“Rap up. Wrap it up
Put some wax on the tracks and slide on out of here…”
— Adam & The Ants, Ant Rap
Just an outrageously unsubtle reminder that there were two platinum rock bands that enjoyed ersatz rap hits in 1981, with Ant Rap also acting as the Ants’ adieu to the music world.
Pertinent then, as the other lot – the most commercially successful American band in the history of the UK charts – have announced their 12th studio album will be finally be issued in 2027 on the Nashville-based BMG label, pretty conclusively for the last Friday in February.
In other words The End is the end of February, as High Noon is almost certainly set to be the final new long-player from Blondie, a decade after 2017’s return-to-form Pollinator, and a whole half-century since the band’s eponymous debut in the last month of 1976.
Featuring guest spots from the likes of Beirut’s Zach ‘Sunday Smile’ Condon, and production duties by John Congleton and David Wrench, the record was tracked from 2022 to 2026 in NYC. In addition to his posthumous appearances on Echo & The Bunnymen’s latest Apples For Isaac, High Noon features the last known recordings of the late Clem Burke, easily my favourite drummer ever.
With mortality in mind, High Noon’s telling title alludes to its Western idiomatic meaning, ie a critical culmination, a final showdown. Having just received the writer credits in an email from the band’s manager, the ever brilliant Tommy Manzi, the contents appear to be a decent split between existing compositions and brand new exclusive material, with many of the songs evoking the perky, poppy three-minutes-or-less concision of that first album.
These are the HN Baker’s Dozen then:
- Spectral Eyes (Johnny Marr)
- Heartbreak Kid (Chris Stein / Debbie Harry)
- Come Back Home (Jess Wolfe + Holly Laessig of Lucius)
- Tambo, Tambo (Andrés Landero)
- Man Who Had No Face (Chris Stein / Debbie Harry)
- The End (John Congleton / Josef Salvat)
- Little Metal Drummer (Jimmy Destri)
- Sleepwalking (Glen Matlock)
- Whistle Into The Wind (Chris Stein / Debbie Harry)
- Antifreeze (Chris Stein / Debbie Harry)
- East Of Eden (Chris Stein / Debbie Harry)
- Bad Underwear (Debbie Harry / Matt Katz-Bohen)
- Ah Sunflower! Weary Of Time (The Fugs)
Song notes:
Lead single opener Spectral Eyes was penned by guitar star Johnny Marr for Pollinator. When Blondie’s recording failed to materialise its author sneaked his own take out as the B-side of Spiral Cities in 2018, just in case the band got their act together. Indeed they have. With its Broken English edge, and Marr’s captivating, chiming riffs it’s a power pop treat. Debbie’s wearily husky vocals are beautifully befitting that of an older woman in the Marianne Faithfull vein, giving the song an injection of gravitas.
Talking of inconspicuous, Sleepwalking was released by recent Blondie axeman and former Sex Pistol Glen Matlock’s band The Philistines in 2005, while Heartbreak Kid was previously heard on the audiobook edition of Chris Stein’s 2024 memoir Under A Rock. Casting a glance in the rear view mirror to CBGB and Manhattan’s downtown scene, its subject matter is all the more poignant: the fate of New York Dolls and Heartbreakers guitarist Johnny Thunders via the fatal overdose of Stein’s daughter Akira, who died in 2023.
There’s also two straightforward covers both originating from 1981: boasting a colourful cameo from percussionist Ismael ‘Maelo’ Baiz, Tambo, Tambo is a mulatto romp by the late Colombian troubadour Andrés Landero. While Little Metal Drummer is by a slightly more familiar name, former foundational member and all-round good bloke Jimmy Destri. As the band’s keyboardist, Jimmy had his compositional hand in several classic Blondie cuts – oh, you still sound beautiful Atomic, Picture This, and Maria – and in ’81 he released a solo set, Heart On A Wall.
Closing that album’s first side, though opening High Noon’s second, Little Metal Drummer is a leftfield fan favourite that completes the circle. The original is a surf-rock-inflected semi-instrumental with distinct spaghetti western licks by Chris, drums by Clem and three-word refrain vocals by Debbie plus fellow New Yorkers Carlos Alomar and Earl Slick on guest guitars. Four decades on, next to nothing has changed. The Bowie band mainstays may be absent and so are any new words to augment the titular trio in this surprising revisit, as management have informed me “nothing was altered on the song. No additional lyrics.”
Either way, if this was an attempt by Blondie to assuage past ruthlessness, its creator wasn’t in the mood for acquiescing, telling me in his signature no-nonsense style via an email on 27 March 2026: “I know that Debbie and Chris did a version of LMD on the new LP. I didn’t like it.”
Lastly, the show is well and truly over with Ah Sunflower! Weary Of Time. Based on The Fugs’ Lower East Side’s garage rock arrangement from 1965, the show closer is derived from William Blake’s poetry collection Songs Of Innocence & Experience, which dates back to 1789. It may seem an unusual way to finish proceedings, as opposed to the more obvious The End, say, though it uses the titular sunflower as a metaphor for human mortality, and the desire to escape the physical world for spiritual rest.
Alea iacta est.
Steve Pafford is essayist and co-compiler of EMI’s Blondie Greatest Hits album
Record Collector Presents… Blondie is here
