Blondie - Autoamerican
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Free Music Notes for Autoamerican
Free Music Review: BLONDIE'S ENDEARINGLY ECLECTIC ALBUM
Hit: 4 Stars
I love this band for having the balls to be so all over the map on this album. Who else would have dared to do rap, reggae, country, not to mention a show tune on a rock album? No one before or since other than maybe...Blondie. Fearless.Free Music Review: Autoamerican:soilidly built...low on gas.
Hit: 3 Stars
In the summer of 1980 Blondie was arguably one of the biggest bands in rock and definitely the biggest band of the punk/new wave CBGB's scene.
Only 5 years prior, Blondie, was the band "least likely to succeed"..clearly, not the most accurate of predictions.
Blondie's fortunes changed virtually over-night from "up and comers" to having the world in their palm. As the 70's closed and the 80's began, Blondie, were at their commercial and artistic peak. Both, "Heart Of Glass" & "Call Me" reached number one in less than a year of one another. And, Although, "Eat to the Beat" did not chart any top 10 singles in the USA..that was not the case in the U.K. Moreover, Eat to the Beat" was
the first "Video LP" to be released commercially for mass consumption...absolutely unheard of at the time and 2 solid years prior to MTV.
Clearly,with all of that said. "Autoamerican" should have been the bands
master-stroke.
However, cracks in the road turned "Autoamerican" into a bumpy ride instead of a smooth cruise down route 66.
In retrospect,it seems, the band or more than likely Chris and Debbie weren't content to repeat the New Wave/Power Pop sheen [courtesy of Mike Chapman]of "Parallel Lines" or "Eat to the Beat" and made a conscious choice to "expand" their sound. Disco dabbles, notwithstanding. Blondie, were at their best performing immaculate pop songs with punky poses. As with so many cases before them perhaps gaining world dominance blurred the bands sensibilities instead of sharpening them.
To wit, Autoamerican starts it's engine with the over-blown and ponderous "Europa". A serious tune-up is in order. Revving things up is the aptly titled "Live it Up" an interesting pastiche of blondiesque disco and power-pop...why this song wasn't released as a single is a total mystery. "Here's Looking At You" is next. Not terrible but somewhat unnecessary, the album hasn't "settled" on a particular sound and yet we're being "treated" to not only a ballad but a campy ballad from yesteryear....perhaps they were channeling the stilletoes. Bust out the surf board! Well, not quite. "The Tide is High" brings us to the mid-point of side one. The first of two number one singles off this album, Blondie doing a lite reggae/calypso. Good song,not great, terrible video. The last two tracks on side one finally find themselves on the right road. Blondie, is in "pop" form with "Angels on the Balcony" and "Go Through It". However, the latter has a little bit of a "nutty" quality to it a'la "Victor" from "EaT To The BeaT"
Side two, begins with "In the Dark" a redux "Live it Up". Disco Blondie treads itself out again...a little thin but a far better opener than the absurd "Europa". The 2nd number one off "Autoamerican" is next, "Rapture".
I've always liked this song the "rap" is terribly dated but it's still a killer tune and the band sounds crisp and tight and dare I say "funky".Cool video too. A sharp turn is taken with "Faces"...a "torch" song of sorts from the days of yore. Unlike "Here's Looking at You" this song doesn't come off as a campy throwaway, the playing and singing are far more committed..thus, a believable performance by both Debbie and band. The next two songs work very well back to back and are sonically "classic" Blondie. Both "T-Birds" & "Walk Like Me" tap into the 60's girl group sound that Blondie had always been closely associated with...the latter being the more aggressive and "punky" of the two. Debbie delivers a strong vocal performance on "Walk Like Me" with plenty of attitude and Chris Stein offers some cool surf/spaghetti western guitar riffs. Sadly, Blondie's closer, "Follow Me" [like their opener] is rotten and crosses the finishing line at 30mph instead of 80.
Although there are more good cuts than bad on "Autoamerican" the placing of the bad weaken the album overall. Furthermore, there aren't as many great album tracks on this LP as in previous. "Rapture" & "The Tide is High" are good but they're not nearly as strong as "Atomic" & "One way or Another" or "non-hits" such as "Pretty Baby" & "Little Girl Lies". In summation, I'd say "Autoamerican" is a more "experimental" though weaker, "Eat to the Beat"
Regarding the bonus tracks, we have unedited "Disco" versions
of "Call Me" and "Rapture" The other track is "Suzy & Jeffrey" another song in the "Angels On The Balcony" vein. Had this song been included on "Autoamerican" it would've been a stronger and more cohesive album.
Nevertheless, "Autoamerican" was the last classic [or at least semi] Blondie album. By 1982, the band would release their anemic final album "The Hunter", play their last shows that summer and finally
break-up by the end of the year.
