Blondie

Here's where it all started to go wrong, with blame falling on fame, egos and infighting. "The Tide Is High" and "Rapture" were both No. 1 hits (and continued to make Blondie one of the few guitar rock acts that were big with black audiences) but the album feels formless and the songwriting is muted. The CD adds "Call Me," their awesome collaboration with Giorgio Moroder.

Blondie's Autoamerican is a terrible album, but it's bad in such an arcane, high-toned way
that listening to it is perversely fascinating. After Parallel Lines gave Chris Stein a carte
blanche, it was only a matter of time until he started living out his fantasies of himself as a
deep thinker. Since he could always be counted on to hedge his bets, however, he
cannily managed to sustain the illusion that he still cared about rock & roll on Eat t... More >

It's odd at best that the two hits and the two high points are the two songs predicated on black sources--the resourceful reggae cover "The Tide Is High" and the genius rap rip "Rapture" (which stands, let me assure my fellow Flash fans, as the funniest, fondest joke she ever told on herself). Elsewhere power pop turns power cabaret and Sgt. Pepper turns white album, only without Lennon-McCartney, or even McCartney. Debbie sings better all the time, but a better singer than she'll ever be couldn't save "T-Birds," or "Faces." They got what they wanted and now what? (Grade - B-)