{"id":41896,"date":"2010-03-25T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2010-03-25T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/no-exit\/"},"modified":"2010-03-25T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2010-03-25T00:00:00","slug":"no-exit","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/no-exit\/","title":{"rendered":"No Exit"},"content":{"rendered":"

Blondie is without a doubt one of pop music\u2019s finest ever bands. In their heyday, they could do no wrong, fusing punk attitudes with pop sensibilities, New Wave with rock, and even cutting the odd country and rap songs. Few women have been as idolized as Deborah Harry, the stunning and charismatic blonde leader of her group of mod-inspired rockers.\u00a0 <\/o:p><\/p>\n

Throughout the \u201890s, however, Deborah was also an in-demand actress on the independent circuit and occasionally recorded and performed with Elvis Costello and his Jazz Passengers.\u00a0 As the decade grew to a close, Harry and former flame and best friend Chris Stein had been increasingly in contact with Jimmy Destri and Clem Burke, the subject of reforming the group never far from their minds.\u00a0 <\/o:p><\/p>\n

The remaining original members Frank Infante and Gary Valentine were never really in contention for various reasons, so when the Blondie did officially reform in late 1998, it was with Leigh Foxx on bass and Paul Carbonara on guitars; both are still permanent but not official members of the band.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The result of the reformation became a big hit album that spawned a number one single and took the band on their first world tour in seventeen years. No Exit <\/i>still stands today as one of the band\u2019s most ambitious albums, and although it happens to be my personal favorite, it isn\u2018t their greatest achievement (but topping Parallel Lines <\/i>and Eat To The Beat <\/i>was never going to happen anyway).<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The disc kicks off with a self-indulgent and erratic ska track called \u201cScreaming Skin.\u201d The song itself is grating to say the least, and the ridiculous lyrics are completely incoherent from the \u201cmulticellular individual\u201d to the \u201chemodynamic connection,\u201d but I love every second of it.\u00a0 <\/o:p><\/p>\n

Next up is Stein\u2019s \u201cForgive And Forget,\u201d which has a cool, ambient groove that the band do really well, although lyrically it again reveals nothing of interest. This is really where Harry\u2019s voice makes the moment above everything else; her days of singing with the Jazz Passengers really gave her a lot of confidence to explore her range and develop her phrasing. Few could pull off a song like \u201cForgive And Forget,\u201d but Harry nails it with ease.\u00a0 <\/o:p><\/p>\n

This baby really kicks off with the third track, Destri\u2019s pop gem \u201cMaria,\u201d which quickly shot to #1 in the US and several other countries. Harry\u2019s commanding performance really shows off her impressive range, and this one is still one of their best singles to date. The title track is a rocker that channels the rap fusion of \u201cRapture\u201d and features Coolio on guest vocals. It\u2019s my favorite track on the album, as it shows what this band is capable of when they are focused and pushing themselves for greatness.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The prettiest song on this release is the Harry\/Stein penned \u201cDouble Take,\u201d which is absolutely stunning. \u201cNothing Is Real But The Girl\u201d channels \u201cSunday Girl\u201d from the band\u2019s heyday, and it\u2019s just as fun and carefree.\u00a0\u00a0 Harry shows off her jazzy chops to stunning effect with the sly jazz groove of \u201cBoom Boom In The Zoom Zoom Room,\u201d which is nothing if not pure indulgence \u2013 but it\u2019s great fun too. \u201cNight Wind Sent\u201d is gorgeous and the retro pop of \u201cUnder The Gun (For Jeffery Lee Pierce)\u201d tells the tale of The Gun Club singer\u2019s adventures superbly.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cOut In The Streets\u201d is a great cover of The Shangri-La\u2019s original and fits well with what\u2019s on offer here. \u201cHappy Dog (For Caggy)\u201d is a song about, well, shagging: \u201cCome on now, throw me some bone \/ I\u2019m ripping up your song \/ I wanna be your dog \/ Skinny or fat, I\u2019m gonna go with that and chase your pussycat.\u201d Harry revels in her wicked splendor and delivers the song with conviction.\u00a0 <\/o:p><\/p>\n

The Australian release of this album tacked three live tracks from the comeback shows to the end. As great as they are (a ripping cut of \u201cCall Me,\u201d a masterful version of \u201cRapture,\u201d and le coup de gras, \u201cHeart Of Glass\u201d), they really weren\u2019t necessary, since No Exit <\/i>gets the job done on so many levels and remains one of Blondie\u2019s most powerful efforts to date.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/o:p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67,"featured_media":30244,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7696],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-41896","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-blondie","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/67"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41896"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41896\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=41896"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=41896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}