Eat To The Beat - Blondie

The follow up to huge commercial breakthrough 'Parallel Lines', this album seemed less glossy and refined, and perhaps as a result it's not dated at all. Renewing my collection from vinyl after Blondie's comeback, this CD was a revelation, sparkling with energy, sass and savvy pop/new wave. The big hit was 'Atomic', one of my least favourite tracks, along with the nightmarish screamfest that is 'Victoria', but the rest of the songs have aged better than I have. Classic pop song'Accidents Never Happen' and the dreamy 'Shayla' show the band's versatility, and the album ends on the headrush 'Living In The Real ...

This was the first Blondie album I bought and it began a love of their music, which has lasted over twenty years so far. Eat To The Beat has twelve tracks on it, with the overall style definitely being rock, but there are some beautiful, deep and meaningful songs in here too. Side One begins with Dreaming, which is a song I used to sing with my friends at school. I still remember all the lyrics - not surprising, as we used to write them in lessons, instead of doing our classwork ! Union City Blue is the most famous track on Side One, but was never one of my favourites. But the other smash hit on the album is Atomic, which must still rate as a ...