Blondie - Eat To The Beat

I think I purchased Eat To Beat shortly after it was released, and thought whilst it had two epic singles, it wasn't as consistently good as Parallel Lines, and in many cases was repeating the formula of the previous album. On replay though the repeat formulas are much less than I originally thought.

"Dreaming" remains my all time favourite Blondie song ( and there is plenty of competition for that award ! ) with the furious drumming, a tremendous beat and a superb vocal. I also love the guitar and backing vocals and there are some great lyrics as well like "When I met you in the restaurant you could tell I was no debutante" and "Imagine something of your very own, something you can have and hold" which compel you to sing along. Debbie looked FAB in the video too ! It's still great.

"Union City Blue" is also still great, although I still have little idea what they are singing about, apart from power and passion ! But it has a gorgeous tune and there is some nice bass playing.

"Slow Motion" is a vastly underated track. Similar in tone to "11.59" from Parallel Lines, it is a mid-tempo toe tapper with another lovely vocal. "Shayla" is a  slow number with a dreamy vocal and a cute guitar solo, and comes close to being this album's "Fade Away And Radiate". "Living In The Real World is the "Just Go Away" of the LP, with some more great drumming and a cartoon like guitar break. I like it despite some screeching !

Elsewhere on the album "Die Young Stay Pretty" is a likeable reggae influenced track and "The Hardest Part" is quite funky, although the vocals strain on the high notes of the chorus.

I still don't really like "Atomic" all that much, being an attempt to cover "Heart of Glass" disco territory but with a spaghetti western style guitar riff. Also, for me, the lengthy fade goes on too long

I can just about bear the frantic "Eat To The Beat" and "Sound-A-Sleep" is a sweet, throwaway lullaby, but it goes on for far too long and should have been a 2 minute song, not one over 4 minutes.

"Accidents Never Happen" is not to be confused with Elvis Costello's "Accidents Will Happen" and I've already forgotten how it goes, whilst "Victor" is possibly the worst song of all their first four albums, just dreadful.


Overall, Eat To The Beat doesn't have as many highs as Parallel Lines, but it does contain two of Blondie's best singles, and it is still a good album.


Track Listing :

1. Dreaming
2. The Hardest Part
3. Union City Blue
4. Shayla
5. Eat To The Beat
6. Accidents Never Happen
7. Die Young Stay Pretty
8. Slow Motion
9. Atomic
10.Sound-A-Sleep 
11. Victor
12.Living In The Real World


Released 1979
UK Chart Position :1

Singles :

Dreaming ( No 2 - 1979 )
Union City Blue ( No 13 - 1979 )
Atomic ( No 1 - 1980 )