release date: 1977
format: vinyl (CHR 1166) / cd
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,48]
producer: Richard Gottehrer
label: Chrysalis Records - nationality: USA
Track highlights: 1. "Fan Mail" (4 / 5) - 2. "Denis" (4 / 5) - 3. "Bermuda Triangle Blues (Flight 45)" - 4. "Youth Nabbed as Sniper" - 6. "(I'm Always Touched by Your) Presence Dear" - 7. "I'm on E" - 8. "I Didn't Have the Nerve to Say No"
2nd studio album by Blondie is produced by Richard Gottehrer, who also produced the majority of the tracks on the debut. The album was probably released in the fall of '77 but had different release dates over a longer period of time all over the world.
It was the first album I heard with the band 'round about '78. I had a friend who was a big fan but it didn't get me that much, although we always played Blondie while playing an ice hockey board game we both had. I generally found it more than just okay, some tracks were great but... And that's pretty much how I see it today too. I don't know if I think it's better or worse than the debut. The style is in the same ball game, only the pop / rock aspect may be more prevalent. All throughout the band's many albums, they always played new wave, pop / rock to various degrees, and this album follows in the footsteps with some of the energy of the first album. Especially "Fan Mail" is a great energetic track with both Hammond organ, surf guitar and a catchy and direct new wave chorus and it seems like a perfect follow-up to "X Offender" from the debut album. Most memorable track is possibly "Denis", which is a modern classic but apart from those two, the album is a bit too varied. The band always stood with their feet on two grounds: trying to be new wave and fresh, up on the beat, and running along in the shadow of Talking Heads, and at the same time Blondie represented a much wider aspect of contemporary pop / rock with influences from 1970s prog. rock and traditional pop, which ultimately was a good choice, appealing to a varied and very broad crowd, but that also made their albums extremely broad. Plastic Letters easily surpassed the debut (which reached number #75) on the UK albums chart list peaking as high as number #10 in the UK, but only to number #72 in the US, already depicting how the band would attract a bigger crowd in Europe compared to the domestic market.
[ allmusic.com hands it 3,5 / 5, Rolling Stone Album Guide 3 / 5 stars ]
