The Hunter is a decent album. It's not Blondies best but the bar had been raised by the great albums before it. I think it gets a bum rap due to the bad album cover and the lack of hit singles.
I totally agree. It’s the disc that I’ve been listening to mostly. I’ve always stayed away from it because of its reputation and cover but I actually like it a lot!
The Hunter definitely has some highlights. 'Warchild' is a total earworm. I'd never heard anything besides Island which is like a warmed over retread of Tide with no energy or verve. I'll be spinning it more for sure
I have to admit, at the time, 10 year old me who had played the first four albums to death didn't take that much to the experimental nature of Autoamerican and hardly played it. Now I love it, age and maturity has left me more open to music styles and this is like a magic box to me. It's like new Blondie to me, but Blondie in their prime rather than their new stuff and it's a joy to listen to Debbie's 1980's vocals with these tracks that I'm nowhere near as familiar with. Love it, love it, love it. I'm actually glad I shelved it at the time and went back to the rockier tunes of the first four albums because this is a right royal treat to me and increases the value and fun of this amazing box set.
That's a shame. Does it sound like it came from an inferior source, or something went wrong in mastering? I wonder if they might replace the disc.
I think it’s just the mastering. I’ve never heard the original CD, but this sounds very dull. People have complained for years about Blondie CDs being harsh and shrill, and I think they’ve tried to address this with the mastering of the boxset. The good news is, the albums are no longer harsh and shrill, but on the bad side, the top end is noticeably diminished which can be frustrating.
Thats so true. The good thing about this new box is that the majority here seems to enjoy the sound. The book is the keeper for me in this release. A few days ago I bought the 2002 Greatest Hits CD to have the four 1981 remixes and the Call Me single version in on my system great sound.
No, Clem doesn't seem like the type to take them to court as the others did and it ended badly for them. Jimmy's songs are always his except where debbie adds lyrics as credited so maybe it's a mistake. I know most bands sometimes put all band names on songs so as to ensure a more equal royalty but this is first I've heard of these. It just seems odd after 40 plus years to suddenly be added to more than half the songs. Given all that's been written about the creation of certain songs and the writing patterns Clem hasn't seemed to have been involved in that part of the process. It must be a mistake.
Not really. The Blondie portion is taken exactly from the book in the Box Set. So if you have the latest you don't need it.
Yeah I have the 1994 remaster, the 2001 remaster, and the 2015 remaster and now this one. They all sound similar to me but the 94 has a more warmth to it and the newest one has a mid range whereas the 2001 has better bass and treble? At least to my ears.
So are you saying a little magazine with 96 pages isn't worth reading because the Blondie section was copied from the book that already came with the box set? The Blondie section is 12 pages out of 96. There is more to read about other artists if you so choose.
I don't think so. Island of lost souls has some great authentic calypso moments. Its definitely in the realm of Tide but wasn't Tide more reggae? Everyone always compares them but I think they are different.
It was just my opinion because they advertised to us buying the boxset but it was the same content (Autoamerican section). The little magazine is nice and personally I didn't enjoy the other pieces in it but its just my opinion. It had nothing new Blondie wise so I was a little indifferent about it.
I don't know, it's always sounded uninspired to me. The total opposite of what we got on the first 4 LPs. Even when Blondie was doing pastiche, they put everything they had into it and made a real difference
I haven't been through all 70+ pages, maybe this was discussed, but I'm happy that it sounds like they found the master tapes for the Private Stock 45's. The 2001 release had some really bad transfers from the the original 45s. These sound like they are from master tapes.
I assume having looked that no one ever did a Blondie day by day type book. I dug out the old Blondie at the BBC dvd which I have not watched in a while. I really enjoyed the OGWT from early 1978 (3 songs) and that really is how I best remember the band. They came over to the UK in the fall of 77 (second UK tour but now headlining no more TV!) and I saw a couple of shows - Aylesbury and the Rainbow. Then they came back in early 1978 and did Dingwalls (a club but I did not see that). Anyway I think it was then Europe, Denis became a hit here and the world changed (from being low key everything became a circus). They came back were on Top of the Pops and I saw shows at Dunstable and the Rainbow. It was never the same again. Hammersmith late 78 was ok but it felt different (like The Clash and The Jam when you get popular the whole dynamic changes). Looking back with hindsight it now seems obvious that they would become mega. Re the new box I have not played the vinyl yet but the cd set is fine although I still think the official download flac of Eat to the Beat has the edge from a sound point of view.
Attribution for royalties and attribution for songwriting are entirely different things. If this is for royalties, the change may have been negotiated as part of the publishing sale. For example, Clem may have had a vote re dba Blondie for licensing, and to get him on board they agreed to add him to the royalty list on those songs.
Amazon France currently has the big vinyl box down to 262 euros, which is the lowest I've seen the set (and 40 euros cheaper than I've paid for it...)
So glad I've finally put my hands (for a reasonable price!) on the Atomic EP, with the stripped down Motown Mix of Slow Motion. God, I love that mix! I already had the "Blonde and beyond" cd for the live tracks omitted in the boxset, so I'm at peace as to things Blondie-related As for The Hunter CD, I haven't heard any older release (not my favorite Blondie out there), but the "Against the odds" remaster doesn't strike me as dull or muffled, not at all.
I thought the same thing when I finally got around to listening to it. I saw that tour live, yet it was my first time listening to the entire album (CD), and it was really good.
I have not really been following this thread but I did look into the box on various SHTV Blondie threads because I was looking to expand my exposure to Blondie. Big takeaways I got was that the 2001 remasters were terrific both in terms of bonus tracks and the SQ so I went after several of them and they are as advertised so thanks to all you Blondie fans out there who input your POV on the band and various offerings!!
Tell me YOU know nothing about punk without blah blah blah. Blondie has punk-y elements, but never was, a punk band, by any stretch of the imagination.
Forgive me back tracking but can anyone tell me how this set compares to the vinyl box set from 2014 after which the albums were sold separately in 2015/16? This release was from Back To Black on 180g heavy weight vinyl. Has the sound improved or does it differ that much since this release? Anyone already have any of the vinyl from this previous release? Thanks.
