Customer Reviews

Autoamerican

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Released in 1980, "Autoamerican" should be considered as great an album as, say, Dylan's 'Blonde on Blonde", the Rolling Stones' "Sticky Fingers", or Sprngsteen's "Born to Run". It's not, of course, at least not by any critics you will read in such places as Wenner's Rolling Stone. But as an album that would virtually define and predict the course of popular music during a decade at that decade's cusp, I think 'Autoamerican' is flatly without peer, as well as being a great sounding, well recorded, well produced, and well played collection of songs that belong together-all sharing a sound, an ambience, a common flavor, even as they cover an amount of ground-from rap, reggae, and Europop to a recital of Lerner and Lowe's "Follow Me" that holds its own with any I've heard-beyond rock bands, for the most part, even today, and much more so in 1980.

(And if you read my reviews you know I've heard "Follow Me" by the greatest of all popular singers. I wouldn't put Debbie in quite that class-although she can sing his daughter under the table, and did at the recent Peggy Lee tribute-she had more sense than her erstwhile rival Chrissie Hynde in not getting into that particular gator pit (a/k/a Duets II).)

There isn't a real stinker anywhere on this album. 'Suzy and Jeffery', a rare B side, is more a novelty, and I'm glad it didn't quite make the original album, but it's not a stinker. You also get the long mix of "Call Me", which is not on any Blondie album except compilations. I'm slightly disappointed we don't get the Christmas version of 'Rapture" , which as I recall featured Fab 5 Freddy and was a Flexidisc in a UK magazine.

'Autoamerican' also features great cover art, best enjoyed from the original vinyl due to size alone, as well as the original printed dust jacket. Sonically, I think this CD beats the early-eighties US Chrysalis vinyl, but not some of the imports, if you have a first rate turntable and cartridge. I've always wanted to build a replica of one of the mutant guitars on the back: they are no actual instrument ever built as far as I can determine but an artist's conglomeration of design features from assorted bizarre Euro guitars.

The only sad part of 'Autoamerican'-admittedly much less tragic than 'Double Fantasy' (Lennon's swan song) or of course "The Misfits" (the movie, finis for Gable and Monroe, not the punk band!)-is that it's the end as we know it for Blondie as a working front line pop band. There was one more album then,' The Hunter'-Frank Infante had to sue to be on it, he wasn't wanted, and Chris was developing what would turn out to be a life-threatening and debilitating disease. 'Hunter' doesn't exactly suck, but it's not up to the previous Blondie standard, and the band effectively disintegrated after that. Of course they reformed in '98 and recorded 'No Exit', which was a fine album, and last year 'The Curse' (not about what you'd think, despite the red cover, fortunately!), but despite Number One singles in most markets no one seriously considered Blondie or Debbie as major league players anymore. (More people in America right now probably know that Gwen Stefani is in a movie, than that Deborah Harry is or was-despite Gwen having debuted two days ago and Debbie 25 years ago, with over thirty films,and having played against everyone from James Woods to Shelley Winters, not to mention Alec Baldwin, Liam Neeson, Adrian Brody and Norman Reedus.)

No one from Blondie is dead yet, although a few of their careers are, and Chris, Debbie, and Clem Burke are still on the job and doing other things as well. But 'Autoamerican', and the four Blondie albums that preceded it, are likely their career high points, and while 'Parallel Lines" might be a better all-around pop-rock album and 'Eat to the Beat' their closest brush with American rock (read: AOR) success, 'Autoamerican' is not only a realy good album but an uncanny pathfinder for the rest of the music industry for the ten years that followed it-everything from rap to showtunes proved prescient-that has quietly lived under the radar for two and a half decades now.

