The Curse of Blondie

The Curse of Blondie is the eighth studio album from the American rock band Blondie. It was released in October 2003, and peaked at #36 in the UK.

Background and Recording

The band departed from bankrupt Beyond Records and signed with Sony Music. The Curse of Blondie had the working title Phasm 8, which was also the name of the tour they were doing before the release. Craig Leon, who had also produced their previous hit album No Exit, started work on the album, but it was four years in the making as the only demo tapes of the album had disappeared from luggage at a UK airport, and so had to be re-recorded. Leon ultimately did not produce the album, which was largely helmed by Steve Thompson with Jeff Bova producing only one track, "Good Boys".

The album incorporates a rock-inspired arrangement style more reminiscent of Blondie's earliest recordings. Rhythms played include mostly rock ("Golden Rod, "Rules for Living", "End to End", "Hello Joe", "Last One in the World", "Diamond Bridge") and then dance-pop ("Good Boys", "Undone", "The Tingler"). Other incursions are Japanese traditional music ("Magic (Asadoya Yunta)"), reggae ("Background Melody (The Only One)"), jazz ("Desire Brings Me Back", "Songs of Love (For Richard)") and rap ("Shakedown"). The track "Hello Joe" is an homage to Joey Ramone, and includes a reference to "Blitzkrieg Bop" ("hey ho, hola Joe instead of hey ho, let's go).

The Curse of Singapore Sling

The Curse of Singapore Sling (also known simply as The Curse Of) is the first studio album by the Icelandic neo-psychedelia band Singapore Sling. It was released in August 2002 by record label Hitt.

Background

An 8-track demo version of the opening track, "Overdriver", was made available online on the Iceland Airwaves music festival website in 2001. The MP3 was titled "Overdrive".

The closing track, "Dirty Water", was a cover of the 1966 hit single by garage rock band The Standells.

Edda (Hitt Records), the now-defunct Icelandic label, produced a music video for "Listen". No single was actually released. The black-and-white clip was directed by Arni Thor Jonsson from the Reykjavík studio Sagofilm and was released in Iceland on 22 October 2002. It shows girls from a volleyball league wearing bikinis and dancing.

Release

The album was released in August 2002 on CD by Hitt Records, and was licensed and released in the United States a year later by the independent label Stinky Records.