Blondie - Parallel Lines

`Parallel Lines' is now one of those mythic albums, cited as one of the best of all time by many a critic and punter, so much so that it has become an `establishment' record along the lines of Fleetwood Mac's `Rumours', Bruce Springsteen's `Born to Run' or Radiohead's `OK Computer (none of which it obviously resembles!). Part of the legend has also become the way in which Australian producer, Mike Chapman (Suzi Quatro, The Sweet, The Knack) stepped into the production shoes, taking over from Richard Gottehrer (`Blondie', `Plastic Letters') to crack the whip and make Blondie muscle up and produce a real record. In reality, though he may have disciplined them behind the scenes, the magic of Chapman's production is that his approach gave them only a slightly slicker, more commercial sound. The real achievement is that he allowed this record to sound like a natural progression from `Plastic Letters', released the year before (which was a marked step up from their debut), and recorded a band that still sounded exactly like themselves. Granted, `Heart of Glass' (it is the glossier `disco version' here, which a short time after its release, replaced the first version on the original pressing of `Parallel Lines') and to a lesser extent, Chris Stein's lilting pure pop confection, `Sunday Girl', interrupt the album's stylistic flow. But even the first two Blondie records showed a formative predilection for genre hopping.

Unlike the first two albums, there is no real filler here and all band members, save drummer Clem Burke, contribute to song-writing. Lyrically witty, it features some of the band's most beautiful lines and turns of phrase. It opens intoxicatingly with the short punk onslaught of Jack Lee's `Hanging on the Telephone' and later features another similar composition of his, `Will Anything Happen'. Both of these tracks completely compliment the style in which the band wrote for the album. Despite the well-known hits, some of the very best songs and highest points on the record were not singles. Chris Stein's hauntingly slow and dirgy `Fade Away and Radiate' is utterly stunning, as is Jimmy Destri's mod pop rocker, '11:59'. Along with `Picture This', it is the closest thing to the style of the first two discs. `Pretty Baby' (Harry/Stein) is another hypnotic, 60s styled new wave moment. `One Way or Another' and `I Know But I Don't Know' ensure the playful tongue-in-cheek quotient that the band had already established is not missing. The closest thing to a weak point is the somewhat superfluous Buddy Holly cover, `I'm Gonna Love You Too'. `Parallel Lines' is their most famous record, but despite its reputation, it doesn't mean the band were never able to eclipse it - they would with 'Eat To The Beat' the following year. 

Ripped from the 2001 remaster which sounds excellent in MP3

Blondie; Parallel Lines

1.       Hanging On The Telephone

2.       One Way Or Another

3.       Picture This

4.       Fade Away And Radiate

5.       Pretty Baby

6.       I Know But I Don’t Know

7.       11:59

8.       Will Anything Happen

9.       Sunday Girl

10.   Heart Of Glass

11.   I’m Gonna Love You Too

12.   Just Go Away

13.   Once I Had A Love (Aka The Disco Song)

14.   Bang A Gong (Get It On) (Live)

15.   I Know But I Don’t Know (Live)

16.   Hanging On The Telephone (Live)