NEW BLONDIE ALBUM THIS YEAR
Deborah Harry
The first Blondie album, Blondie, came out 49 years ago in 1976. The last Blondie album, Pollinator, came out eight years ago in 2017. Debbie Harry—the former model and Playboy Bunny born in Miami and raised here in Hawthorne (Passaic County)—will be 80 this summer. Blondie guitarist Chris Stein, despite illness forcing him off the road, made a social media post that he’s “heavily involved with the record” that will be produced by Grammy Award winner John Congleton who produced Pollinator. (He also produced the debut of St. Vincent as well as Death Cab For Cutie.)
“I’m sad and frustrated to report that I’m not going out with the next bunch of Blondie touring,” said Stein on Instagram. “I’ve been working with a dumb-ass condition called Atrial Fibrillation or AFib which is irregular heartbeats, and combined with the meds I take for it, I’m too fatigued to deal [with touring].”
Considering Pollinator had guest appearances by Joan Jett, Charli XCX and Johnny Marr of The Smiths, anticipation runs high as to the future musical direction. But they’re keeping mum. The band has always been wildly eclectic rampaging through disco (“Heart Of Glass”), pop (“Call Me”), reggae (“The Tide Is High”), hip-hop (“Rapture”) and punk (“One Way Or Another”).
(Advertisement)