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Blondie - Eat to the Beat (CD/DVD) Audio CD

A fair review of the Blondie "Eat to the Beat (CD/DVD)" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Blondie reviews here, or go back to the Blondie tabs.

Blondie Band: Blondie
Title: Eat to the Beat (CD/DVD)
Rating:
Release Date: 2007-06-26
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Dreaming 2: The Hardest Part 3: Union City Blue 4: Shayla 5: Eat To The Beat 6: Accidents Never Happen 7: Die Young Stay Pretty 8: Slow Motion 9: Atomic 10: Sound-A-Sleep 11: Victor 12: Living In The Real World 13: Eat To The Beat 14: The Hardest Part 15: Union City Blue 16: Slow Motion 17: Shayla 18: Die Young Stay Pretty 19: Accidents Never Happen 20: Atomic 21: Living In The Real World 22: Sound-A-Sleep 23: Victor 24: Dreaming

So much love for Blondie
Fell in love with it then and love it still today. I first got this on lp (that's album for the new generation!) so long ago. The fast and drum pounding "Dreaming", the dreamy rhythmic "Union City Blue", the catchy "Atomic". I still don't have much love for the namesake song "Eat to the Beat", but I play it for people when they want a good laugh :). I still remember when they performed "The Hardest Part" and "Dreaming" on Saturday Night live. Blondie never disappoints me. The instrumentals in all the songs are always amazing. "Dreaming is Free". Indeed.


Chew to the view


Eat To The Beat was their fourth album and yielded four hit singles: Dreaming, Union City Blue (in the UK), The Hardest Part (in the US) and Atomic. For all their CBGB punk and new wave credentials and their embracing of all contemporary New York culture, be it art or disco, on record Blondie were a surprisingly commercial enterprise, thanks in part to the production of Mike Chapman, and their love of sixties pop (Ellie Greenwich is a guest singer on the album). Another three (Sound-A-Sleep, Living In The Real World, Die Young Stay Pretty) were B-sides. Atomic reached number one in the UK, and Dreaming was number two. Eat To The Beat was also a number one album (Top Twenty in the US), and additionally featured great songs like Accidents Will Happen and the title track, so that it almost plays like a Greatest Hits album.

The upbeat, inspired playing of the band and the warmth and character of Deborah Harry's voice keep these songs as fresh today as when they were baked.

Innovatively, Blondie also prepared videos for each of the twelve songs and released the album in various video formats including VHS and Betamax. Long deleted, it is now a joy to find them included in superior DVD format on the accompanying disc in this package. How would anyone not want these?.


The videos are neat, but there's music missing.
You can buy them individually from Amazon for $0. It's worth noting that the CD-only version of this album (Eat To The Beat) has four tracks that aren't on this one. 89 each, but you may want to just get the much cheaper CD version and live without the videos.

My favorite songs from this album are reproduced on the 2000 Live album, and at least one of them ("Dreaming") sounds much better in its later incarnation. Just my opinion, of course. Incidentally, the audio on the DVD is LPCM stereo.


Great, but....
One nit: I wish the audio quality of the DVD was as good as the CD. I'm ecstatic that I'm finally able to watch the DVD version of this album without paying exhorbitant online auction prices for the VHS version (note that the prices for those VHS versions have dropped substantially with this DVD release). I'm sure it was just transfered from the original master video, so it's a faithful re-release, but how hard would it have been to get the CD audio quality transfered to the video version? Listening to the DVD audio even through an excellent sound system, sounds like you're listening to it through TV speakers. It isn't terrible by any means, but it pales when compared to the CD audio.

Otherwise, no complaints. Video quality is excellent, considering the age of the source material, and audio quality of the CD is superb. Easily the best money I've spent all year. A must-have for all Blondie fans.


The Best Blondie Video EVER!
One thing the band SHOULD get credit for is helping to pioneer the concept of music videos. Blondie doesn't get credit for much. Whether the video album to Eat to the Beat was the first or simply one of the first attempts to make a video for each song on an entire album, this DVD's historic importance cannot be overstated.

Because it is a pioneering effort, the accepted format of displaying the credits discreetly in one corner of the video has not yet been invented. Instead, each video has a "title page" which eats up the first few seconds of each video. That's annoying, but that is my one and only minor criticism. The excitement of the videos more than makes up for this minor "annoyance. "

The lowdown? In a word: fantastic! The picture quality is head and shoulders above Blondie's Greatest Video Hits or the Musikladen DVD. It is on a par with the picture quality of the Glasgow performance: i. e. , the picture quality is nearly High Definition considering how old these tapes are.

The videos themselves are primarily variations on the "show the band performing" theme. Remember, this is prehistoric. Don't let that stop you from owning the best Blondie video EVER. I waited 28 years to see this, and it was worth the wait. I question the need to include the CD album with the DVD in the package, because most people who purchase this will probably already own the plain CD. That also increases the price, and unfortunately may make some people pass on an excellent and essential Blondie video document. For my own tastes, never again will I simply want to listen to the album without viewing the accompanying videos. It's that good. And if you get tired of watching Debbie Harry in her prime there is something seriously wrong with you.

If you do not own this you are not a true Blondie fan. 'Nuff Said.


You can see a complete list of all Blondie discography, or go back to the Blondie tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.

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