FEATURE:
You’ve Got to See Her
Blondie’s No Exit at Twenty-Five
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ONE of the more underrated albums…
by the legendary Blondie, No Exit was released on 15th February, 1999. I wanted to mark twenty-five years of a very important release. It was the band’s first album since 1982’s The Hunter. I can appreciate that there might have been some expecting Blondie to be at their very best in 1999. Maybe coming back with an album to rival their 1970s peak. The band’s latest album, 2017’s Pollinator, was better reviewed and received. Even so, one cannot underestimate the importance of 1999’s No Exit. I was in my final year of high school and vividly remember getting the album’s lead single, Maria. That came out in January 1999. That song got to number one. It was a huge success. Genuinely one of their best songs ever. Classic Blondie! If there are few moments across No Exit to rival that, I do think that their seventh studio album is underrated and worthy of new consideration ahead of its twenty-fifth anniversary. I am going to bring in a couple of reviews for this album. As it is a big anniversary, one would hope that a few of the songs from No Exit – such as Maria and Nothing Is Real But the Girl – are played on the radio. I have fond memories of buying the album. Having listened to Blondie growing up, it was thrilling knowing they were putting out new material. I believe they are in the studio at the moment working on another album.
Led by the super-cool and iconic Debbie Harry, No Exit reached three in the U.K. and eighteen in the U.S. I am going to start out by bringing in an article from Ultimate Classic Rock from 2014. Marking fifteen years of No Exit, I wonder how many people around in 1999 could predict new Blondie music. Their only album from the 1990s, happily they have put out a lot of material since then. A band that has undergone change but remained passionate and a live fixture:
“Unlike a lot of the era's defunct acts, Blondie never really left the public consciousness, in part because singer Deborah Harry managed to carve out a fairly successful solo career while scoring parts in a series of films. But more importantly, the band's influence – and Harry's in particular – grew exponentially in the years after their breakup, with a burgeoning group of image-conscious pop and rock acts (including Madonna and No Doubt) blending pop, rock, and New Wave in similarly savvy fashion.
"In a way, we never really finished our mission," Harry told the Associated Press in 2012. "But I think getting back together and writing new music was a really good thing for us."
Before they could reach that point, however, Blondie's former members had to find their way back together. It was a particularly messy proposition, considering that the band was not only responsible for forging musical partnerships, but the long romantic relationship between Harry and guitarist Chris Stein, which ended in 1989. While Harry and Stein continued to work together, with Stein contributing to all of Harry's solo records, things were a little more complicated when it came to some of the other ex-Blondies.
In 1997, the original Blondie lineup reconvened for a series of live dates, provoking a lawsuit from former members Nigel Harrison and Frank Infante, who'd been present for the band's best-selling albums. While they weren't able to prevent the reunion, Harrison and Infante did succeed in earning lasting wrath from Harry, who later told the AP, "There was no excuse for them suing us. That ended it."
By the end of the year, original bassist Gary Valentine was out of the band again, and Blondie returned to the studio as a four-piece, with Harry and Stein joined by drummer Clem Burke and keyboard player Jimmy Destri. The fruits of the band's labor, dubbed No Exit, were released Feb. 23, 1999. They hadn't released a note of new music since 1982's underwhelming The Hunter, but fans welcomed them back with open arms, sending the record to No. 18 on the U.S. Billboard chart – and No. 3 in the U.K. For the band members, it added a note of redemption to a story that once seemed destined to end with acrimony.
"Close personal relationships are hard," Harry said in a 2003 interview with Uncut. "We get along a lot better now, and Chris is my favorite person in the world and I adore him. Back then ... I think we exploded and imploded simultaneously somehow. It was a very dark period for us. We wound up with no record contract, no manager, and we all had tax problems up the wazoo. It was just this big morass of serious, very adult problems. All of a sudden we were standing there legless."
"It was a madhouse," she recalled of the group's early-'80s split during a 1993 interview with Q. "We didn't take any vacations and that was the big mistake. Whenever we read bad reviews, we'd have these tremendous fist fights and everybody would be really freaked out and pissed off with everybody else for being jerks. It was like punching up your brothers, a family feud thing."
Feuding behind them, Blondie re-emerged triumphant with No Exit, scoring a worldwide hit with the record's first single, "Maria," and returning to the road for a lengthy comeback tour that kicked off an era of renewed creative vitality for the band. They followed No Exit with The Curse of Blondie in 2003, and continued to record and tour.
"We’re part of the future as well as the past," Harry pointed out in 2013. "Making new music is really, really important for me and for the rest of the band. When we first got back together in 1997, one of the stipulations I had was that it not be just a revue of Blondie’s greatest hits. I really felt convinced of and dedicated to the idea that we had to move ahead and do new music".
This article from Bill Copeland Music News from 2009 shone light on an album that did not quite get the commercial success in the U.S. that it deserved. Whereas the music throughout No Exit is strong, poor marketing and the public misperceiving the album and where Blondie were stifled and watered down a terrific comeback:
“Listening to the CD now, I think if Blondie had done a better job staging their return, they would have enjoyed the best comeback in music history. A push with local music promoters in each major U.S. city as well as licensing for film and television could have given their new tracks a combination of guerrilla marketing as well as a national strategic presentation.
Blondie’s real problem was public perception. Being off the radar screen for several years left people thinking they were through. Once they reappeared, many assumed they had nothing new to offer.