I completely forgot that the wondeful song "Call Me" was never included on any of Blondie's albums. Well, someone at the record company was very kind to include it here. Also included is "Suzy and Jeffrey" the B-side of The Tide is High single. A great song about blood tests, marriage, outstanding traffic tickets and Orson Welles. Very Blondie, indeed.
As for the original Autoamerican songs, they are all gems. The remastering has cleaned up the original muddy sound quite a bit. A true conceptual masterpiece, it begins with a very eerie instrumental entitled Europa. From there Debbie does disco-lite, a torch song, rap, punk, lounge and it all ends with a song from Lerner and Loew's Camelot. In many ways this was Blondie's swansong. The follow up, The Hunter, had it's moments, but it seemed a bit tired and a bit of a retread of Autoamerican. The big suprise was 1999's No Exit, which was every bit as fabulous as the earlier classics.

In my early teens, this was one of the first albums I ever owned (on vinyl!), purchased from my paper route earnings. I have since upgraded to the CD version, although I do not have the CD with the last 3 bonus tracks.
This album grows on you. As a child, I was disappointed with it, yet played it over and over. As an adult, it is one of about 5 CD's I would try to fetch if the house was burning.
Resisting an emerging trend at the time the album was originally cut, 1980, the album avoids the electronic sound. The guitars, bass and percussion are crystal clear, and Jimmy Destri makes the electric keyboard sing.
The album begins with the mostly instrumental Europa, with several lines of skat near the end, making for an excellent lead-in to the next track, the powerful, jazz/disco song Live It Up.
The melancholy Here's Looking At You is a mellow, jazzy tune about a woman reflecting upon her current romantic relationship.
The Tide Is High, which received oodles of radio play, requires no explanation; either you like it or you don't!
Angels On The Balcony is a song which begins very quirky; be careful if you're wearing headphones! This track showcases lead vocalist Deborah Harry's range, perhaps like no other song on this album. Plus, the band REALLY has it together on this track.
Go Through It, the shortest song on the album at 2:40, is a lively, "cruising song."
Do The Dark, which received limited airplay years ago, exemplifies Harry's talents well, but has too much of a synthetic sound at times.
Rapture, along with The Tide Is High, also received quite a lot of radio play. It is a cutesy, punky song.
Faces is perhaps the most disappointing track on the CD. Its high register can pierce right through you. This one would have sounded nice by Sarah Vaughn!
Following is T-Birds, another lively cruising tune like Go Through It.
Of the last 2 tracks, Walk Like Me sounds like it was a few years ahead of itself, but is a decent effort. The album, minus the bonus tracks, ends with the toned-down Follow Me, an excellent closing track.
As far as "hit or miss" is concerned, this album is definitely more hit than miss, and I highly recommend it to Blondie fans. It would also be a good first Blondie album to have.
Review the artwork on the back of the liner insert carefully. There appears to be thick, low black clouds or smoke on the New York skyline. Interestingly enough, the CD with extended tracks was released on 9/11...

If "Parallel Lines" is Blondie's greatest collection of songs - snappy, clever and direct, in ideal compliance with their standing as the perfect pop group - their 1980 "Autoamerican" is their greatest album, one that is dignified and complete, perfect in its total unity and harmony. Ironically it is at a time when Blondie were most alienated as a group that they sound most like a band, a contradiction evoked in the record's beautiful cover art.

On "Autoamerican" Blondie, in spirit at least, step outside New York and breathe in the vast scope and beauty of America. The record's opening sequence Europa, a somewhat intellectual concept of the automobile voiced robotically by Harry, is the statement of intent, giving way to the perfect disco bass of Live it Up, containing one of Blondie's great lines: "you know its so pass?/to sleep without you every day". Go Through It cruises along an open highway with tender love and gutsy charm. Do the Dark, tinged with North African allusion, is a shadowy and mysterious invitation to "do the Sidewalk Hustle/do the Invisible Dance" and is one of Blondie's most intoxicating songs.

