3: Ghosts of Download - Blondie

GHOSTS OF DOWNLOAD

BASIC INFORMATION

Artist: Blondie

Release date: May 12, 2014 (finally!)

Genre: Dance-pop, dance-rock and electropop with lots of Latin-pop

Featured artists: Systema Solar, Miss Guy, Beth Ditto, Los Rakas, Keilah Baez, Keisha Williams, Felicia Dennis

Producers: Jeff Saltzman, Chris Stein, Hector Fonseca, Matt Katz-Bohen

Singles: ‘A Rose By Any Name’, ‘Sugar On the Side’, ‘I Want To Drag You Around’

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

The title is an attention-grabbing albeit slightly clunky one, suggesting a whole realm of electronic-y music, true to the composition of the record. It’s certainly a better title than the clunky but clever “Blondie 4(0) Ever”, which has been applied to the double album. The cover, as with the band’s previous release Panic of Girls, is a marvellously impressive one – a skeletal Debbie Harry in a disco full of viruses and electronic signals. Or whatever you want to interpret it as. JH Williams III’s art is amazing, and that and the title could be enough to make this album attractive to the general public.

TRACK-BY-TRACK

Sugar On the Side (ft. Systema Solar): Wow. This is how you open an album. With a fantastically-produced and fantastically-written song. This corrects a major problem with Panic of Girls by including a great rap in Spanish, but not letting the Spanish completely take over the song. With breathtaking vocals from everyone involved and a great danceable tune, this is the one of the best starts to a Blondie album ever. 10/10.

Rave (ft. Miss Guy): A highly-catchy rock tune. Fans have raised complaints about drag queen Miss Guy’s vocals drowning out Debbie Harry’s, and while he isn’t too prominent, why’s he here at all? In addition to this, the live version of this song is a full-on rock song, while the studio track is realised with techno effects and programmed parts. Those are just small criticisms about a highly catchy song with great music and lyrics. 8/10.

 

A Rose By Any Name (ft. Beth Ditto): A natural choice for the first single, by this track it’s obvious that Blondie really are back with a bang. “A Rose By Any Name” is an incredibly catchy and easily danceable song. Both Beth Ditto and Debbie Harry, who trade vocals, are vocally on-point, and the production is right up to date. A highlight of Blondie’s entire career. 10/10.

Winter: The album’s pace slows a little, but the quality remains at an all-time high, in the fourth track on the album. The sheer force of the opening, slithering keyboard motif is great, and the song is sultry yet danceable, with sly and clever lyrics. Debbie Harry gets a chance to shine on a near-enough-flawless track. 9/10.

I Want To Drag You Around: A mellow track, this seems like an odd choice for the album’s first worldwide single. It’s more like a filler track on an album, extremely lovely in what it does, but rather light on substance. Still, Debbie Harry’s vocals are electrifying as ever, and this is a nice gentle song to balance out the brilliant chaos surrounding it. Kudos to backing vocalist Natalie Hawkins. 7/10.

I Screwed Up (ft. Los Rakas): As with “Sugar On the Side”, the formula has now been perfected. Blondie deliver a catchy track with ever-so-slightly daring lyrics (Johnny Depp in drag, indeed!) and a clear Latino beat going on underneath it all. The rap sections, from Oakland-based Los Rakas, compliment the feel of the track well. While not up to par with the opening crash-bang-whallop of the album, this is still an impressive song. 7/10.

Relax: Wow. I was expecting something truly awful from this track, but, boy, was I wrong! The opening three minutes of this Frankie Goes to Hollywood cover are in the form of the most beautiful acoustic piano ballad I’ve ever heard. And then… the whole Blondie madness explodes with a stadium-like display of synthesizers, beats, and… wow. This defies all expectations in a delightful cover. 8/10.

Take Me In the Night: This is catchy as hell, a wonderfully modern Blondie track which gives everyone a chance to shine. The lyrics are without a doubt some of Blondie’s best ever, and the production shines, beginning simply and crescendoing in the chorus, with every note a success. One of the real standouts of the album; lesser artists would sell their parents for a song like this. 10/10.

