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Album Review
by SashaS
22-1-2004
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| Blondie: you can always count on stylee |
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Blondie: 'The Curse Of Blondie'
(Sony)
Slipped disc #16: Blondie and its curse
One of the must-have Chrimbo presents last year [1.3 million units sold!] was the ‘digital jukebox’ by Apple Mac people, iPod, at the hefty 300+ squid mark. Well, the great news is that there is a ‘baby’-iPod: coming in different coloured cases (instead of the ubiquitous white currently) it has already had dedicated cases designed by Pucci and Christian Dior but, instead of 10,000 songs its capacity will be 1,000 tracks, at the pound-stretching tag.
Being a driver [still mad at Ken’s charge that’s proved to be more than detrimental for London’s commerce, thus - out with him!] there is no need for iPod in my tin-lab. Also, I can’t think of 1000 songs, let alone 10K, I’d like to carry on me. Even at the conservative count of a dozen cuts per CD, mini-iPod can store 830 albums!? That’s way above the number of discs most fans would own in their lifetime.
How many of them would have saved the latest Blondie album, ‘The Course of Blondie’, we can only speculate, which is as useful as the exercise in futility that is picking the ‘new’ stars of any given year. Anyhow, if Downloading, MP3 and iPods were happening 30 years ago we are sure Blondie wouldn’t have ruled the hearts of all descriptions before splitting up and regrouping 17 years later.
‘The Curse Of Blondie’ is full of pop songs that are mature, catchy and still striving to push the boundary… [It makes you think that no ‘Pop Idiot’ will ever be able to spot it, even if helped by Sherlock Holmes!] Whether it is Debbie’s cool rap on the opening ‘Shake Down’ [Blondie had one of the first ever pop-rap crossover hits with ‘Rapture’ in ‘81] or free-formed ‘Desires Brings You Back’ or hypno-elegiac ‘Songs of Love’…
Blondie and Deborah Harry still have it more than the majority of pop upstarts. It’s the public that doesn’t appreciate style and has a problem with legacies [alike Bob Dylan, The Stones or Iggy Pop‘s cases], plus - there is the issue of a non-nubile ‘babe’. If you wanna know, Deb’s earlobe has more sex-appeal than Atomic Kitten, former Spice Girls and All Saints’ members on a pile and as attired as women on the cover of Jimi Hendrix Experience’s ‘Electric Ladyland’!
Of course it’s got nothing to do with music - high standard maintained as ever - but all this ageism in entertainment industry, and music business in particular, is so degrading and has not an ‘x’ to do with quality.
8/10
SashaS
22-1-2004
Blondie’s album ’The Curse of Blondie’ is available now on Sony
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