Plastic Letters

The hard-charging, defiantly fierce second album from New Wave heroes Blondie, 1978’s <i>Plastic Letters</i> arrived on the heels of the group’s buzz-building debut. That album, 1976’s <i>Blondie</i>, didn’t exactly rocket the group to fame. But it nabbed Blondie a major-label deal, earned the attention of influential Los Angeles DJ Rodney Bingenheimer and even yielded an overseas hit with the group’s pop ballad “In the Flesh”. The group’s follow-up, <i>Plastic Letters</i> would be a conscious effort to capture into the punk-rock roar emanating from downtown New York City. Easily the group’s heaviest and most straightforwardly rocking album, <i>Plastic Letters</i> is a portrait of the group at its most ferocious. But while <i>Plastic Letters</i> finds Blondie striking some tough poses and playing speedier songs, the album’s most enduring singles build on the postmodern girl-group sound of the band’s debut. After hearing Randy and the Rainbows’ 1963 doo-wop classic “Denise” on a K-Tel compilation, the band members and producer Richard Gottehrer rigged up a version that mixed New Wave agitation with stomping Spector-ian grandeur. The result was “Denis”, a song that took the group’s early-1960s obsession to amazing heights (and would go on to become a monster smash in the UK and France). Meanwhile <i>Plastic Letters</i>’ other breakout hit, “(I’m Always Touched by Your) Presence, Dear” mixes sparkling, Shangri-Las-inspired harmonies and a power-pop hook with Clem Burke’s wild, Who-like drumming. Beyond the singles, the album dabbles in power-pop (“Fan Mail”, “Youth Nabbed as Sniper”), spy-punk (“Contact in Red Square”) and even old-fashioned, roadhouse-jukebox rave-up (“Kidnapper”). It’s the last taste of Blondie as a bratty, subterranean rock band. Less than a year after the release of <i>Plastic Letters</i>, Blondie would return with the glossy, disco-fied commercial breakthrough, <i>Parallel Lines</i>—and immediately go from downtown darlings to world-conquering pop icons.