Album Review: Pollinator, Blondie

Blondie have returned – triumphantly – with their 11th studio album, the provocatively entitled Pollinator. Playing to their strengths – big and bouncy, brash and breezy pop songs. All the Bs. Just like the bee on the album artwork. And there’s the cue for a slew of excruciating puns about creating a buzz and stings in the tail. I’ll beehive myself and resist though.

Founding members Debbie Harry and Chris Stein have wisely made the decision to inject fresh blood into the formula in the form of a stellar cast of contributors: Johnny Marr, Joan Jett, Dev Hynes, Charli XCX, Sia and John Roberts among then.

Recorded at The Magic Shop, the studio where Bowie recorded his last two albums, John Congleton’s hard-edged production – while employing occasionally jarring vocal treatments – gives cohesion and definition to Blondie’s trademark sound: pulsing synths, spiky guitars and perfect-pop melodies. Did I forget Clem Burke’s wickedly propulsive backbeat?

Unforgivable. If Debbie occasionally fails to hit some of the high notes at least she’s not gargling through an auto-tuner – that I’m aware of. The approach of farming out most of the songwriting to outside sources has proven inspired and resulted in Blondie’s strongest batch of tunes for some time. These are bittersweet tales of star-crossed love, dissolution and break-up welded to a compulsive power-pop framework.

Quintessential Blondie. Ageless and timeless.