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The Hunter

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The bizarre "Dragonfly," a six-minute sci-fi epic detailing a futuristic space craft race, is odd and uncompromising but surprisingly beguiling and memorable, with Harry reportedly making up the in-depth spoken technical jargon on the spot herself. I was hoping that the music would be just as crazy, but after the somewhat promising first track that kinda matches the cover theme, it's generally a slog. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average.

You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. I understand all the fuss and negative attention this album got over 30 years ago, but for me "The Hunter" is a thing of beauty (minus the hideous album cover). Soon, you catch the tantalizing fragrance of sin and temptation: it’s there in the forbidden fruit found on “Island of Lost Souls” and “Orchid Club”; in the city hustler’s patois of “The Beast”; in the paranoid daydreams of violence that undergird “War Child”; and in the speed-freak sci-fi fantasy of “Dragonfly. War Child" is another highlight, (the music is stellar) and this album also contains an extended version of this song. All well and good, perhaps, but the austere, foreboding tone of this record suggests that Blondie has forgotten how to have a good time, and how to make one.The second single, "War Child," is an interesting stab at early '80s electro-rock that hit the UK Top 40, while "English Boys" is a surprisingly mid-tempo mellow pop number about The Beatles. It's dark and menacing, but strangely beautiful and a glimpse into the little-known talents of bassist Nigel Harrison, who also co-wrote the similarly dark "War Child. Island of Lost Souls” is the new LP’s “The Tide Is High,” complete with Ricky Ricardo horns, steel drums and jaunty ska beat. Orchid Club”, “Dragonfly” and “The Beast” are among the most interesting Blondie ever created, experimenting with hypnotic beats and unconventional song structures, hinting – along with “Fade Away and Radiate” from Parallel Lines – toward a parallel-world instance of Blondie as a trancey ambient-techno unit.

Some user-contributed text on this page is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. However, there is no denying that the songs on _The Hunter_ lack the punch and bite of earlier efforts. At this point in their career it's obvious the band was going to break up soon enough unfortunately; I'm of the mind that believes they still had more to deliver in the early 80s, but perhaps The Hunter isn't that bad of a send off in hindsight. The song opens with the sound of screaming monkeys, then the synth kicks in, and finally the killer drums. Despite their transparent Top Forty aspirations, these two songs do play into the record’s overall concept.This might explain the long 18-month gap between _Autoamerican_ and 1982's swansong _The Hunter_, the longest gap between any of the original six Blondie albums. But compared with some of the band's previous delights and the weakness of some songs, it doesn't merit the same kind of recommendation as the likes of _Parallel Lines_. Ignore The Album Cover, The Record Rocks Ignore the idiotic album cover of Deborah Harry looking like Lassie the Collie and rescue dog. English Boys" is Harry and Chris Stein's melancholy tribute to "those English boys who had long hair", the Beatles, recorded the year after John Lennon's assassination in New York City, describing the innocence and idealism of the 1960s. The Hunter was digitally remastered and reissued by Chrysalis Records UK in 1994, and again by EMI-Capitol in 2001, both times with the 12″ version of "War Child" as the only bonus track.

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