Full Track Listing:
1)Europa
2)Live it Up [best song on "side-one"]
3)Here's Looking at You
4)The Tide is High
5)Angels on the Balcony
6)Go Through It
Side Two
1)Do The Dark
2)Rapture
3)Faces
4)T-Birds
5)Walk Like Me [best song on "side-two"]
6)Follow Me
Bonus Tracks:
Call Me [original long version]
Suzy & Jeffrey
Rapture ["Disco" Remix]
15 Tracks in total.
Line up:
Clem Burke:Drums
Frank Infante:Guitar
Nigel Harrison:Bass
Jimmy Destri:Keyboards
Chris Stein:Guitar
Deborah Harry:Vocals
Autoamerican: released winter of 1980
6 out of 10 stars
Free Music Review: Still uneven, but has aged decently
Hit: 3 Stars
Credit Blondie for never sticking to one sound or formula. Every album preceding this one dabbled in styles, including punk, girl groups, power pop, and disco. AUTOAMERICAN takes this eclecticism to the max, but the results are mixed.
The strongest songs were the number one hits, THE TIDE IS HIGH and RAPTURE, which brought reggae and especially rap (hip hop) to a wide American audience. Both tunes are infectious, danceable and likable. No album can be bad with these two songs.
The rest of AUTOAMERICAN, however, ranges from smart to lame. The opener, the ponderous instrumental, EUROPA, sounds like something out a German sci-fi film, and starts this album on a disastrous note. LIVE IT UP partially regains the confidence of the listener. It's a mid-tempo dance number featuring some fine female backing vocals. DO THE DARK sounds like a close cousin--also likable if not harmless. ANGELS ON THE BALCONY is another good song, driving hard with a catchy hook, but it suffers from a harsh proto-industrial intro that makes no sense. T-BIRDS is an overlooked song that hits even harder than ANGELS. This is a highlight. Two nostalgic torch songs, HERE'S LOOKING AT YOU and FACES are cute, but slow down the album, particularly the latter. WALK LIKE ME has its fans, but to me it's nothing more than album filler. FOLLOW ME is Blondie's version of The Beatles' Good Night. It's a self-conscious album-closer, lush and full of strings. Perhaps if the overall album were stronger I would celebrate this tune, but I feel indifferent towards it.
In an ideal world, Call Me should've been part of AUTOAMERICAN to enliven the album's overall tempo and to replace one (or two) of the weaker songs like WALK LIKE ME or FACES. The same goes with B-side, SUZY AND JEFFREY, which is no masterpiece but has its charms.
The bonus tracks on this CD are good filler. They offer good dancing fun, and there's nothing wrong with that. Blondie, after all, makes us move and feel alive. On AUTOAMERICAN they reach in several new directions with mixed results, but when they succeed they shine.
Free Music Review: Ahem...
Hit: 3 Stars
A classic case of artists moving to a new pastures and audience criticizing them for not staying the same.
Just listen to symphonic opening of "Europe" and you can imagine everybody looking around in surprise,because this wasn't disco pop like "Heart of Glass" or even one of their clever 1960s pastiches - but than,considering their genre hopping,what exactly was "Blondie" sound and can we ever pigeon hole them?
To their defence ,"Blondie" served audience with a two strong hits ("The tide is high" and Rapture") but it became obvious they were losing the steam or simply were not so interested in pursuing pop anymore. Debbie Harry sounds like a dream (as she always has) but overall the album sounds a bit pointless and uninspired. Once they reached the peak of pop charts,everything was downhill from there.
Most interesting: 1920s number "Here's looking at you"
Free Music Review: Overplayed hits, very spotty otherwise
Hit: 2 Stars
When I was a kid, Blondie was second only to Bowie in my estimation. But now, 20 years on, I find this album almost completely unlistenable. "Angels on the Balcony" is perhaps my VERY fave Blondie song ever, and "Walk Like Me" is an understated gem. But C'MON! "Here's Looking At You" and "Follow Me" are gay cabaret at its worst, and "Europa" is perhaps the most overproduced piece of junk the band ever recorded. Please tell me what the functional difference between "Live It Up" and "Do The Dark" is, cuz I don't see it.
Now, I do give kudos to Blondie for the enormous hits they scored with "The Tide Is High" and "Rapture." But I change the station when I hear those danged things start today. PLAYED OUT. Great in their time, but I just can't take them any more.
This album just tries way too hard to be all things to all people. The Blondie I know and love is Plastic Letters/Parallel Lines/Eat to the Beat and most of The Hunter. And I can't help but add in KooKoo and the freaking BRILLIANT Heart on a Wall, one of my top 10 albums of the '80s.
But sorry, Autoamerican isn't anywhere near the six listed above. This was a sorry presaging of what the decade was about to do to ballsy rock.