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Rating:
Regarding the number three, we know that whatever field we refer to, the connection to the concept of perfection seems mandatory. This thought is also adopted by rock music, which, despite its countless facets, provides numerous examples where the third work turns out to be the most successful, but also others where the theory loses consistency.
This is an album that, beyond the lukewarm reception it received (it was not easy to follow up on "Outlandos D'Amour" and "Reggatta De Blanc"), can be welcomed as a suitable descendant of its noble predecessors. The tracks are still eleven and balance out between that innovative formula of pop-rock and reggae, losing the punk approach that had elegantly strengthened the first two works.
The guitar-synthesizer that starts "Don't Stand So Close To Me" immediately makes it clear that some changes in the musical setup have occurred; Sting's polite and energetic singing evolves into a convincing refrain that bursts into a delightful chorus that will give the track (which talks about young Professor Sumner's teaching experience!) the deserved role of opening the entire album. Try listening at full volume to those eight initial snare drum beats in "Driven To Tears," and you'll understand why even today, when people talk about The Police's sound, it is done by appreciating that magical sense of novelty they brought with their entry into the music business, which finds in this timeless song - where the sonic interweaving between instruments flows with a continuous unfolding of the same - a new way to compose hit singles.
The summer flavor of "When The World Is Running Down, You Make The Best Of What's Still Around" introduces us to the perhaps more frivolous but pleasant part of the album where the pressing rhythm of "Canary In A Coalmine" shows how extensive Sting's compositional creation can be, as well as "Bombs Away" (written by Copeland), a pop-rock song with a simple and flawless chorus that represents the full versatility of the bassist to interpret others' tracks.
The perfect combination of music and lyrics is definitely represented by "Voices Inside My Head," where the only words sung are the title repeated endlessly over a musical carpet created by Sting and expanded by the practical-genius flair of the three, with Summers engaged in an ecstatic performance that acts as a binding agent between all the instruments and reminds us how plucking the same note multiple times with different intensity can make a piece like this great; a true purifying atmosphere where a furious scream is freed, starting again from where the instrumental "Reggatta De Blanc" had ended.
Surely the second part of this album is less homogeneous than the first with a intertwined mix of lively, spirited tracks with gray and reflective compositions; "De Do Do Do De Da Da Da" (a track from the soundtrack of "The Last American Virgin") has everything needed to ensure a respectable follow-up to "Don't Stand So Close To Me" in the high positions of the international charts, bursting (except for the punk component!) all those elements (Beatlesque choruses, chopped guitar, and doses of reggae) that have always characterized the police sound.
The accelerated and delightful reggae of "Man In A Suitcase" is the last glimpse of fun and recreation that can be heard on this record before the sonorous gloom and experimental attitude of the three emerge with "Shadows In The Rain". Appropriate stylistic placement on this b-side finds Summers' tracks (with the Arabian-flavored funeral march of "Behind My Camel") and Copeland (who with the instrumental-cinematic "The Other Way Of Stopping" helps maintain in listeners that need to keep the music/images duo alive).
In conclusion, "Zenyatta Mondatta" can be considered a sunny sonic document that aptly represents the transition from the '70s to the '80s of one of the most extraordinary ensembles the multicolored universe of rock music has ever had; a varied assortment of tracks endowed with an exclusive charm that has certainly extended the band's popularity, worthy of the consideration of uniqueness achieved also with impeccable live performances, but which allowed them to seize and retain the scepter of one of the most essential, innovative, and inimitable bands in the musical globe.
Tracklist Lyrics Samples and Videos
01 Don't Stand So Close to Me (04:02)
Young teacher the subject
Of schoolgirl fantasy
She wants him so badly
Knows what she wants to be
Inside her there's longing
This girl's an open page
Book marking - she's so close now
This girl is half his age
Don't stand, don't stand so
Don't stand so close to me
Don't stand, don't stand so
Don't stand so close to me
Her friends are so jealous
You know how bad girls get
Sometimes it's not so easy
To be the teacher's pet
Temptation, frustration
So bad it makes him cry
Wet bus stop, she's waiting
His car is warm and dry
Don't stand, don't stand so
Don't stand so close to me
Don't stand, don't stand so
Don't stand so close to me
Loose talk in the classroom
To hurt they try and try
Strong words in the staff room
The accusations fly
It's no use, he sees her
He starts to shake and cough
Just like the old man in
That book by Nabokov
Don't stand, don't stand so
Don't stand so close to me
Don't stand, don't stand so
Don't stand so close to me
Don't stand, don't stand so
Don't stand so close to me
02 Driven to Tears (03:22)
How can you say that you're not responsible?
