Lost/Forgotten Album #287

[Jon]

For the sixteenth album in the series I thought up all by myself, let's give a listen to 1982's The Hunter from Blondie which could also be fourth in a series within a series, but that's highly doubtful. Or not. 

The Hunter, Blondie's sixth album, is the followup to 1980's Autoamerican which was the third album in a row to reach platinum status in the US. Their first album reached gold status in the UK while the next four hit platinum. In Canada, Parallel Lines, Eat To The Beat and Autoamerican all hit multi-platinum status. 

As for this week's featured selection, there is no certification in any of the countries listed above. Maybe interest in Blondie had died down in 1982, or maybe the bad reviews had something to do with the lack of sales.

During the recording of the album, members of the band felt that this would be the last of Blondie. This came true when the band broke up six months after its release. In the late 90's, the band reformed and released No Exit in 1999.   

I never bothered to pick up this album until a year or so ago. For some reason, I bought into the bad reviews. It really couldn't be THAT bad, could it?

Well, it's not. It's obviously not Parallel Lines or Eat To The Beat (which is my favorite Blondie album), but it is enjoyable. The two tracks I really like are "Dragonfly" and "War Child". When I first listened to the album, I thought that "For Your Eyes Only" sounded like something out of a James Bond movie and not because of the title. It sounds like a song playing over the opening credits and there's a reason why, as you can see from the review below (courtesy of allmusic.com).

Autoamerican was Blondie's last real album (until their 1999 reunion with No Exit), after which the band collapsed in legal problems and solo aspirations. The Hunter was only made because they still owed Chrysalis an album on their contract, and it sounds like the obligatory record it was. "Island of Lost Souls" (the album's only U.S. singles chart entry and, in fact, the only song released as a single in the U.S.) was a try at remaking "The Tide Is High," while "The Beast" tried to re-create at least the rap section of "Rapture." "War Child," which made the U.K. Top 40, was a dance rock effort in the style of "Call Me," and one of two somewhat autobiographical Debbie Harry lyrics, along with "English Boys." (Harry wrote all the album's words except for those to keyboard player Jimmy Destri's "Danceway" and the cover of the Marvelettes' 1967 hit "The Hunter Gets Captured by the Game," which was written by Smokey Robinson.) "For Your Eyes Only" had been intended as the theme song for the 1981 James Bond film, but rejected (rightly) in favor of a competing entry by Bill Conti and Mike Leeson that went on to become a Top Five hit for Sheena Easton. The rest of the material was equally second-rate, consisting of funk-rock tracks with the barest of melodies, and lyrics that ranged from impenetrable ("Orchid Club") to incoherent (the science fiction epic "Dragonfly," which alternated recited and sung sections having something to do with a spaceship race). Blondie was always a band with ideas -- musical, lyrical, and visual -- but The Hunter found them running short conceptually as well practically. It was a disappointing end.

The Hunter

1. Orchid Club
2. Island of Lost Souls
3. Dragonfly
4. For Your Eyes Only
5. The Beast
6. War Child
7. Little Caesar
8. Danceway
9. (Can I) Find the Right Words (To Say)
10. English Boys
11. The Hunter Gets Captured by the Game

Availability: The remastered version, which includes the extended version of "War Child", costs around $9 new or used.   

[Scott]

Never been much of a fan of hers.  I did really like the single Dreaming and still do.  But it never translated into any album sales.  Had a friend who thought Call Me was the coolest song ever and so he played it over and over....  and over.  That song is still kind of ruined for me because of it.

Strange opener, kind of a good transition from Berlin to Blondie as this sounds like it could have came from Terri Nunn, I mean Berlin.  But, alas its kind of repetitive and long.  Island Of Lost Souls, eh, The Tide is High knock-off is not very interesting...  This album seems to be all over the place stylistically...  Dragonfly is the most interesting of the opening 3 - but that's not a compliment, and the mix is weak IMO.  The rap sections don't make it better.

So this 4th track was supposed to be for the Bond film of the same name but was rejected.  Kind of a big oops to lay down a track named for a film and then not have that track rejected.  This happened to Alice Cooper as well but on a different Bond file, do you know the song and film that occurred on? (Bonus points for the album the Cooper song appears on).  Oh ya... 0-4 so far...

Beast ...  whats with the talking thing she's doing?

Warchild... eh

Little Caesar... see Beast

Danceaway... be my TV Guide?  weird.

Find The Right Words... I wish I could

The last two...  weird

Everything feels rushed, unfinished and under-produced.  Its just as AllMusic says, obligatory...  I can certainly see why the band was disenchanted.  It feels as though no one cared what was being recorded, sad to...  She has always been an interesting person and band n the 70's and 80s.  This killed all her momentum, then again, maybe that's exactly what she wanted to do...

[Jon]

Kind of. In the UK she was still pretty popular, her solo albums sold and charted well over there. Not so much in the US.

Oh, Man With The Golden Gun, I'll guess Muscle Of Love since it's not on Billion Dollar Babies.

[RJhog (Admin)]

I have to tell you that I've never been a fan of Blondie.  I really don't even care much for the hits.  And listening to this yesterday doesn't change a thing.  It really seemed like a long, long album.  That may not be the album's fault, seeing as how I was working while listening.  That doesn't bode well for me paying a lot of attention, especially these days.

It's not terrible, just not anything that I would ever choose to listen to.  The only songs I found remotely interesting were Dragonfly and The Hunter Gets Captured By The Game.  The latter is quite nice.

But that's it.  The only Blondie album that I own is Parallel Lines, and I don't expect that to ever change.