Blondie – Autoamerican

Okay, I just listened to this for this project. Somebody owes me.

With this 1980 release, the band got experimental, branched out, tried new things. That’s fine, and I strongly encourage it. But that doesn’t mean I’m always gonna like it, and in this case, boy do I not.

It starts out orchestral, which is pleasant but so far from what I think of as Blondie. This isn’t the ’60s, and going orchestral isn’t part of the new wave narrative. Their cover of “The Tide Is High” is a horrible earworm that I could do without having heard, and their venture into rap, “Rapture,” is pure nonsense, but not the fun kind. It seems like it should fit in with their sci-fi type of songs from their first two albums, but somehow it just doesn’t work for me. And as for the rest of the songs — well, I’m listening to it right now, and I’m forgetting them as they play. It closes with a show tune by Lerner and Loewe. Despite my opinion, this went platinum and hit #7 in the US, and scored #25 on the R&B charts. But I’m not even really clear why I have this, other than my need to be a completist. Don’t remember when I got it, though it was probably well after 1980, likely 1982 or so. Hope I didn’t pay anything for it.