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Greatest Hits Blondie Chrysalis Records, 2002
Buy it online
Reviewed by Vinnie Apicella
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Twenty-one years after The Best Of Blondie, Debbie and the guys return with a righteous selection of remastered "Hits" spanning all of their seven records and generation bridging esteem. Blondie, still very much an active band since reforming in 1998 for the well received No Exit, transcended musical borders at a time when Rock was still "Rock" and labeling remained an indoor function of record manufacturers. In today's genre-bending climate, where the norm is to merge six or seven various styles, proclaim ambiguity, pledge uniqueness and point to no one in particular, a band like Blondie's influence and relevance has never been stronger. Appearing in the late 1970s when the scene was ripe for the picking, Blondie pushed the envelope to a threadbare extreme, creating an unlikely combination of modernity, quirky dance, Punk, Funk, Beat Pop and New Wave, sporting a dynamic platinum blonde center stage pinup and a lifetime's worth of eclecticism that few knew what to make of, and even fewer originally paid attention to. It wasn't until 1979 that Blondie made their first big splash in the United States -- amazingly enough -- the undisputed nation of new trend developments and seemingly always the last to know -- and the album Parallel Lines. The line was drawn and Blondie, never one to create the same album twice, were on their way to mainstream success before they knew it, soon to become one of the biggest in the world without sacrificing a shred of the dynamism that marked their early arrival. So call 'em groundbreaking, trend setting, chart climbing, irritating... Surely for all the ingenuity instilled within the limitless boundaries of the artistic expanse, tunes like the tropical "The Tide Is High" or glittery "Heart Of Glass," both huge hits in the solid gold era, are wont to do more harm than good in the realm of longevity... And yet there'd always be something for everyone from this five -- then four -- member unit never satisfied to sit still for very long. Actually, the Greatest Hits release follows some six months after the reissuing of their first six records, all repackaged and remastered, and thus here, the poor man's version of a true Rock original, and primer coat for the next layer expected later next year. The Hits contains everything required for the Blondie connoisseur or casual listener with little to dispute. Personally, I'd have pulled "Denis" or "Sunday Girl" and found room for "Forgive Or Forget" or the title track from No Exit, heretofore only represented by "Maria", your plain Jane radio smash some 17 years after the fact. But who am I and what do I know about song selection? Overall, the expected breadwinners are all present and accounted for: "Call Me," "One Way Or Another," "Heart Of Glass," "The Tide Is High" and of course "Rapture," their most significant crossover moment, merging the ever popular yet then untested Rap style with white bred Pop hooks for an altogether classic song. So many of Blondie's songs are classics, yet they remain timeless as ever simply because they, as a band, were so far ahead of their time. Looking back, they took more chances than most in their class, except maybe for The Cars or The Talking Heads, yet it didn't take the world forever and a day to catch the spirit. And after a near 20-year layoff, other artists have been catching up and the idea of a uniquely unclassifiable style is all the rage. So here's one of those rarities that comes along once in a lifetime and, if we're lucky enough, sticks around a while to make an impact years later. The true test of a band's ability lies not only in what
they achieve in live action, but what they're still able to
achieve after the last bow. And, suffice it to say, many of
those aforementioned hits still annoy me to this day because
it's like back to being 11 and inches away from the AM radio
dial and the art of top 40 repetition at an all time high. I
said the very same about G n' R in 1987... If I hear "Sweet
Child O' Mine" one more time I'll go off the deep end. And
to this day I still need more space between myself and their
acclaimed Appetite For Destruction record. OK, so the
point isn't to shy away from the band I spent better than
half a page praising, but I think the point's been made.
Nonetheless, here's 19 Blondie hot tracks with a few
unlikely heroes, "X Offender," "Atomic," "The Hardest Part,"
thrown in the mix to curdle the cream of the crop just a
bit. They've been there, done that, still doing it, and I
can't wait to see what they'll do next. | December
2002 Vinnie Apicella is a full time freelancer, freeloader and Columbia student where he's a Writing major and spends much of his time impersonating intellectual types with a better GPA than his. Future goals include: designing a Web site, buying a house, relearning 80s rock guitar, writing a book, finally getting paid from Billboard for the Earshot article, regaining a social life and opening a pub in the English countryside. |
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