La, da, da, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la La, da, da, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la La, da, da, la, la, la, la, la, la, la Yeah, riding high on love's true bluish light
Sometimes you just need a bit of perfect.
From the cover shot on in, Blondie Parallel Lines is as good as it gets. Whip smart, sophisticated urgent pop that demands your attention for 36:06 and leaves you happy and better for listening to it when its done.
For their third album Blondie pirouetted into power pop/new wave/pop punk, call it whatever you want away from their unfinished-sounding Plastic Letters. Drafting in Mike Chapman and opening their minds to other influences suddenly paid real dividends, as to all intents and purposes their music flared into 3D away from any parallel lines.
Parallel Lines opens with the punkiest* two tracks and, unusually for a great LP, it opens with a cover ‘Hanging On the Telephone’; a song I once suggested a company I worked at used for our hold music**. I prefer ‘One Way Or Another’, its a bit rawer and Ms Harry’s voice just does things to me that I do not care to share with internet.
Stepping uptown we are treated to the majestic ‘Picture This’ and within a beat of Clem Burke’s drums we know we are in for a sophisticated treat as the singer’s prey is hunted down ruthlessly (‘I will give you my finest hour /
The one I spent watching you shower’) and I love the intensity they imbue it with. Ditto the spaced out ‘Fade Away And Radiate’, which goes a bit ominous before being tamed again.
Listening closely to Blondie is interesting, really great musicians that the chaps were everything is laid on to serve that voice and that beat, rightly so. It’s the vocals that carry almost all the melody here, take the rather divine ‘Pretty Baby’ as an example, executed with less grit, it would be a mawkish mess – this ain’t.
True to form its followed by the exception where the herky-jerky guitars lead for once on ‘I Know But I Don’t Know’ and the male vocals are unexpected. It’s a great track and I like the line ‘I’m your dog but not your pet’.
I’ll skip ’11:59′ because I’m a positive chap but ‘Will Anything Happen?’ picks up the quality again via sheer freneticism, overlaid by Jimmy Destri’s clever keyboard flourishes. All of which lead us to two absolute belters.
There is a wonderful poised posed quality to ‘Sunday Girl’ another neat balancing act between the heavenly and the earthy, encapsulated in the half-sympathetic, half-mocking tone of the lyrics and that one point where Debbie Harry almost breaks loose, before reining it all back in. Perfection.
Which must make ‘Heart Of Glass’ perfection-plus, one of my favourite songs bar none. That’s all I’ll say about it right now, I’ll bore you more at a later date. Once I had a love …
Then Blondie go bizarrely, wonderfully Banana Splits on us with ‘I’m Gonna Love You Too’^. I have a full jive routine worked out for this one. Then Parallel Lines gets the kiss off with ‘Just Go Away’, an excellent snarky way to end an album.
You got a big mouth and I'm happy to see Your foot is firmly entrenched where a molar should be
It’s understandable that Blondie used to distribute badges bearing the legend ‘Blondie is a band’ because when you have a front woman as cool, as hot and as brilliant as Debbie Harry it can be difficult to see past her. Add in a million lifetimes worth of insouciance, poise and a wonderful voice and, uh, umm, sorry? what I was I pontificating about again?
Debbie Harry was just incredible by 1978, almost uncannily so, all icy indifference and a wink to show she didn’t mean it. Men and women swooned for her, still do but Blondie were so much more than even her.
The band’s chops are undeniable, Clem Burke and Nigel Harrison made an excellent rhythm section and Frank Infante and Chris Stein’s guitars absolutely glide and cut as required, with Jimmy Destri adding interesting colour. A proper band then, making a decidedly cool strain of pop music.
Okay, so I exaggerate and I confess to getting a touch carried away here and there, Parallel Lines isn’t quite a perfect LP, but its about as close to one as most decades manage to produce.
Hell, even if Parallel Lines didn’t have a note on it, you should still own it for the LP cover alone; the giggling guys, the stern beauty in a confrontational pose and my favourite bit, all the grubby shoes the guys are wearing. Classy, classic and classless.
Don't go away sad Don't go be bad Don't go away mad Just go away
1211 Down.
PS: another fave thing about Parallel Lines, the lyrics to a song called ‘Parallel Lines’ on the lyric sheet, but no song of the same name on the LP, or ever released afterwards.
*And when I say ‘punkiest’ here, I just mean ‘fastest’, this is a long way from ‘Rip Her To Shreds’ or ‘Platinum Blonde’. Not that Blondie ever did more than surf and reflect the energy of punk.
**my suggestion lost out to bloody ‘Albatross’.
^has anyone ever seen Blondie and Banana Splits in the same room together? just saying. 5 in each band, just saying again.
I quite like that description of this album leaving you in a better place following listening.
And it’s apt here!
I’m also forever grateful to this album as a math teacher.
When teaching Parallel Lines (lines with the same slope), you can write them One Way (in general form, y = mx+b) or Another (in standard form, Ax + By + C = 0)!
Sorry Geoff, your comment got buried. You appear to have lapsed into some strange language at the end of the comment? you speak calculus fluently?
I wrote quite a long comment. Hope it appears! (Am I the only one finding WordPress increasingly frustrating?)
Shit bugger bum. It hasn’t. But it was very positive.
It has now Bruce – liberated. Now please take your uncouth ways elsewhere.
There’s no emoji with the little yellow face poking out its tongue. So please visualise that. Thank you.
A great album deserves a great review. Two from two here, JATS.
I wrote on this for Discrepancy Records in September this year, interestingly enough. Called the piece ‘Unparalleled Pop’. We’re in furious agreement on this one, my friend, though do I detect that I like “11:59” a lot more than you? Any way, I also like, a lot, this line about “Pretty Baby”: “executed with less grit, it would be a mawkish mess.” Terrific stuff in response to a timeless pop-rock gem.
Thank you, that’s really kind of you. This LP made the world a little better than it was before it came out, all you can ask of pop, that.
You pretty much summed up the album. However, I didn’t declare hidden gems when I wrote about this album in the days of 80smetalman you’re, but if I had, “11:59” would have been it.
The only Blondie in my collection. It is such a good album, but shame on me for this being the only one.
Yes, shame on you. Boo!! Boo!!
I’d recommend Autoamerican as a second purchase.
I hope there are still people out there calling their children “Clem”. I’d hate for that name to become a thing of the past.
Do you watch Toast of London? There’s a character called Clem Fandango.
Yes! I forgot about him. That was a good show, the American one was shite though.
Couldn’t agree more. Mrs 1537 fancies Matt Berry like no one else on earth; personally I have a think for Mrs Ray Purchase.