{"id":41918,"date":"2010-03-23T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2010-03-23T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/plastic-letters\/"},"modified":"2010-03-23T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2010-03-23T00:00:00","slug":"plastic-letters","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/plastic-letters\/","title":{"rendered":"Plastic Letters"},"content":{"rendered":"

Following the success of their eponymous debut in Australia and Britain, Blondie took flight and toured both lands, winning the praise of thousands who turned out to see them and gaining momentum that unfortunately died when they touched down back home in the US, arriving to very little fanfare, if any at all. After a short break, bassist Gary Valentine decided he\u2019d had enough and promptly left the group prior to their booked sessions to start work on their all-important second album. Chris Stein would handle bass duties until eventual replacement Frank Infante was hired before the group set out on the road again.\u00a0 <\/o:p><\/p>\n

Although Blondie would conquer their homeland with their third album (Parallel Lines<\/i>, <\/i>also released in 1978), the material on Plastic Letters <\/i>was strong enough to do it, and why it didn\u2019t break them is still a mystery to many. It did, however, do the job in Australia again and the UK, but really took off all over Europe when Harry delivered a cover of the \u201860s pop ditty \u201cDenise\u201d as \u201cDenis\u201d sung in fluent French. It\u2019s one of several highlights to be found here, as is the Valentine-penned \u201c(I\u2019m Always Touched By Your) Presence, Dear,\u201d which is a great throwback to the sounds of the \u201860s.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Opener \u201cFan Mail\u201d is another strong track that should\u2019ve been a hit. The group\u2019s penchant for the paranormal reared its head for the first of many times with \u201cBermuda Triangle Blues (Flight 45),\u201d an ode to many a craft that has disappeared over the infamous triangle. The urgency of \u201cI\u2019m On E\u201d recalls days spent altering one\u2019s mind with great effect; Harry\u2019s insane delivery is perfectly suited.\u00a0 <\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cDetroit 442\u201d is the hardest rocking song on the record and it shows an edge that Blondie sharpened over the coming years; I\u2019ve seen them live several times and they can rock as hard as the best of them when they want to. Stein\u2019s crazy \u201cYouth Nabbed As Sniper\u201d is a cunning social commentary that\u2019s a tad scary in reality, but makes for great music. Harry plays the romantic songbird to great effect with \u201cLove At The Pier\u201d and a slightly twisted version of the same persona with a frantic reading on \u201cI Didn\u2019t Have The Nerve To Say No.\u201d <\/o:p><\/p>\n

Jimmy Destri contributed two great songs with the moody \u201cNo Imagination\u201d and the blues-influenced rocker \u201cKidnapper,\u201d which is my personal favorite on this record.\u00a0 Blondie close the album in style with \u201cCautious Lip,\u201d which musically is very outer-space-like, if that makes sense, and although the lyrics are pretty straightforward, it\u2019s a great twist to end the album on.\u00a0 <\/o:p><\/p>\n

Although Blondie wouldn\u2019t make it big until late 1978 with Parallel Lines<\/i>, all the energy and charm on that record started here with Plastic Letters<\/i>. This is moody and dark in places and is a much more varied work than any of their early albums; it actually has more in common with their more recent offerings of the last decade or so.\u00a0 Plastic Letters <\/i>remains a fresh and wholly eccentric body of work that still perfectly articulates the time and place that it came from.<\/o:p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67,"featured_media":30264,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7696],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-41918","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-blondie","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41918","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=41918"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41918\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=41918"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=41918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}