Admittedly The Tide is High becomes increasingly easy to skip over as the album's finest moments become even more alluring; The old time dance-hall number Here's Looking at You - lazy, smoky and poignant, voiced through a glass of bourbon while pining for Monroe. The immortal Rapture, cooler now than it ever was, and a significant piece of pop culture in itself, pin-pointing the exact moment when the New York elite chose hip-hop over power pop. Evoking Basquait and Warhol as effortlessly as it does huge yellow taxi cabs and brownstone buildings; space mutants and b-movies; Coca Cola and Studio 54.

In fact there is not a song on Autoamerican that does not shimmer in the searing heat of a Manhattan summer, not least Jimmy Destri's sublime Angels on the Balcony. Lucid, warm and effervescent, it is imbued with magic and a bittersweet nostalgia and is perhaps the most beautiful song Blondie ever recorded, where Harry's touching vocal is both as cool and as sweet as vanilla ice-cream.

Walk Like Me is Destri's call to arms, invoking the individual in a grid locked, press frenzied America where everyone's merely a number - "change the way you comb your hair and watch what you walk under" states Harry over Clem Burke's stabbing drum punches, before straining angrily "why don't you walk like me?". The record closes with Harry's lovely rendition of the Lerner & Lowe classic Follow Me, as if one needs proof that Blondie, despite their modern sensibility, belong in all times, any time. Genius.

I was 15 years old when I bought this at the local record store. I remember seeing the video for "Rapture" before MTV even existed, and watching people dance to "T-Birds" on American Bandstand. In many ways, this was a first love in terms of rock music, and I appreciate it now even more than I used to. A very fun album to listen to--it doesn't try to raise your consciousness or make a statement. Instead, the emphasis here seems to be on creating fantastic aural environments, and it does so spectacularly. Every song is like a room decorated in a different style, from the 40's inspired "Here's Looking at You" to the Carribbean rythyms of "Tide is High" to the Latin horns on "Go Through It." And just like the T-Bird Debbie loves so much, it's a classic.

There is no other way to describe this album, it is just cool and delicious. Debbie's voice and song writing especially on Faces is truly awe-inspiring. Of Course the standards are here but Europa and Angels On The Balcony do warrant a second listen on this album. This album really did usher in the 1980's with a new style of sound and introduced everyone to Rapture. The bonus tracks included the Longest version ever of Call Me and the remixes of both Rapture and Live It Up are both alot of fun and worth listening to several times

Ok, so everyone knows and loves this album, I just want to comment on a couple things. Main one being I was hoping, sitting on the edge of my seat... waiting to see if this latest remaster features something only the import vinyl LP copy had ( I had a Japanese copy from the early 80s but I believe some European LPs had this too)... ok, so as the final notes of the last song "Follow Me", a sort of schlocky ballad that no doubt shocked many of Blondie's original fans fades out, a male voice can be heard to say "you're not really gonna put that on the album?"... ha! While "Follow Me" doesn't exactly spoil the album, hearing that spoken comment really saves it for me, but alas this new CD doesn't have it. I think it's pretty much lost to time at this point. It also would have been nice if they had preserved the album's original artwork (the inner sleeve's "paint smudge" image) and typographic style... although the new essay and photos are fine. Sound quality is nice too, as it is on this entire series. And while I will have to break out my LP Best Of to hear the original "Call Me", the extended version here is one I've never heard before, different from both the 7" version and the version on the Best Of LP. So yeah, buy it.

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I've just played the CD for the 50th time, and I guess I was mistaken; you CAN hear that comment at the end of "Follow Me" !! You've really got to turn it up to hear it though.

