Search - Blondie :: Blondie

The mocking girl group sound of Blondie's debut album

Lawrance M. Bernabo | The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota | 07/01/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Blondie was the most commercially successful band to emerge from the punk/new wave movement of the late 1970s. The lineup changed a lot over the years but at the core of the group from the day it was formed in August 1974 was singer Deborah Harry and guitarist Chris Stein, who had both been in the Stilettos. This debut album was released in late 1976 by Private Stock Records and clearly defines the group's style as taking the girl group sound of the Sixties and fusing it with the punk sensibilities of the Seventies to become new wave icons. Blondie was never punk the way the Ramones or the Talking Heads were punk, but they still had serious attitude. This is amply proven by this album's first track and the group's first single, "X Offender." The song was originally entitled "Sex Offender," before the record company changed it, and the lyrics tell of a criminal falling for the cop who busts her. At the same time that the song fits the formula of the teenager in love angst songs of the 1950s and 1960s it also clearly mocks such songs as well. "In the Flesh," one of the few songs where Harry tries to sound really sexy, sounds like it should have come out of the Brill Building a decade earlier except Harry's vocal performance here, with its echoes of Marilyn Monroe, keys you in that there is some serious deconstruction at work here. Just listen to the final line of "Look Good in Blue" and clearly there is a tongue in cheek attitude to the double-entendres. Rating this one is fairly easy because while Blondie would get better there is some historical significance to this debut effort and this remastered CD offers up five bonus tracks consisting of three demos, including the archetypal "Platinum Blonde," a cover of the Shangri-Las' "Out in the Streets," as well as the original single versions of "X Offender" and "In the Sun." "Blondie" is not a great Blondie album, but it does establish the group's definitive high gloss trashy sound. The result was a group whose greatest hits collection is one of the most popular every produced (i.e., everybody I know has it and listens to it on a regular basis). That strongly suggests the rest of their oeuvre is worth examining as well."