Instead of resting on the laurels of the great music they made some 40 years ago, Blondie - still led by original members Debbie Harry and Chris Stein - are back with an album that tries to channel their past chart-toppers while also keeping in touch with modern pop, as filtered via collaborations with Sia, Charlie XCX and The Strokes’ Nick Valensi. Unfortunately for them, Pollinator reminds more of the Sonic Heroes videogame soundtrack than Parallel Lines.
The singles “Fun” and “Long Time” are overflowing with squawking keyboards, uplifting vocal lines, and overly metronomic (as in, dull) drums. “Fun” especially sounds like TV advert music. Whether it’d be better suited to soundtracking a Volkswagen driving past the Grand Canyon or people drinking Smirnoff in a club is, perhaps, its most engaging aspect.
“Too Much” draws as much on Journey’s abominable “Don’t Stop Believing” as it does Rebecca Black’s “Friday”; far too sugary and Glee-like to be enjoyable. “When I Gave Up on You” is four minutes of tuneless country ballad. Pollinator almost makes you wish Blondie were one of those bands who just do exactly what they’ve done before. After all, what was wrong with the edge and smoky haze of “Rapture”?
The album does have redeeming moments. The Johnny Marr-penned “My Monster” has Harry’s best vocal performance of the album,:quivering and melancholic, she sounds like a wizened rock’n’roller lamenting the mistakes she’s made, not least on the beautifully crooned opening line “Human beings are stupid things when we’re young”.
I really, really, really wanted to love this album but that just makes disliking it all the worse. Blondie by numbers? If only...
Overleaf: listen to "My Monster" by Blondie