The Police - Zenyatta Mondatta

The Police were already one of the biggest bands around when they made Zenyatta Mondatta, the 1980 album presented here on 180 gram vinyl.

Sting, Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland recorded it in the Netherlands in a tight window of a few weeks, squeezed between relentless touring commitments. Co-producing with Nigel Gray, they pushed further into the spacious, reggae-flecked new wave that had made their first two albums such hits, and the pressure only seemed to sharpen them.

"Don't Stand So Close to Me" is the obvious classic, a tense tale of a teacher's forbidden attraction, drawn from Sting's own past in the classroom and set to Summers' shimmering guitar. "De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da" turns deceptively simple syllables into a sly comment on language itself, while "Driven to Tears" brings a darker, politically charged urgency. "Canary in a Coalmine" bounces along with buoyant, ska-tinged energy.

The album also earned Grammy recognition, with both "Don't Stand So Close to Me" and the instrumental "Behind My Camel" taking home awards.

It remains a showcase for Copeland's restless, inventive drumming and one of the defining records of the new wave era, as sharp, economical and inventive now as the day it first landed.