What can I say about this album? I was 15 when it came out and it affected me profoundly. I didn't really even like Blondie that much. I'd heard 'Heart of Glass', the single. The voice was nice but the song didn't do much for me (still doesn't).
But whoa! When this came out I was dumbfounded. I've heard a LOT of popular and rock music. I think 'OK Computer' by Radiohead, 'Loveless' by My Bloody Valentine, 'Felt Mountain' by Goldfrapp, and 'Murmur' by R.E.M are some of the best in pop and rock of my youth and adulthood. For pop, Autoamerican is almost peerless. I think those negative reviewers (and yes, I remember reading Rolling Stone's review way back when) should listen to this again.
Blondie were so ahead of their time with this. The album is very melancholy, urbane and timeless. Reggae (The Tide Is High), rap (Rapture), eurodisco (Live It Up and Do the Dark), country (Go Through It), 40s standards (Here's Looking At You), atmospheric soundtrack (Europa), and so many more singular tracks add up to a wonderful whole. EVERY song is outstanding. And it all works together. People complain about Debbie's vocals on 'Faces.' They're powerful and they're such a contrast to 'Rapture', which precedes it. It is an example of a juxtaposition that works wonderfully, both songs being about urban surreality. The two takes on the issue are so antithetic but completely complementary.
Blondie, especially Chris Stein and Deborah Harry, were probably geniuses. When you examine their entire catalog, they were, like Bowie, sort of the Beatles equivalent, for the 70s. I think they imploded after this album, as often happens after a truly great work of art is produced. Oftentimes there is major fallout. Loss of friends, tragedy, etc. That's precisely what happened behind the scenes, after this album.
I also don't get why few comment on the beauty, elasticity and power of Debbie Harry's voice! I swear, it's the most beautiful voice I've ever heard in rock music (along with Ann Wilson's power pipes). She's truly an intoxicating siren, a contemporary Calliope. The intro vocals of Rapture give me goosebumps. There's a clarity to her voice that is extremely pleasing. Sort of like Barbra Streisand's clarity. But Streisand could never do rock the way Debbie does. Debbie can do rock, pop, standards, anything really. I once described her voice as 'creamy.' It does have an audio consistency that reminds me of farm fresh, freshly whipped cream. She can call me, anytime (that track is from another album).
Too many critics couldn't allow Blondie to achieve anything greater than Parallel Lines. Sorry, but this album is their crowning masterpiece.

When you first pop "AutoAmerican" into the CD player, you will probably question as to whether the wrong disc was accidentally slipped into a Blondie jewel case.

Gone is the hyperactive punk influence of their earlier work; this is the Blondie who were the darlings of Studio 54. Though this album is dismissed by many, one of it's virtues is the varied sound the band displays. They must be given credit for trying to expand their horizons. This album yielded two #1 singles, so it's ironic that while the band were at their most successful commercially, behind the scenes they were disintegrating.

The lush, string-laden instrumental "Europa" certainly does not sound like it was made by the same people who brought us "Eat to the Beat". Half-way in, Debbie speaks over space-age sounds introducing the album.

Things get going with "Live it Up", which surprisingly manages to out-disco both "Heart of Glass" and "Atomic". One of the best tracks, its influence can still be heard in the dance music of 2010. Jimmy Destri's keyboards really stand out on this one.

One of several '30s ballroom-style songs is "Here's Looking at You". While Blondie should be applauded for experimenting with new styles and directions, these numbers really drag the album down. Madonna did this sort of thing better in "Dick Tracy" because she infused the songs with a camp sensibility and her over-the-top Betty Boop delivery.

The reggae/calypso flavored "The Tide is High" was a #1 hit in 1981 and while it is probably my least favorite of all their hit singles (due to overplay on the Muzak-type station at work), it still plays well 30 years later and is a well-crafted pop song.

A bizarre, industrial-type intro brings us to "Angels on the Balcony". Debbie sounds very sedate, but the band sounds more like their old self on this one. It has a great guitar hook.

The band also stay true to their roots on "Go Through It", except for the horns, which give the track somewhat of a Mexican feel.

"Do the Dark" conjures up visions of snake charmers (listen and you'll see what I mean) and is the second disco-flavored track, though Deb's vocals are a little harsher on this one. It's one of the better offerings and the keyboards are excellent in this one.

