On a hot afternoon in August 1982, Blondie stepped onstage at JFK Stadium in Philadelphia to play a snappy set, heavy on the hits but with room for a few deep cuts and a Rolling Stones cover. Their performance was about an hour long, smack dab in the middle of a summer festival that also included Robert Hazard and the Heroes, A Flock of Seagulls, Elvis Costello and the Attractions, and Genesis. This lineup could only have existed in 1982.
Blondie played a decent set that day (a semi-official live album, recorded three days earlier in Toronto, nicely approximates the JFK show). However, within days of rocking South Philly, they cancelled a roster of European tour dates and disintegrated. Most of the usual rock band reasons were to blame: a poor-selling album (The Hunter), slow ticket sales, undiagnosed health issues, intra-band dissension, drugs, and more. Blondie wouldn’t exist for the next 15 years.
When original Blondie members Jimmy Destri (keyboards), Clem Burke (drums), Chris Stein (guitar), and Debbie Harry (vocals) reconvened in 1997, they could look to their own records for examples of artistic direction they could take for their first Blondie 2.0 album.
Would the band return to its roots in punk/garage rock/1960s girl group music, as heard on its self-titled debut? Would they follow the lead ofParallel Lines, a stylistically unified collection of the kind of catchy guitar-based pop rock that was increasingly being labeled “new wave” (with one massive outlier—the straight-up disco smash, “Heart of Glass”)?Perhaps, instead, the template would beAutoamerican, a dazzling array of styles from film-noir instrumentals to Broadway showtunes that yielded two #1 hits (a cover of the Paragons’ “The Tide Is High” and “Rapture”, the group’s tribute to the rapidly emerging rap subculture)?
Blondie went the way ofAutoamerican, resulting inNo Exit, a sprawling album that encompasses nearly as many genres as its 14 tracks. In the process, the band created a credible comeback in which you may not like every song you hear, but you’ll almost certainly love at least a few of them. Unless you have a heart of stone, that is.
No Exit, released in early 1999, has now been reissued, including a first-time vinyl release. The timing is poignant, as Clem Burke died earlier this year. Burke’s masterful drumming was always a key component in Blondie’s sound, and he was typically fantastic onNo Exit.
Blondie sounded tired and sad onThe Hunter, but “Screaming Skin”, the bracing ska-infused opening track ofNo Exit, finds them (augmented by additional guitarist Paul Carbonara and bassist Leigh Foxx) sounding both revived and engaged after their extended hiatus.“Forgive and Forget (Pull Down the Night)” is a thumping disco track featuring an opening monologue that will remind many listeners of Nigel Tufnel’s initial intonations on Spinal Tap’s “Stonehenge”. Not sure that was Harry’s intention, but it’s unavoidable now.
While these opening tracks are solid tunes, the next song, Jimmy Destri’s “Maria”, is an instant Blondie classic. Harry’s cool but alluring vocal perfectly captures Destri’s teenage lovelorn lyrics, and everything about the musical arrangement and playing—right down to the church bells—is perfection. Jimmy Destri had proven himself an expert at writing key album tracks on earlier Blondie LPs (evenThe Hunterwas marginally improved by Destri’s toe-tapper, “Danceway”), but with “Maria”, a #1 hit in the UK, it was Destri who solidified the commercial success ofNo Exit.
Post-“Maria”,No Exitbecomes a bumpier ride. The title track, featuring Coolio, is a classical/rap/metal mashup, and it’s a bit of a mess, with a vampire-based storyline that’s not nearly as coherent as the man-from-Mars narrative of “Rapture”. “No Exit” is immediately followed by “Double Take”, in which Debbie and the boys appear to be attempting to retake the moody ballad territory that Blondie-acolytes Berlin conquered back in 1986 with “Take My Breath Away”. Fortunately, Destri saves the day with the next track, a new wave rocker called “Nothing Is Real But the Girl”.
From that point on,No Exitcontinues to flirt with a dizzying array of styles, never settling on one. “Boom Boom in the Zoom Zoom Room” is a loungey tune that acknowledges Debbie Harry’s work with the Jazz Passengers. “The Dream’s Lost on Me” is a plaintive country lament. “Out in the Streets” is a Shangri-Las cover that Blondie originally recorded in its earliest days.
Other excellent songs emerge from all the eclecticism. Chris Stein’s “Under the Gun (for Jeffrey Lee Pierce)” is a heartfelt tribute to Pierce, who died in 1996. Pierce was a friend of Stein’s, in addition to being a founding member of the post-punk band the Gun Club. “Dig Up the Conjo”, a propulsive Harry/Stein/Destri collaboration, ends the album on a psychedelic note.There is, however, a sense thatNo Exitcould have benefited from some editing. The problem is that, depending on one’s mood, you might be inclined to want to delete different songs with each listen.
Serious Blondie fans will want to peruse the seven remixes included in the reissuedNo Exit, though only one of them provides any revelations: the Boilerhouse Lounge Mix of “Nothing Is Real But the Girl” hints at whatNo Exit might have sounded like had Blondie followed theParallel Linestemplate rather thanAutoamerican.One other non-remix rarity is included: “Hot Shot,” originally released only in Japan. “Hot Shot” is a horn-infused, Latin-inspired dance tune, and it’s a treat.
Even though No Exit is a bit long and some tunes don’t quite land,Blondie’s comeback album has an admirable sense of adventure to it, and it’s a fun listen when you’re in the right frame of mind. Plus,No Exitbrought Blondie back, and the world is a little bit better when Blondie are in it.
Blondie – The “No Exit” Interrogation Tapes