Nothing could have been further from the truth. “No Exit” was a typical Blondie smorgasbord of genres and styles that worked for them in the late 1970s to the early 1980s. The title track is a driving, grooving rocker with a rap interlude between Deborah Harry and rapper Coolio. “Boom Boom In The Zoom Zoom Room” is a breezy jazzy piece that finds its sex appeal in a groove that insists on taking its time. Ballad “Maria” oozes sweetness and “Happy Dog” dances around rocking guitars while Harry pouts a sexual come on. “Screaming Skin” opens the disc with blistering guitars cascading around a hard rock beat.
Harry’s voice was then at its rangiest and richest, probably from time spent pursuing a side career as a jazz vocalist.
Yet, in 1999, radio turned a deaf ear to Blondie, and the public never got a fair taste of “No Exit.” And it’s too bad, since they still tour—usually as part of a package with other 80s band, and their old songs are still on radio and are still featured on television and in movies. “Dreaming” marks the moment when the two title characters in “Zack And Miri Make A Porno” realize they’ve been in love with each other for ten years. With such a solid grounding as catalogue artists, it is hard to listen to their CD from 1999 without a haunted feeling for what might have been.
An exhaustive review of “No Exit” reveals at least one person’s opinion of what Blondie had to offer the music world ten years ago.
“Screaming Skin” opens with Harry in top vocal form. Her silky and dynamic voice hits all the right cadences and her inflected timbre sets the eerie tone for this guitar driven rave up.
A wash of synth and electronic enhancement of primitive percussive beats pulls us into “Forgive And Forget,” a danceable pop rock number caressed by Harry’s high seductive range.
“Maria,” a throwback to Blonde’s original sound, succeeds with Harry’s aloof, casual approach the right topping for poppy keys. “Maria” hit number 1 on the U.K. music charts but stalled out at 82 in the U.S. Billboard charts. Harry was the first female singer in British history to achieve a number 1 hit 20 years after her first single hit number 1 there. Do the Brits know something that we Yanks don’t? Maybe so. “Maria” hit number 1 in 13 other countries as well.
Title track “No Exit” opens with an odd twist on Johan Sebastian Bach’s creepy organ melody before Harry jumps in with attitude and aggression. Guitars and keys drive this rap rock number while Harry and rapper Coolio battle it out in a contest of cool in this oddly appealing tune about a friend contemplating suicide. I cannot believe a film producer hasn’t plugged this number into the soundtrack for a dark, artsy, meaning of life film.
“Double Take” utilizes lush synthesizers, saxophones, and an embracing rhythm section to recreate more of Blondie’s 80s style. “Nothing Is Real But The Girl” continues Blondie’s earlier sound. A driving rhythm section, pulsating keyboards, and aggressive guitar reveal Blondie’s roots in pop and disco. Pulling back into their new sound with “Boom Boom In The Zoom Zoom Room,” Harry showcases her cool, jazzy approach as she waltzes over this bopping, breezy tune that breathes sensuality into the grooves. Drums and bass are so palpable here I can picture Clem Burke’s sticks hitting skins and Leigh Foxx’s fingers plucking knobby strings.
The CD does loose some steam near the end. “Night Wind Sent,” a low-key graceful glide relying on dynamics for lift, kisses the ear as it passes imperceptibly by. “Under The Gun” offers a danceable percussion track but doesn’t really go anywhere despite Harry’s dynamic voice. “Out In The Streets” brings the energy level back up a notch, yet, it’s another filler tune that goes nowhere even though, again, Harry’s voice is in fine form.
“Happy Dog” becomes the life of the party and more than saves this CD from the eject button. Bluesy slide notes and blistering guitar grab like a mugger and entertain like a stripper. Drummer Burke whips up a backbeat to motivate the feet and guitarist Stein cranks out enough crunchy chords and grinding phrases to build a perfect dramatic arc.
“The Dreams Lost On Me,” with its pseudo roots feel of banjo, accordion, and fiddle, is a nifty and likeable addition even though Blondie will never convince anyone they’re a deeply into old Americana music. “Devine” brings us back to Blondie’s penchant for inspired creativity. A keyboard driven circular melody gives this pop rock song its catchy interval of notes while a second keyboard fills in spaces with washy sounds. Together with Harry’s voice this song tickles the ear as only Blondie can.
Blondie’s grand finale “Dig Up The Conjo” makes for one of the CDs most memorable tunes. A hypnotic dance beat anchors a swirl of keyboards from Jimmy Destri that never let go. Bouncy guitars and bass fill in the background and keeps the ear glued to the music.
With an album this good, it’s hard to understand how Blondie failed to return to the top. Many of their 1980s peers staged comebacks with out releasing any new music. Others made it with mediocre packages. Blondie needed a combination of high road and low road marketing. Film and television licensing would have overcome the blockade caused by classic rock radio stations not playing new material from classic rock artists. Local press in major cities could have given Blondie an anchor with the taste-mongers/culture vulture types”.
There are other positive reviews like this one that show Blondie lost little of their step. After the disappointing The Hunter of 1982, Blondie found a new gear and spark for No Exit. Ending the 1990s with a terrific album, I think it still sounds great now. Ahead of the twenty-fifth anniversary of No Exit on 15th February, I wanted to spend some time with an underrated album from a legendary band. People really need to give No Exit…
ANOTHER listen.