Minimalism Project - Blondie Parallel LInes

A couple of years ago I started attempting to review all the albums that I owned. I got about four or five in and lost momentum. Now I am proposing a different approach. This year I intend to listen to every CD I own - and if I don't love it I will get rid of it. (read more about my minimalism project here) I am going to do mini reviews of the albums as I go.

CD 2

Parallel Lines by Blondie (1978)

This is another album that I once owned on vinyl and it has always been my favourite Blondie album (although I do retain a certain fondness for their second album Plastic Letters, which I may have once had on tape but never actually owned). The Internet tells me that Parallel Lines that was much more commercial than their previous two. It certainly contains a few hits - Hanging on the Telephone, Picture This, Sunday Girl and the disco driven Heart of Glass all feature on this album, which pretty much guaranteed it would be a big commercial success. These are not my favourite tracks on the CD though - I tend to prefer their less poppy tracks. My particular favourites are 11:59 (the only track on the album written by keyboard player Jimmy Destri), Will Anything Happen and Fade Away and Radiate. There's a definite pop-punk feel to this album and it seems obvious to me that it influenced some of the later pop-punk bands like The All American Rejects and Green Day. I can see why the album was number 1 - I don't listen to it often now - but I definitely still enjoy it when I do. 

Keep.

Lattitude

Lattitude Festival was fun. highlights for me were:

Simon Armitage reading from his new book "Gig"

Gig is not a book of poetry, it is about Armitage's lifelong passion for music and is very funny. Hearing him reading from it made me want to go out and buy it immediately but I am holding out for the paperback.

Carol Ann Duffy who read extensively from her book "The World's Wife".

Franz Ferdinand whose performance was great but who could have done with a little better rapport with the audience.

but the highlight of the weekend for me was definitely Sigur Ros. I have to admit that even though I am a big fan of the band I did initially have some reservations when I saw that they had been programmed as the headlining band on Saturday night. But I needn't have worried they were amazing. Giving an energtic and electrifying performance with great lights and effects.

All in all the festival was great, but it was considerably bigger than last year and they had not increased the size of the venues within the site. That was ok for the outside stages but for the inside venues it was a real problem. It was really hard to get anywhere near to the comedy tent and even the literature and poetry tents were full to bursting with may disappointed people who could not get in. I felt that their biggest mistake though was to programme bands as big as Blondie and The Coral in the Uncut tent, which, was just too small for the crowds who wanted to see them. You couldn't even hear them properly outside as the music from the main stage was too loud.