By Leon Chen Cavalier Daily Senior Writer
Blondie. They (yes, they -- Blondie is much more than Deborah Harry, the sultry blond who is the group's lead singer) had been one of the original new wave pop bands back in the 1970s. After hitting it big with the now classic "Heart of Glass" in 1979, the group broke up in 1982. After a decade and a half without a new album, the band finally got together again in 1999 and came out with "No Exit." Five years after that comes "The Curse of Blondie," its newest contribution to the music industry.
In "No Exit," the band had focused on one thing: variety. Every musical genre you can think of can be found in the album, everything except for their original genre, pop. Their commitment to variety remains in "Curse." This time, they decide to take a new direction with variety.
Now, instead of experimenting with genres, Blondie has taken to adding variety in its lyrics and styles. The songs include everything from a mock traffic report to a bouncy, xylophone solo. There are love songs and gangster rap. Harry's pitch also varies, although she never reaches the pitch that she had attained for "Heart of Glass."
Likewise, the songs on this album also have a range of quality. It seems pretty natural that the first song would be a good song, as listeners would never want to listen to an album if the first song was bad. Like the opening song "Curse," "Shakedown" is a good tune and definitely represents a conglomerate. The song opens with a traffic report, yet the heart of the song plays like a poetry recitation. The chorus is a rather catchy ditty, and the solo in the middle is easy listening. The lyrics are the worst on the album, as it contains foul language and sexual innuendo.
"Good Boys" is the album's key song. It is the only one released as a single and the only song that has a music video included on the CD. It shouldn't be a surprise that this was chosen to be the key song because it is one of the best on the album. The tune is catchy, and the lyrics are well done, putting a twist on the traditional love song, making it as pitiless as possible. The song also has a nice chorus sung to the tune of Queen's "We Will Rock You."
"Golden Rod" is another good song. The tune may not be as good as those of "Shakedown" or "Good Boys," but the lyrics are more coherent than the other two songs'. On the surface, the song is an homage to the flower Golden Rod, the poisonous plant that Socrates drank in his suicide. It can also serve as a metaphor of reckless living.
After "Golden Rod," however, the next songs drop off in quality. They are nowhere near being bad, but they are still kind of bland. There is nothing really interesting about them and they all blend together. And in "Rules of Living," Harry's singing sounds a lot like Angela Lansbury.
There are some interesting parts to this album. "The Tingler" begins and ends with an interesting xylophone solo that is reminiscent of the theme song of Malick's "Badlands," but the rest of the song is not nearly as interesting.
"Magic (Asadoya Yunta)" is perhaps the best song in the middle of the album. It sounds almost like a religious chant, and the lyrics are easier to decipher than some other songs in the album.
The last few songs, however, are back to the quality of the first few songs. "Last One in the World" is easily the most haunting song on the entire album. Its tune is memorable, and so are the lyrics, but what prevents it from being the best song on the album is that its chorus plays so many times that it becomes repetitive.
"Desire Brings Me Back" is another good song in the latter half of the album. Sure, the song begins with saxophones that are out of tune, but it gives the song a feeling of mysterious sexuality, fitting in well with the lyrics.
This 1940s-like sensual mood is continued in the next track, "Songs of Love," the last song of the album, and it provides for an appropriate close to the album. The song is slow, but ends on a happy note, leaving you with a satisfied feeling at the end.
Overall, the album presents a fairly good effort by Blondie. Even though some of the songs are generally unimpressive and the lyrics are sometimes incoherent, "The Curse of Blondie" is still something worth checking out.
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