Blondie – Autoamerican (1980)

I got acquainted with Blondie fairly late. I was studying in uni and suddenly I realised that many of my friends were listening to Blondie and it became quite apparent that Parallel Lines was the album to start with. Later on I realised that I actually did know a couple of songs by Blondie, but I had never paid any attention to the band. Parallel Lines became one of my favourite albums and I wanted to get familiar with other albums as well. I really liked the early albums by Blondie, but I also bought some of these later albums on vinyl when I could find good deals on them. That's how I ended up buying Autoamerican on vinyl from a Helsinki-based record store Black & White. I didn't much care for it in the beginning, but later on, I've come to appreciate this album as well. This album was quite a shift in the band's sound.



Where the early Blondie albums were drawing strong influences from punk movement and 70's rock, Autoamerican is the first properly new wave album of the band. This album was released in 1980 when the sounds were changing drastically along with new studio techniques and you can hear the 80's sound in many of the songs on this album. But it would be wrong to just describe the album with one genre. Blondie is a master of mixing different retro styles in their music while still maintaining their own distinctive style.

The album starts with a beautifully dramatic instrumental song Europa, where the orchestrations blend with Western style guitars and horns. Debbie Harry is also reading aloud a passage about automobile culture in the US. This is followed by pulsing new wave disco song Live It Up. This song sounds like an introduction to 80's music. It doesn't yet sound as clean as the later 80's sound, but it already has some synth sounds that break the ground to what was coming. In the third song, the mood changes completely. Here's Looking at you is like and old showroom classic that could play in the background of a Woody Allen film. The Tide Is High is a proper reggae song. I guess the influence of bands like The Specials and Dexy's Midnight Runners had inspired Blondie as well. Go Through It sounds probably most like the old Blondie songs, but it also has some excellent horn sections. Do the Dark and probably the biggest hit from this album, Rapture are amazing pulsing new wave funk disco songs. Faces is a beautifully soulful jazz song with some great cheesy saxophone sequences. Walk Like Me is proper rock n' roll that sounds much like Blondie's first albums. The album ends with a beautiful Discney-like song Follow Me.

In the 1980's, bands started making music videos by default. This was even more regular when the MTV started operating in 1981. Rapture has a great music video where Debbie Harry and a strange man in a top hat walk and dance around New York City. There's a great rap sequence from Harry in this song. Rap was only about to become popular at that time.

On the new CD versions, the hit song Call Me is included. It was apparently around that time that this song was released. I was a bit disappointed that it wasn't on the album when I bought it, but later on I've realised that Autoamerican works better without it as an album. It's not one of my favourite Blondie albums, but it's still a great album with varied styles and an interesting transition from 70's to 80's sounds.

Listen to the album on Spotify.