Blonder Than Ever
Blondie Concert, Belgrade, December 2003
Review by Rada Djurica
Blondie, America's greatest pop band, is back, with a fantastically infectious new album The Curse of Blondie. Indeed, the curse continues to strike.
I have a friend who said to me: "You lucky girl you!!!... I'm sooooooooooooo jealous of you!!!!! You bloody saw Blondie!! One of my all time five favorite bands and biggest influences! Debbie Harry was the first pop star I fancied and had all her posters on my wall!! However, I did see them in '99 when they did a secret gig in a small club to promote Maria. I was in the front row and it was ACE! Debs even blew me a kiss as I tried to grab her!"
Forget Marilyn Monroe, forget Alfred Hitchcock’s blondes, and forget Queen of Monaco Grace Kelly... This is the real Blondie, with fourteen powerful, brand new songs: probably the most varied and experimental album in the band's history. At such an appropriate time, the beginning of the 21st Century, the music threatens to explode at any moment, flittering with gothic waves, bearing the ironic title The Curse of Blondie. Well, ladies and gentlemen, Blondie still rocks.
The concert sports hall in Belgrade was full of young and old… all of them came to participate in "the curse" live. There is something in her voice when she says, "Boys…" She's a super mum striking hard with her chubby sexuality, floating on the stage with a perfectly angelic face, demonstrating once again Blondie's unmatched hard rock with a light touch, with hypnotically wild stage moves and an edgy, cool voice. Blondie's infectious post-punk sound: "Heart of Glass," "The Tide Is High" and "Call Me."
Blondie guitarist Chris Stein says of the band's music, "It's in the groove of what's happening, but it's still pushing the envelope."
There are also plenty of pretty things, besides Debbie’s pretty face, imagine a woman floating with a gorgeously lacy tune over a spanking dub groove. Blondie makes a tune absolutely contagious through digital technology, recording it wherever they feel like it — often in the basement of Chris's loft — which may have contributed to the free, creative attitude of the "new" Blondie.
Lead singer Debbie Harry is rightfully proud of the band. Maybe this time the curse of Blondie will prove to be a good luck charm. Critics loved Rock Bird in 1986 and "French Kissing'" was a moderate radio hit. Blondie spent the latest part of the decade working on her acting skills.
She appeared in an episode of Wise Guy on CBS in 1989 and released a third album, the Euro-dance inflected Def Dumb and Blonde. Debravation appeared four years later. Like No Exit, The Curse of Blondie has contributed to "the curse," proving that the band not lost a step. In fact, the band plays better than ever.
The 1990s saw a much more reserved Debbie Harry, enjoying her pop culture status and the simple life, as well. She appeared in Videodrome (1982), Hairspray (1988), and the black comedy Six Ways To Sunday (1997). She was also recording and touring with the avant-garde/jazzy troupe, The Jazz Passengers in 1997 with their debut, Individually Twisted. She'd been working with Stein, Destri and Burke again. The Blondie reunion began to be official in 1999, when the four of them released their first album in 17 years. No Exit offered an always-stylish pop/rock sound, and Harry was as brilliant as ever.
If you'd been standing in the same crowd as me, you would admire this woman and her courage to be so natural on stage, while 20-30-year-old men beg for more of her "curse." Absolutely brilliant!
Consider the fact that the band took sixteen years off after their sixth and seventh albums. Consider that the band broke up, at the peak of their huge success. Consider that Chris, the group's guitarist and hit writer, almost died. Consider the fact that many of the group's closest associates in the new wave and punk movements from the '70s are long gone. Consider the fact that the album took four years to make, and maybe there's something to this title.
It has been a long and striking career so far, ranging from Debbie Harry, actress, starring in the creepy thriller Videodrome by David Cronenbeg, to the band Blondie emerging as the great pop band of the New York new wave punk scene to the album No Exit.
With the seventh Blondie studio album, produced by Craig Leon, Debbie's unmistakable voice, seductive, soulful yet ironic, made its first atmospheric, lush single, "Maria" a hit, taking it to #1 in 14 countries all over the world. Defying categorization and writing great rock hooks and brilliant, ironic lyrics, Debbie went from the cover of "Punk" magazine to the cover of just about every magazine. Debbie, who had started as a Playboy Bunny, ended the '70s as the touring with Iggy Pop and David Bowie. Nowadays, she appears as the guest of many television shows, including Jools Holland’s show.
Despite all those years passed, in eclectic overdrive, Harry sounded as young and sharp as ever … the ultimate diva!