There's no meat over here. Go back to the main Blondie page and get some REAL hunting done. The Hunter? Well Something Shot Blondie. Overall Album Score: 5.2 out of 10 Oh me oh my! Thaaaaar she blows! Doesn't it really suck when a good band has to go out like this? The last album of the classic Blondie discography is nothing more than an obligatory record to fulfil their contracts. In Autoamerican the band was in the process of collapsing. By The Hunter the band had already collapsed. However, it's not like the band just took to a trashcan, started pounding on it, and pressed the record button. There were actual efforts to make songs ... but they were half-hearted efforts and hasty ones. And, just because this band has extreme talent, there are a few decent tracks on here, but the rest ranges from being mediocre to utterly awful. The best song on here is "Island of Lost Souls" which is a sort of bizarre tropical-tinged song that reminds me a lot of the old 30s nightclub song "Brazil." I really think their lush yet completely artificial-sounding choices of instrumentation makes this song an unusual delight. Other than that, there are very few points of redemption here. "The Beast" attempts to recreate the classy-rap feeling of "Rapture" from Autoamerican, but it doesn't work nearly as well. "English Boys" is an unexpected good song to appear on the album's last half. Even as suggested by the tackiness and laziness of this album cover, it is clear that Blondie was ready to move on, and The Hunter is an album that probably should never have happened. Blondie sounds washed-up and tired. Oh well! I'm just going to put on Parallel Lines again. This is strictly for fans, and I'm sure most fans hate it. For some reason, this album sounds like it was recorded within an empty warehouse. It doesn't really work. Blondie used to be known for their tight and infectious arranging! Here they are looser and sloppier than ever. They could have developed the warehouse idea into something, but they didn't and it just turns out to be boring. Overall Album Score: 5.2 (Blondie is shot. Blondie is dead. Goodbye, Blondie!) Average Song Score: 6.0 (A dull set of tunes if there ever was a dull set of tunes. There are some minor gems in here, however, among seas of rubbish.) Album Tilt: 5.0 (This album is in ruins.) Artist Rating: 4.5 (I am very disappointed! Blondie is merely shadows of their former self. Even though they contractually had to come up with this album, they didn't keep their composure as artists very well.) Track Reviews Orchid Club 4/10 Five minutes and thirty seconds worth of utter mess! Set to a tribal beat and lush orchestrations (that make it sound like it was recorded in an empty warehouse) nearly drown out Deborah Harry ... who isn't singing anything interesting anyway with zero hooks. It's dull and tedious. I like the track title, though. Islands of Lost Souls 9/10 Hoohah! Plastic salsa! The best song of the album is that bizarre delight I was talking about in the intro. It recreates the whole salsa nightclub feeling, except the instruments (except for the trumpets) sound so utterly fake! (And, they're rather sloppy as well ... which doesn't always work to the best.) The melody is pedestrian, but with all the elements put into place, this is one mighty insane track! And I like it, Bay-be! Dragonfly 7.5/10 This song is also one of the above-average tracks on here, but to tell you the truth, this is sloppy. This is a "Japan"-esque disjointed New Romantic song, so these types of songs are sloppy by nature! The song starts out excellently, but it slowly gets dragged down by its massive 6-minute length and it doesn't convey any more meaningful new ideas after the first thirty seconds. Halfway though, the song grows tedious. For Your Eyes Only 6.5/10 Apparently, this song had been meant to be the theme song for the James Bond film of the same name! It certainly seems conditioned for a Bond film ... and I've heard worse (Madonna) ... but just because it's almost decent doesn't mean they have to use it! It was rejected for something that was sung by Sheena Easton. Ehhh! I don't know why Blondie thought they would be picked! The songwriting here is just awful compared with their Parallel Lines days! The Beast 5/10 Really angry that their song didn't make the James Bond film, Blondie tries to remake the rap song "Rapture" and fails tremendously at it. It's nearly five minutes and doesn't really get interesting for me. But I am giving it a five because I like some of the instrumentation. But, overall, the song is lame-o. War Child 4/10 Truly blah! This song is supposed to be energetic, but there's just NO FUN in it! This child must have been born in the middle of the most boring war in the history of the earth. Little Caesar 5/10 How odd! This is another semi-rap song ala "The Beast," however, it is also part salsa ala "Islands of Lost Souls," which is fully equipped with the same sort of instrumentation. (I really dig that tight-banjo instrument in the background!) But as you might expect, the combination of these ideas turn out to be another absolute mess. But don't worry. This isn't Blondie performing these songs. It's Blondie's remains being glued together by the recording industry. Danceaway 6/10 Well at least they increase the Fun-meter, but that doesn't make this any more of a good song. (...well, I guess it does, but that's beside the point...) This track is a feeble attempt at creating fun dance music. I'm still yawning. The song just wishes it had some good hooks in it. Can I Find the Right Words (To Say) 7/10 You know ... this is almost a good song. They should have invested a couple days just to improve it. It has some interesting ideas in it that I really think could have made it more epic! Heck! The arranging here is just sloppy! They could have at least spent a few extra days sorting that aspect of it. Disappointing! English Boys 8.5/10 Well, I'm trying to figure out where I've heard this track before (...I was going through some of Blondie's older songs just to see if I would run across it, but I wasn't able to uncover anything...). This recalls everything that was so beautiful and fun about Plastic Letters, but it's really a far cry from that. The Hunter Gets Captured By the Game 4.5/10 Appropriately enough, Blondie closes the last track of the last album of their entire career with a cover of an old 60s girl group hit. (Written by Smokey Robinson, but sung by the Marvelettes ... AKA the Omelets.) The cover is just DULL. It might have been made into something more exciting, but Blondie was ready to leave. Bonus track: An extended track of "War Child," which according to me is the worst song on this album. So why would I want to listen to a version of it that is twice as long? I guess some extra time might be needed if it goes into a caesarian, but ... If you don't leave a comment, I'm going to hunt you down. Leave your comments here!

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