Far from black and white

Album: Parallel Lines
Artist: Blondie www.blondie.net
Label: Chrysalis
Release date: September 1978
Peak chart position/sales: (UK) #1, Platinum (US) #6, Platinum, (AUS) #2


RATING: 4.5/5


It is a great comfort to someone like me - who not only rather dislikes the restrictive pigeonhole nature of genres, but is also largely incapable of figuring out the right one to label a band with without the help of Wikipedia - to know that Blondie cannot and will not be framed by such mediocre restrictions. For all the geometrical conformity of the coolly classy album cover, Blondie is one of those truly ‘classic’ artists who wrote the rules – or rather, didn’t bother with them at all. A pioneering six-piece headed by the formidable sophistication and attitude of blonde bombshell Debbie Harry along with boyfriend guitarist Chris Stein, Blondie are best described as New Wave, with a helping of disco, pop, reggae and punk rock thrown in.

The joltingly familiar sound of a telephone ringing greets us at the beginning of track one, before Harry’s acapella leap into the ranting vocal of The Nerves’ original “Hanging On The Telephone”. The confident cover is followed by an impressive display of the sort of originality that earned Blondie their ahead-of-the-game reputation. The threatening “One Way Or Another” accelerates through a stalkerish lyric with fuzzed electric chords, crashing rock drums and helter skelter aggressive snarls from Harry, while “Fade Away And Radiate” floats through a psychedelic landscape of eerie ringing guitar leads and chilled beats which turns out to be a cryptic ode to television: “Ooh baby, watchful lines vibrate soft in brainwave time/ Silver pictures move so slow /Golden tubes faintly glow”.

When they're not being experimental, Blondie content themselves with perfectly crafted pop. The cheerfully upbeat “Pretty Baby” and delightfully simple sugar-sweet melody and handclaps of “Sunday Girl” sweeten the mood between their punchy punk neighbours “Will Anything Happen?” and “I Know But I Don’t Know”, while retaining an edge with Harry’s smooth, cool vocals in the coquettishly delivered half-spoken verses and ironic lyrics: “Cold as icecream but still as sweet”. It was the chilled disco beats and dreamy vocal on 'Heart of Glass’ however that broke into the U.S, a track that remains one of the most instantly recognisable hits of Blondie’s career. After channelling Buddy Holly and The Crickets in the rockabilly cover “I’m Gonna Love You Too”, Parallel Lines closes with a punchy send-off (literally) in “Just Go Away”: “Don’t go away sad /Don’t go away mad /Just go away!”.



Harry’s voice – at times gutsy, at others emulating the whining twang of an electric guitar with unabashed experimental gusto – is a standout aspect of the band’s sound and her tough diva image paved the way for subsequent influential females such as Madonna and, in a more contemporary way perhaps, P!nk. As a band, Blondie’s fearlessness and innovation led them to superbly effective creative combinations that left fellow musicians to follow in their sophisticated footsteps. Their eager pursuit of undiscovered paths, together with a masterful confidence in their work holds its own as much today as it did decades ago and embodies that most accurate description of a true ‘classic’ album: “much imitated, rarely equalled”.

Ironically perhaps, I arrive at the conclusion that Blondie have no parallel.

Is it worth my $$$? – I’m sorry, what part of 4.5/5 stars didn’t you understand? ;) Musical gold - and a high quality and very worthy depletion of your bank account.

Listen to: One Way Or Another, Heart Of Glass, Picture This