Parallel Lines [Bonus Tracks] [Remaster]

Performer: Blondie
Artist: Robert Fripp
Engineer: Peter Coleman
Distributor: EMI Music Distribution

Notes: Blondie: Deborah Harry (vocals); Chris Stein (guitar, 12-string guitar, E-bow); Frank Infante (guitar); Jimmy Destri (keyboards); Nigel Harrison (bass); Clem Burke (drums). Producer: Mike Chapman. Reissue producer: Kevin Flaherty. Recorded at The Record Plant, New York, New York in June & July, 1978. Originally released on Chrysalis (1192). Includes liner notes by Mike Chapman. All tracks have been digitally remastered using 24-bit technology. Personnel: Debbie Harry (vocals); Chris Stein (guitar, 12-string guitar, E-bow); Frank Infante, Robert Fripp (guitar); Jimmy Destri (keyboards); Clem Burke (drums). Liner Note Author: Mike Chapman . Recording information: Dallas, TX (06/1978-07/1978); The Paradise, Boston, MA (06/1978-07/1978); The Record Plant, New York, NY (06/1978-07/1978); Walnut Theatre, Philadelphia, PA (06/1978-07/1978). Illustrator: Frank Duarte. Photographers: Edo; Armando Gallo; Neil Zlozower. Madonna and Michael Jackson aside, this is supreme pop music and as good as the genre can ever get. Everybody loved Blondie; fans, children, critics, other musicians and senior citizens - and not just because Debbie Harry was its frontperson. This is an unintentional greatest hits record that doesn't let up until the last note of 'Just Go Away' has died. If one wanted to carp, you could have asked for 'Denis' and 'Call Me' to have been included, but that would be just plain greedy. One of the greatest 'up' records of all time. Blondie turned to Britain-based pop producer Mike Chapman for their third album, on which they abandoned any pretensions to new wave legitimacy (just in time, given the decline of the style) and emerged as a mainstream, contemporary pop/rock band. But it wasn't just Chapman's influence that made Parallel Lines Blondie's best album; it was also the band's own songwriting, including Deborah Harry, Chris Stein, and Jimmy Destri's "Picture This"; Harry and Stein's disco-styled "Heart of Glass"; and Harry and new bass player Nigel Harrison's "One Way or Another"; plus two contributions from non-band member Jack Lee, "Will Anything Happen?" and "Hanging on the Telephone." Together, they were enough to give Blondie a number one on both sides of the Atlantic with "Heart of Glass" and three more U.K. hits, but what impresses is the album's depth and consistency -- album tracks like "Fade Away and Radiate" and "Just Go Away" are as impressive as the songs pulled for singles. Still, Chapman's contribution is not to be discounted; a producer with a track record full of punchy British pop hits with his former partner Nicky Chinn for Suzi Quatro, Mud, the Sweet, and Smokie, he brought his sense of precise arranging and playing to a band that previously had been quite sloppy in execution, and he did it without sacrificing the group's spirit, particularly Harry's snotty yet sophisticated vocal style. The result is state-of-the-art pop/rock circa 1978, with Harry's tough-girl glamour setting the pattern that would be exploited over the next decade by a host of successors, led by Madonna. (The 2001 reissue adds four bonus tracks, among them a live rendition of T. Rex's "Bang a Gong (Get It On)" and a previously unreleased preliminary version of "Heart of Glass" called "Once I Had a Love (AKA The Disco Song)." ~ William Ruhlmann

Rolling Stone (10/31/02, p.135) - Ranked #6 in Rolling Stone's "Women In Rock: The 50 Essential Albums" - "...[Featuring] gemlike visions of obsessive love, equal parts jangle and reverie..." Rolling Stone (4/11/02, p.106) - Ranked #6 in Rolling Stone's "50 Coolest Records". Rolling Stone (6/8/00, p.129) - 4.5 stars out of 5 - "...Black and white and saucy all over....ripping [New Wave's] mask off...[showing] that the music had never been anything but contagious, glossy melodics, some of which one could dance too....a hash of genre distinctions..." Spin (11/01, p.137) - "...The perfect pop-rock record..." Entertainment Weekly (9/21/01, p.85) - "...Full of sublime trashiness and sharply etched tunefulness..." - Rating: B Q (10/01, p.143) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...A crossover smash with sparkling guitar sounds, terrific hooks and middle-eights more memorable than some groups' choruses. 6 of the 12 tracks were released as singles..." Alternative Press (7/01, p.96) - Included in AP's "10 Essential Women's Rock Albums" - "...Blondie's breakthrough third album..." CMJ (1/6/03, p.10) - Included in CMJ's list of "Top 25 College Radio Albums of All Time" CMJ (1/5/04, p.6) - "Ranked #1 in CMJ's "Top 20 Most-Played Albums of 1979". NME (Magazine) (9/18/93, p.19) - Ranked #16 in NME's list of The Greatest Albums Of The '70s. NME (Magazine) (10/2/93, p.29) - Ranked #52 in NME's list of The Greatest Albums Of All Time.

Although the press and public were initially focused on singer Debbie Harry's model-like good looks, Blondie was one of the first new wave bands of the 1970s to experiment with other musical styles. Beginning as part of the '70s CBGB scene in New York, the band experienced massive commercial success when they merged their '60s girl-group-influenced punky pop with disco, reggae, and rap. After the group disbanded in the early '80s, Harry went on to a solo career and acted in numerous films. Blondie had a successful reunion in the late '90s, touring and releasing an album of new material that showed they were far from done.

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