What does it have to do with me?
What is my reaction, what should it be?
Confronted by this latest atrocity
Driven to tears
Driven to tears
Driven to tears
Hide my face in my hands, shame wells in my throat
My comfortable existence is reduced to a shallow meaningless party
Seems that when some innocent die
All we can offer them is a page in a some magazine
Too many cameras and not enough food
'Cause this is what we've seen
Driven to tears
Driven to tears
Driven to tears
Protest is futile, nothing seems to get through
What's to become of our world, who knows what to do
Driven to tears
Driven to tears
Driven to tears
Driven to tears
Driven to tears
Driven to tears
04 Canary in a Coalmine (02:27)
First to fall over when the atmosphere is less than perfect
Your sensibilities are shaken by the slightest defect
You live you life like a canary in a coalmine
You get so dizzy even walking in a straight line
You say you want to spend the winter in Firenza
You're so afraid to catch a dose of influenza
You live your life like a canary in a coalmine
You get so dizzy even walking in a straight line
Canary in a coalmine
Now if I tell you that you suffer from delusions
You pay your analyst to reach the same conclusions
You live your life like a canary in a coalmine
You get so dizzy even walking in a straight line
Canary in a coalmine
First to fall over when the atmosphere is less than perfect
Your sensibilities are shaken by the slightest defect
You live your life like a canary in a coalmine
You get so dizzy even walking in a straight line
Canary in a coalmine
05 Voices Inside My Head (03:53)
Voices inside my head
Echoes of things that you said
[Repeat ad nauseum]
06 Bombs Away (03:06)
The general scratches his belly and thinks
His pay is good but his officers stink
Guerilla girl, hard and sweet
A military man would love to meet
The President looks in the mirror and speaks
His shirts are clean but his country reeks
Unpaid bills
In Afghanistan hills
Bombs away
But we're O.K.
Bombs away
In old Bombay
The general only wants to teach France to dance
His army life doesn't give him any romance
Guerilla girl, hard and sweet
A military man would love to meet
The general scratches his belly and thinks
His pay is good but his company stinks
Guerilla girl, hard and sweet
A military man would love to meet
Bombs away
But we're O.K.
Bombs away
In old Bombay
07 De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da (04:10)
Don't think me unkind
Words are hard to find
They're only check's I've left unsigned
From the banks of chaos in my mind
And when their eloquence escapes me
Their logic ties me up and rapes me
De do do do de da da da
Is all I want to say to you
De do do do de da da da
Their innocence will pull me through
De do do do de da da da
Is all I want to say to you
De do do do de da da da
They're meaningless and all that's true
Poets, priests and politicians
Have words to thank for their positions
Words that scream for your submission
And no-one's jamming their transmission
'Cos when their eloquence escapes you
Their logic ties you up and rapes you
De do do do de da da da
Is all I want to say to you
De do do do de da da da
Their innocence will pull me through
De do do do de da da da
Is all I want to say to you
De do do do de da da da
They're meaningless and all that's true
10 Shadows in the Rain (05:03)
(Sting)
Woke up in my clothes again this morning
Don't know exactly where I am
And I should heed my doctor's warning
He does the best with me he can
He claims I suffer from delusions
Yet I'm so confident I'm sane
It can't be no optical illusion
So how can you explain
Shadows in the rain
And if you see us on the corner
And we're dancing in the rain
I join my friends there when I see them
Outside my window pane
Shadows in the rain
Shadows in the rain
Shadows in the rain
Shadows in the rain
Woke up in my clothes again this morning
Don't know exactly where I am
I should heed my doctor's warning
He does the best with me he can
Shadows in the rain
Shadows in the rain
Shadows in the rain
Shadows in the rain
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Other reviews
By Lucabbrasi
"Despite the inevitable dilution heard in the tracks of this album, it’s worth pointing out true 'classics' of undisputed quality."
"All in all, an album that if it had been conceived and produced more calmly, or perhaps without pressures from the record label, could have yielded better results."
By wardrobeOFdeath
The tracks have a concise and well-accentuated rhythm (clearly of reggae origin), yet they are not for dancing, they are for listening.
The last song is 'The Other Way Of Stopping', a thrilling, somewhat dark progressive piece... That said, it concludes one of the best pop albums I have ever heard.
