Search - Blondie :: Best of Blondie

Not quite "Best Of"

E. A Solinas | MD USA | 02/09/2005

(2 out of 5 stars)

""Best of Blondie" is a rather deceptive title -- it would be better to call it "Blondie's Top Ten Hits." You get what you pay for in this budget CD, which contains some of Blondie's best songs, but also omits any songs from their first album, and neglect other notable songs.



"Best of" contains several songs from the classic Blondie albums, not including the recent reunion albums. Included are songs from "Autoamerican" ("Rapture," "The Tide is High") "Parallel Lines" ("Heart of Glass," "One Way Or Another"), "The Hunter" ("Island of Lost Souls"), "Plastic Letters ("Denis"), and "Eat To The Beat" ("Atomic," "Dreaming").



The biggest problem with "Best of" is obvious -- it only contains some of Blondie's hits. Admittedly there's going to be overcrowded selections if there are six albums and only ten selected hits, but "Best of" fails to give a full picture of Blondie's top tunes.



For example, their self-titled debut album is completely ignored, despite songs like "X Offender" and "Rip Her To Shreds." "The Hunter" and "Plastic Letters" have only one song each -- okay, neither is Blondie's most popular, yet each has songs that are worthy of inclusion.



What redeems the "Best of" album at all is that it's a good introduction to the works of Blondie. Deborah Harry's solid vocals sound good whether in punk or new wave (or some mix of the two), and the other members of Blondie provide a colorful, nimble musical backdrop for her voice. Unfortunately, it also suffers from poor audio quality.



"Best Of Blondie" will be a disappointment to fans, or to people looking for an overall glance at Blondie's work. As an introduction, it's a pretty good choice."