Review #401: Blondie, Blondie
#401: Blondie, Blondie
We’ve already covered Debbie Harry being a badass, so let’s move on to her being a weirdo. Did you know she starred in a David Cronenberg movie in 1983, five years after Blondie’s debut? A Renaissance woman.
I feel like Parallel Lines fits more firmly as a New Wave/disco album than this one, which is accidentally Sixties beach rock. It sounded something like punk rock surfing — see “In The Flesh” and “In The Sun.” Also see “The Attack of the Giant Ants,” an island-flavored song about the end of the world. Harry sounds fairly serene the whole time, even when singing about mass murder committed by ants: Mankind is destroyed, sprinkled in the void/ Giant ants from space waste the human race.
Blondie is also funny. Parts of this record felt very Rocky Horror Picture Show. See: “X Offender,” “Little Girl Lies,” “A Shark In Jet’s Clothing,” and “Looks Good In Blue” (mainly for the line Give you some head and shoulders to cry on). There are some good renditions of the dancey New Wave torch song (“Man Overboard,” “Rifle Range”). Then there are the ones that shred (“Rip Her To Shreds,” “Kung Fu Girls”).
Conclusion: My Blondie favorite is Eat to the Beat, but this one is pretty good too.
