of Synchronicity, an album I never really got into even though I couldn't call it a limp album.

I sort of admire the fact that the group put out a 38 minute, 11 track album, with two tracks being instrumental – really reinforces the feeling that the Police were one of the last great rock bands … meaning, guys who could actually play their instruments.

I'm fairly relieved to rescue this album from "guilty pleasure" status and just say outright that I like it. Maybe in the future I'll be ready to acknowledge that Nothing Like the Sun is a great album too, but I promise that's as far as I'll go with Sting's solo career, unless he persuades me otherwise with powerful, long-lasting Tantric sex.

Loud Bassoon rating scale

Review by Ted Ass