If you like: Blondie, Eat To The Beat is an essential album for your collection.
About: Blondie is perhaps the quintessential new wave band: an art-pop group who made the leap from punk to the Top 40, polishing their spiky curves while simultaneously broadening their musical purview beyond trashy AM pop to encompass disco, reggae, and hip-hop. They brought underground sounds into the mainstream with a sly, knowing wink and the incandescent star power of Debbie Harry, the lead singer who co-led the group with guitarist Chris Stein. Blondie’s blend of girl-group pop and garage rock first took hold in the U.K., when “Denis” and “(I’m Always Touched by Your) Presence, Dear” reached the Top Ten in 1978, but when the group collaborated with Mike Chapman–a producer who was a powerhouse in glam–they crafted Parallel Lines, a sleek modernist masterpiece anchored on the glitter ball pulse of “Heart of Glass.” Parallel Lines turned Blondie–and especially Harry–into superstars. The number one singles came furiously in the next two years. The Giorgio Mororder collaboration “Call Me” reached the top of the charts, followed by the lilting “The Tide Is High” and “Rapture,” which was the first record with a rap to reach number one in 1981. Their fall was sudden as their rise: Blondie split after the dispirited 1982 LP The Hunter. After nearly 20 years apart, Blondie reunited in 1999 for No Exit, a record that revived the group commercially and creatively. From that point forward, Blondie steadily toured and frequently recorded, releasing such acclaimed latter-day records as 2011’s Panic of Girls and 2017’s Pollinator.*^{via William Ruhlmann & Stephen Thomas Erlewine}
A favorite track: Shayla