| Fronted by the fabulously glamorous Deborah Harry and mixing sultry dance with deceptively hard-hitting punk rock, Blondie were the pre-eminent pop band of their generation. With The Curse of Blondie, their first studio album in four years, they claim to have recaptured much of their former panache and, after hearing the first few tracks, you'd be hard pushed to disagree. The opening "Shake Down", shifting between shining pop and tough modern rock, sees Harry at her sassy sharpest, delivering a freaky, funny rap that takes us straight back to AutoAmerican. The sweet, heavily melodic "Good Boys" and "Undone" keep up the standard. The harsher urban rock of "Golden Rod" even raises it, but it's then that they run out of steam, for the next six tracks are clumsy and weak, characterised by stodgy production and silly studio chicanery rather than the inspired songwriting you'd expect. Thankfully, it all ends well. "The Last One on the Planet" has a tough metallic edge, while the sax-coloured "Desire Brings You Back" and "Songs of Love" recapture that New York sound and spirit. But you can't help feeling that if they'd kept the album as short and sweet as Eat to the Beat, we'd be hailing an unlikely and invigorating return to form. --Dominic Wills |
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