When Blondie ended their sixteen-year hiatus in late 1998, it was not an impulsive decision as Chris Stein had been putting the feelers out for some time before tentative rehearsals began in 1997. Deborah Harry held out the longest at the idea this all could work again, but her confidence grew with each session. Original members Stein, Harry, Clem Burke and Jimmy Destri were now joined by Leigh Foxx on bass and Paul Carbonara on guitars. <\/p>\n
The band hit the road in late \u201998 and would eventually wrap the tour up some thirteen months later, having smashed out an impressive 110 gigs, during which time they dropped their wonderfully eclectic comeback album No Exit<\/i> (which spawned a UK #1 in Destri\u2019s enigmatic \u201cMaria\u201d). This release was simply titled Live<\/i> for the US market. It included The Snoops\u2019 Theme Song version of \u201cOne Way Or Another\u201d rather than the band\u2019s own live version that the rest of the world (including we here down under) were pleased to get. Apart from that one track, both versions are the same, grouping together 17 tracks covering their old and new material, although not surprisingly, 1982\u2019s The Hunter<\/i> doesn\u2019t get a look in. On the other hand, neither does Plastic Letters<\/i> from 1978 unfortunately. <\/p>\n
Livid<\/i> sees Blondie kicking off in top gear and staying there for the ride. From the opening one-two punch of \u201cDreaming\u201d and \u201cHanging On The Telephone\u201d through to the punishing closer \u201cOne Way Or Another,\u201d it is clearly evident they were bringing the heat this time around Never before (nor since) had they attacked their sets with such ferocity. <\/p>\n
The guys sound tighter than Burke\u2019s snare and Harry\u2019s vocals are off the chain, shifting from sweet \u201cSunday Girl\u201d to fierce \u201cCall Me\u201d with ease. her stunning vocals on \u201cShayla\u201d are proof that she was at her absolute peak here. A couple of the No Exit<\/i> tracks feel a little flat (\u201cForgive And Forget\u201d and \u201cScreaming Skin\u201d); however, others are up for the fight, especially the majestic \u201cMaria,\u201d the relentless \u201cUnder The Gun,\u201d and the demented \u201cNo Exit,\u201d itself which is like \u201cRapture\u201d on crack. <\/p>\n
Speaking of \u201cRapture,\u201d the guys give this one a funkified extended workout that is topped by Harry\u2019s sublime, note-perfect delivery \u2013 she even nails her raps, which if you\u2019ve seen Blondie live (several times here), you will know is a rarity. The frantic attacks on \u201cRip Her To Shreds\u201d and \u201cX Offender\u201d are punctuated by Stein and Carbonara\u2019s twin-guitar assault, which they had spent months perfecting prior to hitting the road. Foxx\u2019s \u201cless is more\u201d approach allows Burke all the space to pull out all of his trademark frenetic licks without muddying the waters. <\/p>\n
Both Destri on keys and Harry rise above all of this with seemingly little effort. Destri\u2019s breakdown during the anthemic beauty of \u201cAtomic\u201d is inspired, not to mention the sense of levity he brings to \u201cThe Tide Is High.\u201d The band dish up a more urgent take on their classic \u201cHeart Of Glass\u201d as if to give it a bit more muscle; Destri goes into full retro disco territory for this one, and finally a crack in Harry\u2019s veneer appears as she sounds almost resigned to the fact that she will always have to sing it. <\/p>\n
The great thing about Livid<\/i> is that it reminds us that when Blondie re-emerged, they did so without a hint of nostalgia or self-preservation. They played like a band possessed, often destroying much younger bands on the festival circuits and leaving the critics and hardcore fans wondering why they ever went away in the first place. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67,"featured_media":34121,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7696],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-45952","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\/45952","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=45952"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/45952\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=45952"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=45952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}