My Amazon Reviews: Blondie "AutoAmerican"

And it's finger popping.
4 Out Of 5 Stars

Coming off the rocking success of "Eat To The Beat," Blondie hit 1980 ready to do whatever struck their fancy. The result, "AutoAmerican,' was a hodgepodge of styles, everything from disco, rap, rock, cabaret, a surprisingly well done showtune from "Camelot," even reggae. The album starts of eclectically enough, with the mostly instrumental drone of "Europa," which ends with Debbie Harry robotically speaking about phase gridlock and being left on your rims. Getting that out of their systems quickly enough, "AutoAmerican" breaks into a disco groove with "Live It Up," which seemed, in comparison the such monsters as "Heart Of Glass" and "Call Me," a bit tepid.

Which sets the tone for much of "AutoAmerican." Blondie was so all over the map that many of the songs kind of pale in comparison to other songs from earlier albums. The hits off the album itself show those flaws in sharp relief. The number one "The Tide Is High" (a cover of a Jamaican band called The Paragons) took reggae and used Harry's breathless vocal to make a striking pop song that stuck to the roof of your brain like the best of their singles. Then there was the truly unique "Rapture," in which a mostly underground and novelty form of music suddenly found itself at number one. It could easily be the first rap/rock crossover single. and still holds up remarkably well after over three decades.

One of the things missing from "AutoAmerican" was the rock. There's nothing here to compare to the explosive "Dreaming" or the muscle of "The Hardest Part" from just one album back. There are a couple tries, like the wild abandon in "Walk Like Me" and the horn driven "Go Through It." It also shows up on the bonus tracks, where the extended version of the number one "Call Me" blows away many of "AutoAmerican's" weaker moments. Harry was at Force 10 against Giorgio Morodor's Eurodisco pumping pulse. Which means that the best of the album are the singles, one of which is a bonus track. It didn't much matter at this point as the band was beginning to splinter (Frank Infante had to sue to be on the album) and the limp "The Hunter" would quietly close this chapter on Blondie. (They've made a couple of very strong reunion albums, including "No Exit" and "Panic Of Girls" in the new century, however.)

     

My Amazon Reviews: Blondie "The Panic Of Girls"

Calmness of Panic 
3 Out of 5 Stars

Never a stranger to genre jumping, Blondie's third album since refiguring themselves ("No Exit," "The Curse of Blondie"), and "The Panic of Girls" goes for the hopscotch with gusto. Debbie Harry makes you start salivating when the electric pulse and Bo-Diddly drums kick off "D-Day" is classic Blondie style. She teases you by singing 'Debbie, Devil, don't you dare, day of the Deb..." or at least that's what it sounds like. There's all the wonderful traits of the great Blondie singles: self depreciating, a wink and a smirk, Debbie's pure and unique voice and a kicking hook.

"What I Heard" continues with same force, then "Mother" (about an old fave nightclub from the band's Lower Manhattan formative years) makes it to third base. But then "Panic of Girls" starts to scatter. "The End The End" and "Sunday Smile" are the required "Tide is High" retreads, "Le Blue" is four and a half minutes of pseudo French cabaret kitsch, and "China Shoes" closes the album with a yawn. The only surprise is that they didn't attempt to clone a "Heart of Glass" single. Still, then band plays with the groove of a unit that's been working together long enough to sound casually perfect, and that makes the halfway songs like "Words In My Mouth" or the remix ready "Wipe of My Sweat" enjoyable.

"Panic of Girls" is about as good as "The Curse" and doesn't pander the way "No Exit" did (no trendy cameos here). It's also a better album than Harry's "Necessary Evil." Harry, Chris Stein and Clem Burke still make quite a racket for old fans, just remember that these are old pros making sturdy if unremarkable music for us oldsters.