Search - Blondie :: Best

Not very Best

Pieter | Johannesburg | 03/18/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

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Blondie was one of the most exciting 1970s bands, with its roots in New York punk, its spectacular exploration of pop and its later ventures into synthpop and dance. This Best Of collection is weighted towards their later work and is not comprehensive at all. It opens with the brilliant Heart Of Glass, a hypnotic slice of synth-driven dance-pop from the Parallel Lines album.



The next track, Dreaming (from Eat To The Beat), is a wistful pop ballad whilst The Tide Is High (from Auto American) is a catchy reggae ditty. Sunday Girl is another lovely pop tune, but Hanging On The Telephone sounds a bit jarring now and Rapture doesn't work for me. One Way Or Another isn't great either, but (I'm Always Touched By Your) Presence Dear remains a masterpiece.



Of the synthpop tracks, Call Me was a huge hit but it always lacked a good melody and hasn't aged nearly as well as Heart Of Glass, whilst Atomic remains at least interesting. In The Flesh and Rip Her To Shreds are excellent early pop-rock numbers from the Blondie debut album and still sound good.



The worst omissions are Picture This, Denis, Fan Mail and Bermuda Triangle Blues, all exceptional tracks from the Plastic Letters and Parallel Lines albums. Although Best Of is an enjoyable collection, Greatest Hits with its 19 tracks definitely has the edge as it includes memorable hits like Denis, Picture This, Island Of Lost Souls and Maria.



The two best Blondie albums are Plastic Letters and Parallel Lines, and they are like greatest hits collections themselves plus they contain great album tracks found nowhere else, such as Fade Away And Radiate and the aforementioned Fan Mail and Bermuda Triangle Blues.

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