Autoamerican
| Autoamerican | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by Blondie | ||||
| Released | November 19, 1980 | |||
| Recorded | 1980 | |||
| Studio | United Western Recorders, Hollywood | |||
| Genre | New wave | |||
| Length | 46:39 | |||
| Label | Chrysalis | |||
| Producer | Mike Chapman | |||
| Blondie chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Autoamerican | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   |
| Robert Christgau | B− |
| Rolling Stone | |
| The Rolling Stone Album Guide (2004) | |
Autoamerican is the fifth studio album by the American rock band Blondie. It was released in November 1980 and reached #3 in the UK charts, #7 in the US, and #8 in Australia.
The album was a radical departure for the band, with opening track "Europa" setting the pace. The track is a dramatic instrumental overture featuring orchestral arrangements and ending with vocalist Debbie Harry declaiming a passage about automobile culture over an electronic soundtrack. Besides rock and pop tracks, the band explored a wide range of other musical genres: "Here's Looking at You" and "Faces" show jazz and blues influences, the reggae hit "The Tide Is High" was a cover of The Paragons' 1967 Jamaican ska hit, whereas "Rapture" combined funk, rock, jazz, and even saw them embracing the then emerging genre of rap. The closing track, "Follow Me", was a cover of a torch song from Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe's 1960 Broadway musical Camelot.
Producer Mike Chapman insisted the band record in Los Angeles. Guitarist Chris Stein lamented: "Every day we get up, stagger into the blinding sun, [and] drive past a huge Moon-mobile from some ancient sci-fi movie." Drummer Clem Burke welcomed the change: "Autoamerican was fun. We got to spend two months in California. I'm always up for a free ride." However, the band insisted on the cover artwork shot being from their hometown, posing on a roof near New York's Broadway and Eighth (more precisely 300 Mercer St). The image was taken from a commissioned painting by artist Martin Hoffman (1935-2013).
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Wikipedia