Make A Way: Street light shining through the window, you’re playing Nintendo… the first song premiered from the album, “Make A Way” rides on a Turkish groove and gives it the “Ghosts of Download” treatment, producing a fabulous, fabulous song. It’s been said about almost every song on the album, but Debbie Harry’s lyrics are perfect here, and between them Chris Stein, Natalie Hawkins and Jeff Saltzman have written perfect music. Definitely one of the album’s major hits. 9/10.

Mile High: Live, this song was a rocker. In the studio, it’s an EDM song. That’s quite a big jump, but one the song has made well. This song sounds thoroughly modern, and I love the ending, where all the different parts of the song come together and overlap. While the song never really reaches its full EDM potential and is a little formulaic, it is nonetheless one of the album’s standout tracks. 9/10.

Euphoria: The only track on the album that doesn’t really work. It’s got all the right elements, just maybe not in the right order? Or something. It seems hard to categorise this song, or work out where its faults lie. By itself, this song is an interesting example of what Blondie are doing now. But surrounded by fifteen other brilliant tracks, this one seems a bit like the ugly duckling. 5/10.

Take It Back: Chris Stein has commented this is an album track rather than a single. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t rock. This is a return to form after “Euphoria”, a nice mix of the more modern, more programmed Blondie and the old-school New Wave of the band’s heyday, with nice lyrics and a glorious “na na na” section. 8/10.

Backroom: Flippin’ hell! When the album was streamed a week before its release, this, ‘Relax’ and ‘Euphoria’ were the songs I purposefully missed out on listening to so I could have some surprises when I listened to the album. And this was the biggest surprise of all… Blondie does reggae… and it goes great! The lyrics are fabulously vampiric, weird and wonderful, and the flawless production compliments Debbie’s sublime vocals. The perfect album closer. 10/10.

BONUS TRACKS

 

Put Some Color On You: Well this was a surprise. The most modern track on the album, why this is only a bonus track is possibly the most important question in the entire history of the universe. With its disco-tinged pop, this is a marvellous example of Blondie being modern but still Blondie. Its repeating “oooh” melody is fantastic, as its sublime lyrics. This is, in one word, mind-blowing. 10/10.

Can’t Stop Wanting: Oh, this song sounds dated, and gloriously cheesy. But maybe that’s the point…? The lyrics on this, however, are completely awesome, some of the best on the album. ‘Silicone kisses, are they real enough for you?’ And most importantly of all, this bubblegum-y electropop song makes you want to dance until the sun comes back up. 8/10.

Prism: Haunting. Melancholy. Sadness. Farewell. These words all seem appropriate to describe the final track on the album, with its slowly-building subtle electronic melodies, its ghostly backing vocals, its perfect production, its sorrowful singing, its sparse but effective lyrics. While Chris Stein has already said he’s working on ideas for the band’s next studio album, this song does feel like a farewell, and says goodbye perfectly. 9/10.

IF I COULD ONLY HAVE THREE SONGS: “Sugar On the Side”, “Backroom”, “Take Me In the Night”

IF I COULD CHOOSE THE SINGLES: “A Rose By Any Name”, “Sugar On the Side”, “Rave”, “Mile High”, “Take Me In the Night”, “Put Some Color On You”

SURPRISE SUCCESS: “Relax”

THE DUFF NOTE: “Euphoria”

OVERVIEW

Blondie’s tenth studio album sees them trying to move forward, with an unimaginably impressive selection of thoroughly modern-sounding tracks created largely electronically and taking inspiration from a wide variety of music. While it might not be everybody’s cup of tea <cough>MOJOMAGAZINE<cough> this is my kind of music, and as long as Blondie continue to make this kind of music, I’ll be happy for eternity. Jeff Saltzman shows what he can really do, and the fact Chris Stein is producer on this album alongside Saltzman makes my heart sing. And whilst I know “Parallel Lines” is heralded as Blondie’s finest album, I truly and honestly believe that this album has snatched its crown. 9.5/10.

IMPROVEMENT STATION

The only improvement I can think of for this unbelievable album is to swap “Euphoria” with “Put Some Color On You”, rendering “Euphoria” a bonus track only. And also to add “Prism” to the main album. That’s all I can think of.