I remember getting this album upon release and not really getting into its contemporary sound too much. I had far more time for its predecessor, No Exit, but dipping into it again, I have given it more of a positive reassessment. The songs are actually all pretty good, but it is blighted, as many albums were for a long time, by a production that was way too loud and distorted what were good songs.
A classic example is on the otherwise poppily appealing Undone, which deafens you even when on low. Now, as I am always saying, music should be loud, but within reason. So much music was badly produced in the first few years of the millennium - Bruce Springsteen's The Rising for one - and this falls into that category. Blondie's strength lay in their poppy frothiness and light, tuneful sensibility, exemplified, say, by Picture This, Sunday Girl or Dreaming, sonic bombast was never their thing, and never should be. Another example of this is on the excellent punky/new wave song Golden Road, which I had to turn down twice to get a decent effect. Turning things down is not really me, but here I was left with no choice.
Shakedown is an impressive opener - big chunky offering featuring Debbie's spoken/semi-rap parts, along with some cool, ethereal chorus vocals. I hadn't listened to this for ages and had forgotten what a good track it is. Good Boys was a single, and it remains possibly the album's best track, with definite airs of Rapture on its verse and a big eighties-ish chorus plus some killer guitar parts. The song mixes electric pop with archetypal Blondie detached cool. The rap also approximates Queen's We Will Rock You.
It is not all cacophony, however. A nice sonic balance is found on Jimmy Destri's surprisingly slow-paced Rules For Living, a song that captures something of that old Blondie magic. The bombast is turned down here and it sounds so much better for it. Background Melody is an attractive piece of summery Blondie-reggae, featuring a nice deep bass line. Magic (Asodoya Yunta) continues in the sunny, laid-back vein and it sees Debbie singing some lines in Japanese. These three tracks are a nice interlude and End To End has definite old Blondie vibes.
Hello Joe is a melodious tribute to Joey Ramone that sounds nothing like The Ramones. The Tingler is a reasonable serving of Blondie semi-rap that once more needs sonic tweaking, as does the heavy metal grind of Last One In The World. Diamond Bridge is another fine song somewhat tarnished by its sound.
The final two tracks, Desire Brings Me Back and Songs Of Love, were written by avant-garde Roxy Music-ish saxophonist Gretchen Langheld and while both impressive and beguiling numbers, they seem a bit incongruous and superfluous. The album was just too long, like so many, but it has more good points than I once thought.
