release date: Aug. 8, 1981
format: vinyl (CHR 1347) / digital
[album rate: 2,5 / 5] [2,72]
producer: Nile Rodgers, Bernard Edwards
label: Chrysalis - nationality: USA
Track highlights: 1. "Jump Jump" - 2. "The Jam Was Moving" - 3. "Chrome" - 4. "Surrender" - 6. "Backfired"
[ full album ]
Studio album debut by Blondie vocalist Deborah Ann Harry released under her stage moniker Debbie Harry. The style is rather different from what one might expect. The simplistic uptempo new wave has been exchanged with a more funky form carried out by the three prominent members of the American disco band Chic, songwriter / guitarist and producer Nile Rodgers and songwriter / bassist and producer Bernard Edwards and drummer Tony Thompson. The guest trio contributes with a disco and dance pop style and Rodgers and Edwards are the primary songwriters on four of the albums ten tracks and they are co-writers on two. The remaining four songs are written by Harry and Chris Stein with whom she mostly writes material for Blondie and who also contribute as guitarist on the album. Two of the songs (tracks #8 and #10) are credited all four main songwriters.
The two Chic songwriters are credited a vast number of classics within the world of disco, and they later on contributed with their [magic] qualities on Diana (e.g "I'm Coming Out") by Diana Ross, "Let's Dance" (title song) by David Bowie and Madonna's Like a Virgin album - all that is part of the highs of modern popular music, but here the result is not good. Harry and Stein's punchy new wave style, their admiration for reggae and funk in a simplistic form collide with the much more orchestrated and varied sounds and shapes of disco. Or: that's how it sounds like 'cause what really lacks here is a bunch a good songs. In fact, there's hardly any. The production sound is fine, though, and initial parts of songs are truly far from bad, but the overall picture is bland and it leaves me kinda thinking "was that it?"
The best thing about the album, which puts it on the shelve among classic albums, is actually the front cover artwork made by Swiss artist H.R. Giger.
I bought the album at some point in the mid-80s just because it was a solo album by Harry but never played it much, as I soon found it a boring album with little connection to the music by Blondie.
[ allmusic.com 1,5 / 5 Rolling Stone 2 / 5 stars ]
