"Plastic Letters" BlondieIt's no secret that Blondie's my group. Debbie Harry and the (various) boys have kept it interesting for 30 years now, culminating in last night's ugly induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (you couldn't bury the hatchet for one night, kids?). The morning after they announced that this year's tour (which sadly pairs them with a reformed version of The Cars, sans Ric Ocasek) will be their last, so I will definitely not want to miss one last chance to see them in the flesh. For many groups, sophomore albums tend to be a letdown (see Pretenders II, Vacation). But for Blondie, history has proved that the second time around was the best there ever was. Less campy than the debut and less polished than their masterpiece, "Parallel Lines," "Plastic Letters" captures everything that made them great. Richard Gottehrer took Blondie's increasingly confident style, threw in a pinch of the Wall of Sound and a nod to the '60s girl groups he'd produced, and produced an album of pure New Wave pop perfection. Especially: "Fan Mail," "No Imagination" and "(I'm Always Touched By Your) Presence Dear," which was former bassist Gary Valentine's going-away present after he was dumped by the band back in the day and is arguably Blondie's best song.
2 comments:
Thanks for bringing back memories of this album. A friend of mine turned me on to Blondie with "Plastic Letters" back in '79 when I was in high school, she was considered the "punk rock" girl at a high school where the likes of Pink Floyd, Journey & Led Zeppelin were popular. The whole album is great with the tracks "I Didn't Have The Nerve To Say No", "I'm On E" & "Fan Mail" being some of my favorite tracks on the disc
Thank You! Debbie is my homegirl. So is Little Debbie, but let's not go there
Post a Comment