Art of the Beholder – New This Week – In Defense of: Album “Zenyatta Mondatta” by The Police

Greetings,

Novo and Buck discuss and defend Police album “Zenyatta Mondatta,” focusing on the need to reexamine the album and its importance in music history, and why, ultimately, this album deserves a lot more love.

Released in October 1980, Zenyatta Mondatta was The Police’s third studio album and one that marked a crucial turning point in their career. The band—Sting, Andy Summers, and Stewart Copeland—had already begun making waves with their unique blend of rock, punk, reggae, and jazz influences, and they were poised to break into global stardom with this release. However, Zenyatta Mondatta was recorded under intense pressure, as the band was required to complete the album in just a few weeks in order to kick off a planned world tour.

The album was recorded at Wisseloord Studios in the Netherlands, produced by the band and Nigel Gray. The tight timeline led to a creative but pressured environment, which resulted in some experimental and minimalist tracks. Despite these constraints, Zenyatta Mondatta succeeded critically and commercially, reaching #1 in the UK and #5 in the US charts. The album showcases both the band’s signature sound and a shift toward a more polished style that allowed them to stand out in the increasingly competitive landscape of the early 1980s.

Two of Zenyatta Mondatta’s biggest hits, “Don’t Stand So Close to Me” and “De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da,” became defining tracks for the band. “Don’t Stand So Close to Me,” which dealt with the complexity of teacher-student attraction, won the Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal. Another standout track, “Driven to Tears,” highlighted Sting’s lyrical exploration of social and political themes, and “Behind My Camel,” an instrumental by Andy Summers, won a Grammy for Best Rock Instrumental Performance. Summers later recalled that the recording was challenging, with Sting initially disliking “Behind My Camel” so much that he refused to play bass on it, forcing Summers to handle both guitar and bass parts.

The album’s title, Zenyatta Mondatta, was in keeping with the nonsensical wordplay the band used for their prior album titles (Outlandos d’Amour and Reggatta de Blanc). Sting later explained that the title was meant to evoke something foreign and mysterious, and although it held no literal meaning, it seemed to encapsulate the creative experimentation that marked this phase in The Police’s career.

Critics praised Zenyatta Mondatta for its lyrical boldness and innovative sound, and the album’s success cemented The Police as one of the leading bands of the early ’80s, paving the way for their next album, Ghost in the Machine, which would further explore darker and more complex themes.

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NDP