Music reviews. CD reviews. Critically hip!

21 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 ’98 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 seventies 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 pin up and a lifetime’s worth of eclecticism that few knew what to make of, and even fewer originally paid attention to.  Wasn’t until ’79 that Blondie made their first big splash in the states—amazingly enough—the undisputed nation of new trend developments and seemingly always the last to know… and the album “Parallel Lines”.  And 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 and 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 later, 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 seventeen 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 their 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, maybe except 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 eleven and inches away from the AM radio dial and the art of top 40 repetition at an all time high… and that’s how big Blondie and how far they climbed.  I said the very same about G n’ R in ’87… 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.  

Okay 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 nineteen 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!