The Hunter

Product Information

Vote up content that is on-topic, within the rules/guidelines, and will likely stay relevant long-term. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average.

I adore the story, it's about a woman trying to play games with a man, and the woman ends up getting "played" by the man. English Boys" is sweetly serene, and contains some of Debbie's most introspective lyrics about how the world was changing during her formative years. Another song that could have been made into a hit is "For Your Eyes Only," a bewitching and well-crafted melody originally penned for the 1981 Bond movie of the same name - it lost out, however, to Sheena Easton's number. Misunderstood gem The dip in quality is quite scary when you compare this album to Autoamerican or even the last two releases before that, but right here we find Blondie giving us some of their strongest songs. Blondie implodes Blondie waited too long between Autoamerican and this album -- a year-and-a-half is several lifetimes in pop music -- and the world forgot about them.Determined to end on a high at the same time as having the desire to pursue solo projects, particularly the band's lead singer and obvious focal point Debbie Harry (Deborah Harry), it seemed as if Blondie would take great memories of a string of hits with them as they went. 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. If Blondie kept up the same sense of experimentation and intrigue as "Orchid Club" for the duration of _The Hunter_, it may be hailed a gem or one of their most interesting works. 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). Danceaway" was planned for release as a single in Canada (backed with "For Your Eyes Only"), but was issued only extremely briefly before the single was withdrawn.

In the liner notes to the 2001 reissue of The Hunter, producer Mike Chapman stated, "I knew that we were in a different and far less accessible artistic space. Ignore The Album Cover, The Record Rocks Ignore the idiotic album cover of Deborah Harry looking like Lassie the Collie and rescue dog. Hunter_ is also, at times, downright embarrassing (the awful faux-reggae of "Little Caesar" is the worst offender) and an obvious attempt to recreate past triumphs ("The Beast" falls completely flat at trying to imitate the sexy rap of "Rapture" from _Autoamerican_). Blondie were contractually bound to deliver another new studio album to Chrysalis, and no amount of legal wrangling or attempts to get out of it worked.

Island of Lost Souls” is the new LP’s “The Tide Is High,” complete with Ricky Ricardo horns, steel drums and jaunty ska beat. 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. The first single (and also the only single released from this record) "Island of Lost Souls" is a calypso-flavored gem. The summer Tracks Across America Tour '82 was set to promote the album but turned out to be unsuccessful.