The irressistable chimes and tap-dance clacking of "Rapture" are mesmerizing. This was one of the first rap records many North Americans had ever heard, and the novelty no doubt helped propel it to #1 on Billboard for 2 weeks in Spring 1981. Though the lyrics are nonsensical, Debbie's cool delivery sells the song effortlessly. The searing guitar solo at the climax will give you goosebumps.

"Faces" is another '30s-sounding song and perhaps the weakest link on "AutoAmerican". The song is dull, the melody isn't varied enough and its most interesting characteristic is that Debbie says the "BS" word. This one would have been better left off.

A huge '60s Wall-of-Sound production greatly benefits "T-Birds", which would have been right at home on Blondie's first album.

"Walk Like Me", like the first album's "In the Sun" is a good take on '60s surf-rock, with great guitar and keyboards.

"Follow Me" is a dreamy, strange little tune that could have been snooze-inducing like "Sound-a-Sleep" but for some reason, this one really works. It sounds like something Debbie recorded for a Disney soundtrack and you can imagine animated Blondie members frolicking in a field of clover. You really have to hear this one to comprehend.

There are various editions of "AutoAmerican" on CD, but there are only two bonus tracks you need bother with. "Suzy and Jeffrey" which was originally only available on the cassette and was the B-Side of "The Tide is High, is a '60s tragedy-type song about a doomed couple bound for the altar.

"Rapture Riders" is a terrific mash-up of "Rapture" and The Doors' "Riders on the Storm" and is more essential listening than the 12" version of "Rapture" which appears on certain re-issues.

"AutoAmerican" is by no means Blondie's best album, but is on par with "Eat to the Beat", though more varied.

Exploring the relm of music in general is always a good thing for a band who are in a state of growth most of the time and I have to admit Blondie really rose to the challange here. Certain fans of the group,especially of their earlier music may not get into this-there's probably a good reason why. Even at it's rockiest this album doesn't sound like the output of a typical new-wave/punk band at all. The great album cover shows a very sophisticated looking group posed in front of the NYC cityscape and it perfectly matches the music within. And that amounts to a wide tapestry of the different kinds of music the entire band were exposed to on a regular basis in different areas of the city. The recent addition of the eurodisco sound into their framework makes itself very clear not only on the cinematic,orchestrated opener "Europa" but on "Live It Up" and "Do The Dark" as well,both of which showcase a strong mix of eurodisco style electronics with a solid funk/rock flavor. Debbie Harry's interested in jazz vocalizing makes it's presense known on "Here's Looking At You",again taking nods at big band jazz-styled disco heavily leaning toward the big band jazz aspect of the sound. In fact Debbie is downright torchy on "Faces". The only songs here that really nod at the bands earlier psychedelic surf/new wave flavors are "Angels On The Balcony","Go Through It","Walk Like Me" and "Follow Me" and even they are a more stylized and often enough (then) contemporary dance flavored songs than you'd expect of that kind of music. The two hits on this album are two of the best songs not only on the entire album but of Blondie's entire career. The bright calypso/caribbean styled "The Tide Is High" is one of those great sing-a-long,reflective kind of pop songs I never get tired of hearing no matter how many times I do. "Rapture"..........well I have to agree with Grandmaster Flash that I don't have a clue what Debbie is trying to say when she raps about something "eat cars and then guitars" and so forth but the groove is funk as funk can be,right down to some JB styled guitars and is allowed to go on for a well rounded 6+ minutes in lengh. The UK disco remix presented here plays up the funk by giving it that Stevie Wonder styled "Superstition" beat the Bee Gee's even used on their "Stayin' Alive" to kick out more of a jam in a tune that already more than does so. The extended version of "Call Me" at near 10 minutes is another fine varient on eurodisco helped by the extended lengh. "Suzy & Jeffrey" is a totally tragi-drama girl group type send up but goes well with the album. Considering Debbie teaming up with Chic on her first solo album KooKoo shortly to be released this albums sophistication of style and appropriate embrace of heavier funk elements made this in a word a model for a lot of similar musical hybrids in the future.